Pacers Decision With Tony Bradley Non-Guaranteed Contract Comes With Many Factors

INDIANAPOLIS – With training camp just weeks away, the Indiana Pacers roster appears to be largely set. But the team will have a decision to make by the time the regular season starts when it comes to the future of center Tony Bradley.

Bradley, 27, joined the Pacers in March when the team needed center depth down the stretch of the 2024-25 season. His rebounding was helpful for a Pacers roster that was weaker on the boards, and those skills led to a two-year contract for the big man that had a team option covering the 2025-26 season.

“He does the simple things very, very well. He knows where to be on the court. He plays to his strengths,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said of Bradley. “And a great thing for us is he rebounds… He’s very productive.”

While Bradley mostly played spot minutes in the regular season – he only finished with more than 10 minutes played one time until Indiana secured their playoff seed – he became a more needed piece in the postseason. With rebounding rising in importance during the Pacers playoff series against the New York Knicks and Oklahoma City Thunder, Bradley was promoted to being the backup five, taking some minutes from Thomas Bryant.

The North Carolina product logged as many games with 10+ minutes in those two rounds as he did during the entire regular season. Clearly, there are situations in which his skillset has value, and that played a part in a decision the Pacers made this summer.

The front office in Indy had a June 29 deadline to decide if they wanted to pick up the team option in Bradley’s contract for the 2025-26 season. And while that option is for more money ($2.9 million) than Bradley’s minimum salary this season ($2.3 million), the Pacers exercised the option, keeping the seven-year veteran under contract.

What factors will be considered by the Pacers when it comes to Tony Bradley’s future?

That isn’t the entire story of that move, though. Bradley’s contract for the ongoing campaign has no guaranteed money, meaning Indiana brass could opt to waive him at any point during the offseason and carry no cap hit from his contract into the season. That team option had little bearing on the Pacers financial planning – they won’t incur a salary charge hit on Bradley’s contract unless he is still on the roster come opening night in October.

“We’re going to go through training camp and see how the centers look,” Pacers general manager Chad Buchanan said on the Setting The Pace podcast in late July.

Training camp will be a key time for Bradley. He will join a room of centers that also contains Jay Huff, Isaiah Jackson, and James Wiseman. The Pacers acquired or re-signed each of those players during the ongoing offseason, an obvious sign they believe in all three of those big men. Bradley will be competing with them for opportunities.

Keeping four centers may be a logical move for Indiana. Both Jackson and Wiseman suffered a torn Achilles last season, a challenging injury to recover from for any player. It’s plausible that both big men don’t play in back-to-backs this season, especially early in the campaign. Maintaining depth at the five spot might require four big men for the blue and gold – particularly while they get a clear picture of their health on the interior.

Taking that a step further, Jackson and Wiseman may not reach their pre-injury level right away. How effective they can be from day one is a complete unknown, as is the case for any player returning from an Achilles injury. Having four centers could shield the Pacers from any health or ability-related concerns at center – and that makes Bradley a piece to keep an eye on.

But if Bradley is the fourth center on the depth chart and the three centers in front of him appear healthy and impactful, the Pacers will have a decision to make. If they waive him, they could free up some wiggle room away from the luxury tax and open a roster spot to possibly add another player of need. Flexibility does have value. The timing matters too – Pacers could waive Bradley at any point before his contract becomes fully guaranteed on January 10 of next year and receive most of the same benefits.

“Maybe the center position is more of a swiss army knife type thing. We’ll have to see. We have Huff, we have Isaiah Jackson, we have Wiseman. Tony Bradley is going to be in camp,” Carlisle said during a radio interview last month. “So there’s four guys that are going to be slugging it out for presumably three center spots. So as we get into it, we’ll see what’s what.”

If the Pacers do opt to keep three centers, then Bradley could be fighting for his roster spot in training camp. But they may opt for more, health pending, and Wiseman’s contract also isn’t fully guaranteed.

Another option that would open up a small amount of spending for the Pacers but keep Bradley on the team would be to waive Bradley on his current deal, then sign him to a minimum contract should he clear waivers. Such a move would give the blue and gold about $700k more in spending power beneath the luxury tax threshold while still maintaining emergency center depth. While this would hurt Bradley’s wallet, it would land him a spot on a roster – and the Pacers could compensate for his smaller contract by giving him some guaranteed money.

Last year, the Pacers decided to waive both Cole Swider and Kendall Brown during training camp. They began the season with 14 players, and that flexibility ended up being important as they juggled their financial crunch and injuries on the interior.

This year, they have more salary cap breathing room. But they have more questions about the health and ability of their centers. Tony Bradley and his non-guaranteed contract are right at the intersection of those two things and will be a storyline to monitor during training camp for the Pacers. He averaged 4.4 points and 3.0 rebounds per game last season.