Cody Martin To Sign Hardship Deal With Indiana Pacers As Injuries Mount

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers plan to sign forward Cody Martin to a hardship contract. A hardship agreement, by rule, is a 10-day contract.

Martin, 30, has six years of NBA experience under his belt and spent time with both the Charlotte Hornets and Phoenix Suns last season. His twin brother Caleb currently plays for the Dallas Mavericks. Cody averaged 6.8 points and 4.2 rebounds per game last season, numbers that dropped after he was traded from the Hornets to the Suns and lost some playing time.

Why the Pacers are adding Cody Martin

“Cody is a smart player,” Mason Plumlee, an Indiana native and former teammate of Martin, said last season, per the Arizona Republic. “He’s a really good on-ball defender. He scores it well from his position.”

According to Fieldhouse Files, Martin was a part of a workout the Pacers held with a group of free agents last week in Dallas. They signed Mac McClung immediately after that tryout, but Martin clearly impressed enough to get a chance for the Pacers when they had a need. That is now with the team so banged up.

The Martin signing will be the third transaction the Pacers have made this season due to their injury situation. Less than one week into the campaign, the blue and gold brought in McClung and waived center James Wiseman thanks to the team’s lengthy injury report in the backcourt. They needed ball handlers more than bigs and made an early move.

Since then, the Pacers have lost even more depth due to injury. They were eligible for a 10-day hardship contract over the weekend and used it to bring in forward Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, who has already played in two games for the team. Now, Martin follows that same path.

In order to be eligible for a hardship deal, a team must have a full 15-man roster. The Pacers have that. They also must have numerous injuries – four players have to have missed three consecutive games and also be projected to remain out for at least two more weeks. Indiana currently has eight players on the injury report, and many of them will be sidelined going forward. That makes the Pacers eligible for numerous hardship contracts, which they are using to construct a temporary team, and rotation, on the fly.

Tyrese Haliburton, Kam Jones, and T.J. McConnell, three guards, haven’t suited up for the Pacers at all this season. Bennedict Mathurin, Obi Toppin, and Andrew Nembhard have all missed the last three-plus games as well. Johnny Furphy and Quenton Jackson went down in Indiana’s most recent outing – a tough loss at the buzzer against the Milwaukee Bucks – and will miss time. That’s eight of the Pacers 18 total players (19 counting Robinson-Earl’s temporary deal) on the shelf, and Taelon Peter missed time earlier in the season as well.

Indiana is 1-6. In five of their seven games, a player has exited the action with an in-game injury: Nembhard (shoulder) against the Thunder, Mathurin (toe) against the Grizzlies, Toppin (foot, hamstring) against the Timberwolves, Jarace Walker (foot, but returned to the game) against the Warriors, and both Jackson (hamstring) and Furphy (ankle) against the Bucks.

“It’s almost laughable. It’s not funny, but it’s just a tough situation,” Pacers star Pascal Siakam said of his team’s mounting injuries. “We come into the season and guys get injured. Things that are out of our control… It’s life. So we’ve just got to move on and continue to find ways to be positive and get wins.”

The team has been forced to get creative with lineups due to the injuries and new signings. They don’t have another choice. Players have been out of position or in odd pairings all season. But that’s all the Pacers can do.

“We’ve just got to focus on what we have and not what we don’t have,” Carlisle said last weekend. “We’ve all got to be solution-based thinkers.”

Should Martin be signed on Wednesday, the Pacers will have 12 players available for their game against the winless Brooklyn Nets. In the backcourt, they’ll have RayJ Dennis, Ben Sheppard, McClung, and Peter. On the wing, they’ll have Aaron Nesmith and Walker. Their frontcourt will consist of Martin, Robinson-Earl, Siakam, Isaiah Jackson, Jay Huff, and Tony Bradley – the latter three are all centers. Carlisle may need one, or multiple, of Robinson-Earl, Siakam, or Martin to be able to play on the wing – which primarily means defending on the perimeter.

Martin’s 10-day agreement will come with a cap hit of about $131k for the Pacers. Should he be signed today, his agreement will run through November 14.