The Indiana Pacers are inking veteran reserve point guard T.J. McConnell to a lucrative four-season, $45 million contract extension, his agents Mark Bartelstein and Andy Shiffman inform Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
McConnell would have been an unrestricted free agent during the summer of 2025 had he not agreed to an extension at some point this year. He is owed $9.3 million in 2024-25.
The reported new deal will keep the 32-year-old Arizona product under contract through the 2028-29 season when he’ll turn 37.
Across 71 regular season contests last year, while backing up All-NBA Third Team point guard Tyrese Haliburton, McConnell logged a career-best 10.2 points a night (on .556/.409/.790 shooting splits), along with 5.5 assists, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.0 steals a night. The 6-foot-1 guard finished seventh in the Sixth Man of the Year voting for his efforts.
For his next trick, McConnell saw that output actually improve in the playoffs this past spring, during the sixth-seeded Pacers’ surprise run all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. In 17 playoff games, McConnell averaged 11.8 points on .486/.269/.867 shooting splits, 5.1 dimes, 3.1 boards, and 0.9 swipes per bout, across 20.5 minutes.
Myles Turner #33 of the Indiana Pacers celebrates with T.J. McConnell #9 during the second half of Game Four of the Eastern Conference First Round Playoffs against the Milwaukee Bucks at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on April 28, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. McConnell recently inked a four-year contract extension with Indiana.
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Retaining McConnell long-term is just the latest order of business in an active transactional summer for Indiana. The team also brought back free agent power forward Pascal Siakam, free agent guard Andrew Nembhard, and Siakam’s backup, free agent four Obi Toppin.
McConnell went unselected in the 2015 NBA Draft but was quickly picked up by the “Trust the Process”-era Philadelphia 76ers. He stayed with that club long enough to become an effective rotation player on two playoff-bound Sixers squads in 2017-18 and 2018-19. Across his four years in Philadelphia, McConnell averaged 6.4 points on .487/.335/.768 shooting splits, 4.7 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.3 steals a game.
In the summer of 2019, McConnell signed a two-year, $7 million deal with the Pacers to back up Malcolm Brogdon.
That year’s Pacers squad under Nate McMillan finished 45-28, during a coronavirus-shortened season, and nabbed the East’s No. 4 seed. Indiana was led by All-Star center Domantas Sabonis, during his first breakout season. The 6-foot-10 big man averaged 18.5 points, 12.4 rebounds, 5.0 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.5 blocks, while former All-Star Pacers shooting guard Victor Oladipo played a scant 19 games due to injury. The depleted club got swept by a Finals-bound Miami Heat squad in the first round of the East playoffs.
It would mark McConnell’s final trip to the postseason at all, until this year.
Indiana underwent a major revival after Haliburton took a massive leap this past season. The trade acquisition of Siakam helped fortify the Pacers’ frontcourt defense along with 3-and-D starting center Myles Turner. The 2023-24 Pacers finished 47-35, upsetting the third-seeded Milwaukee Bucks and the second-seeded New York Knicks in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
Both those clubs were dealing with major injury woes, but that doesn’t really lessen Indiana’s achievement in reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in a decade. The Pacers were felled by the Boston Celtics in a four-game sweep. Boston went on to win it all against the Dallas Mavericks.
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