Andrew Nembhard has become one of the most beloved players on the Indiana Pacers’ roster, and that affection makes the current roster squeeze even more uncomfortable.
He’s the kind of player fans latch onto fast: a second-round pick who has already outplayed where he was drafted, a guard who fits cleanly next to Tyrese Haliburton, and maybe the best Pacers draft hit since 2015. That kind of value tends to create a strong bond. But it also creates a problem when the money starts tightening.
Indiana is heading toward a roster crunch, and Nembhard could end up being the casualty that comes with it. The Pacers have a less-than-perfect cap situation, multiple players who will need extensions, and a decision to make about what kind of team they want to be.
If the priority is the current title window, then locking in Pascal Siakam and Ivica Zubac becomes the obvious move. In that scenario, someone has to give.
Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard are already mentioned as players who could play themselves out of an Indiana return. If that’s the case, the next exit point has to come from somewhere else, and Nembhard is the name that fits the bill most naturally.
The money only makes the picture messier. There’s no doubt someone would pay Nembhard more than the 19.5 million dollars he is getting now.
After the 2024-25 season, Andrew signed a three-year extension worth nearly 60 million. If he were to land a deal that matched the same kind of cap percentage, it could look a lot like Ayo Dosunmu’s recent 109 million contract.
That is a massive number for a player who did not make the leap some expected when given more opportunity last year.
The real complication, though, is timing. It’s not just Nembhard’s extension that matters, but the whole stack of decisions around him.
The Pacers will have the Bird rights of all their free agents, from role players like Obi Toppin to top scorers like Siakam. And Indiana has never paid the luxury tax.
The question is whether that changes now.
There are really only two paths here. One is simple: Indiana keeps pushing in on the group that nearly won the title two years ago and added an excellent starter at a position of need in their gap year. The other is a shift toward a younger identity, one that would probably favor keeping Nembhard over other pieces.
But NBA teams usually don’t pivot that hard unless they have to, and the price Indiana paid for Zubac and Siakam points in the other direction.
That’s where the uncomfortable math comes in. The Pacers have 140 million below the first apron in two years for seven players, and that kind of money doesn’t stretch far in a clean, painless way.
They can’t keep everybody. Someone notable is going to wind up elsewhere.
And right now, Andrew Nembhard looks like the most likely name on that list.
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Haliburton has since spent an entire season on the sideline while recovering from an Achilles injury suffered two years ago, and Indiana felt that absence. The Pacers struggled without him, but there is a clear sense that a healthy Haliburton changes the outlook, especially now that Ivica Zubac is in the mix as well. What makes the trade story linger is the moment Haliburton says stuck with him on the day everything shifted to Indiana. [Read more 🡒]