Day 1 of free agency already delivered the kind of chaos that can reshape a summer, and Indiana found itself right in the middle of the conversation.
The Pacers are being linked to Kelly Oubre Jr., Gary Trent Jr., and Josh Okogie, according to Marc Stein and Jake Fischer of the Stein Line. Stein and Fischer also reported that Indiana had strong interest in bringing back Thomas Bryant, but he instead made a verbal agreement with the Cavaliers to remain in Cleveland.
That interest in Oubre Jr. has shown up elsewhere, too. Grant Afseth of the Dallas Hoops Journal said, “The Indiana Pacers have strong interest in Kelly Oubre Jr. in free agency.”
Yahoo! Sports NBA Insider Kelly Iko added that Oubre Jr. is set to meet with several teams, including the Pacers, Trail Blazers, 76ers, and Lakers, among others.
For Indiana, the fit is obvious enough. Chad Buchanan has repeatedly said in offseason interviews that the Pacers want more help on the wing, and Oubre Jr. fits that need cleanly.
The market around Oubre Jr. is also shifting as other dominoes fall. The Philadelphia 76ers agreed to a 4-year, $39M deal with former Cavaliers forward Dean Wade.
Out west, the Lakers are being mentioned as the front-runners to land Philadelphia’s Quentin Grimes and Toronto’s Sandro Mamukelashvili, a development that would cut into the money they could potentially throw at Oubre Jr.
Portland remains in the mix financially, too. Robert Williams III agreed to a new deal with the Trail Blazers, but Portland is still under the luxury tax by $11.8M and can use the full non-taxpayer mid-level exception to chase Oubre Jr., which gives them more room than Indiana currently has.
Then came the bigger league-shaker. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported that the Toronto Raptors reacquired Kawhi Leonard in a deal that sent Brandon Ingram, Gradey Dick and multiple picks the other way. It’s the same Leonard the league last saw in a Raptors uniform when he delivered their only NBA championship and held up the Larry O’Brien trophy.
And the wildest wrinkle may be LeBron James. He told the Lakers he would not be returning and would become a free agent, with rumors already pointing to the Golden State Warriors as a possible landing spot.
ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported more about how James is handling the process:
“After taking time to decompress and undergo some self-assessment, LeBron James came to the conclusion that he wanted to continue playing “meaningful, competitive basketball,” a source familiar with James’ thinking told ESPN. McMenamin continued, “LeBron James has instructed Rich Paul to talk to everyone around the league who is interested in him playing for them and come back to him with what the options are so he can make his decision, a source familiar with James' thinking told ESPN.”
That opens the door, at least in theory, to an Eastern Conference return. The Cavaliers and Heat are being mentioned as the leading candidates if he does head that way.
From an Indiana standpoint, there’s no real path to LeBron. But if he is truly focused on chasing another title, the Pacers might look like the cleanest basketball fit.
One more roster note came out Tuesday: the Bulls waived recently acquired guard Kam Jones before his contract became fully guaranteed. The No. 38 overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft is now looking for a new home after spending last season with the Indiana Pacers.
In Other News...
Raptors Just Found A Painful Silver Lining In Their Draft Miss
Gradey Dick arrived in Toronto with the kind of shooting promise that made him easy to imagine fitting into the Raptors long-term plans. There were early flashes after the 2023 draft, but his path never really stabilized, and a rough 2025-26 season knocked him into a much smaller role before the Raptors moved on from him in the Kawhi Leonard deal.
What makes that miss sting a little more is the player Toronto passed on when it made the pick, because another 2023 draftee has grown into a real difference-maker elsewhere. For the Raptors, Dicks slide became part cautionary tale, part reminder that draft decisions can linger long after the original night, especially when the alternative is developing into the kind of contributor every team wishes it had found first. [Read more 🡒]
Raptors May Have Quietly Turned Brandon Ingram Into A Front Office Masterclass
Torontos gamble on Brandon Ingram never had to be perfect to matter, and for a while it looked like the kind of move that could stabilize the roster after the upheaval that followed the Pascal Siakam era. The Raptors brought Ingram in at the 2025 trade deadline, then committed to him with a three-year, $120 million extension, betting that his scoring and creation would fit into a longer-term reset while the front office kept reshaping the core around him.
One season later, though, the value of that swing was recast in a much bigger transaction. The deal that sent Ingram out was part of the sequence that ultimately brought Kawhi Leonard back to Toronto, with the path running through the earlier Siakam and Bruce Brown Jr. moves that helped set up the roster and asset base for the reunion. In hindsight, Ingram may end up remembered less for the stretch he spent in Toronto than for the role he played in getting the Raptors back into a far more familiar star chase. [Read more 🡒]