National Basketball Association

The Indiana Pacers Are Keeping Faith in Rakeem Christmas

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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The Indiana Pacers made their final roster cuts on Sunday — waiving Julyan Stone and Jeremy Evans. Rakeem Christmas has officially made the Pacers as the 15th man.

With the Indiana Pacers roster sitting at 16 men with guaranteed contracts, one guy had to go. I was a little surprised to see the Indiana Pacers cut Evans. I thought Rakeem Christmas was on the hot seat.

Nonetheless, the Pacers will evaluate Rakeem’s progress and development at the end of next season and decide on his future from there.

The Pacers essentially acquired Christmas for Roy Hibbert. They traded Roy Hibbert to the Lakers in exchange for a 2019 second round pick. They then traded that pick to Cleveland in exchange for Christmas.

“We really liked Rakeem when he came in for pre-draft workouts,” said Larry Bird when the team officially acquired Rakeem last year. “He is a solid player who was a contributor all four years at Syracuse and we look forward to having him on our team.”

That statement showed to be true — as the Pacers signed him to a multi-year deal.

Despite the praise, Rakeem only played in one game during the 2015-2016 season. He spent the whole year in the D-League, playing for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants. He was a D-League All-Star, and averaged 13.9 points per game, 7.1 rebounds per game, and 1.7 blocks per game.

He’s going to have a hard time getting some playing time with guys like Myles Turner and Al Jefferson in his way. Thankfully, there’s nowhere to go but up. It’s highly doubtful he’ll suit up for just one game again, although he will likely spend more time in Fort Wayne once again and serve largely as injury insurance.

His bulk is something the team doesn’t have much of — and something Jeremy Evans could not replicate.

Evans could have been a useful piece in a limited role, so it’s risky cutting him and keeping Rakeem around. But the Pacers still made out on the Evans deal overall.

Mark Cuban’s beancounters for the Dallas Mavericks paid the Pacers to take the swingman off their books this summer. For doing them a favor, in a move that would keep the Mavs’ payroll a bit cleaner, Dallas reportedly sent along about $3 million. So even after cutting Evan’s guaranteed contract (of around $1.2 million), the Pacers bank account came out ahead.