The Pacers have signed veteran point guard Cameron Payne and waived Delon Wright, the team announced in a press release.
Payne, who appeared in 72 regular-season games with the Knicks last season, was one of the top free agents still on the market. Payne was signed to a training camp contract, Michael Scotto of Hoops Hype tweets.
Payne averaged 6.9 points, 1.4 rebounds and 2.8 assists in 15.1 minutes per night last season with .401/.363/.907 shooting numbers. He scored 14 points off the bench and was a plus-23 overall in the opener of the Knicks’ first-round series against Detroit. However, his shooting numbers declined throughout the playoffs, and he was removed from the rotation during the Eastern Conference Finals.
The New York Post reported last month the Knicks were not interested in re-signing him.
Payne was selected by Oklahoma City with the 14th pick in the 2015 draft. He was traded to Chicago at the 2017 deadline and later spent time with Cleveland, Phoenix, Milwaukee and Philadelphia before signing with New York. He’s appeared in 477 regular season games.
Ironically, Payne and Wright were teammates with the Knicks. Wright began last season with the Bucks before being traded to the Knicks ahead of the deadline.
He averaged 3.1 points per game across 40 appearances with both teams. He was a bit more productive in New York, averaging 4.3 points and 2.1 assists per night and making six playoff appearances. Wright has appeared in 548 regular season contests for 10 different NBA teams in a career that also began in 2015.
Wright was signed to an Exhibit 9 contract late last month. The Exhibit 9 deals are standard, non-guaranteed contracts that protect an NBA team in the event that a player suffers a significant injury in training camp.
He played four minutes in the team’s preseason opener on Tuesday but was forced to exit after a head-to-head collision.
Is Delon Wright hurt? Because imo he is better than Payne
@Brabo
He had career lows on pts (3.1/gm) fg% (34%), 3 pt FG% (27%), and FT% (60%) last season, and his 2nd lowest reb/gm (1.7. Not sure if he hurt, or at age 32 just washed up.
Payne was considerably better in all of those stats.
No, he had a pretty short regular role with the Bucks, then would sit for a long time then play randomly. With the Knicks, it was don’t play, then at the end of the year he’s playing. Continued like this all last season, for sitting and then randomly playing. Would explain his totals. Actually he’s a guy that needs a consistent role, then gets going. That’s how usually been been his whole career. It was disappointing to see given what he can do on both ends of the court. I agree, he’s a sparkplug, that’s proven he can be a capable player.
I think they want a guy who is a vet who can provide an easy boost when they want. For their young guard heavy team.
No hate but his 3 point shot is the most similar to Haliburton’s. If this is a throw-away season for Indiana it may make more sense to take some fliers on younger, unproven point guards.