Eli Brooks

Pacers Waive Eli Brooks, Tevin Brown, Jermaine Samuels

The Pacers have waived three undrafted rookies who were all signed to Exhibit 10 contracts, the team announced in a press release.

The three players are guards Eli Brooks and Tevin Brown and forward Jermaine Samuels, and they could each earn a $50K bonus if they spend at least 60 days with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the Pacers’ G League affiliate.

Brooks, 6’1″, appeared in 34 games (36 MPG) as a fifth-year senior for Michigan last season, averaging 12.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 2.9 APG and 1.2 SPG on .444/.394/.877 shooting. He is the Wolverines’ all-time leader in wins and was team captain in his final two seasons.

Brown, 6’5″, was a three-time All-Ohio Valley Conference selection for Murray State. He averaged 16.8 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 3.1 APG and 1.4 SPG on .427/.384/.748 shooting for the Racers in 2021/22 as a redshirt senior last season.

Samuels, 6’7”, averaged 11.1 PPG and 6.5 RPG on .472/.276/.770 shooting as a fifth-year senior for Villanova in 2021/22. He played 153 games for the perennial Big East power, including a small role on the championship-winning club in 2018.

While there’s still time for the Pacers to make subsequent moves, Indiana now has a full 15-man standard roster, the regular season limit, and both two-way slots filled, so it appears as though 13-year veteran James Johnson might have made the team. The forward is on non-guaranteed deal.

Pacers Waive Langston Galloway, Deividas Sirvydis

The Pacers have cut a pair of veterans from their preseason roster, announcing in a press release that they’ve placed guard Langston Galloway and swingman Deividas Sirvydis on waivers.

In a series of corresponding moves, the team has completed its previously reported deals with forward Jermaine Samuels and guards Tevin Brown and Eli Brooks. All three players, who reached Exhibit 10 agreements with Indiana shortly after going undrafted in June and have now officially signed their contracts, will likely be waived on Saturday, clearing a path for them to join the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the Pacers’ G League affiliate.

Galloway has appeared in over 450 regular season NBA games, spending time with the Knicks, Pelicans, Kings, Pistons, Suns, Nets, and Bucks since entering the league in 2014. He has averaged 8.1 PPG on .397/.368/.816 shooting during that time, though he hasn’t played significant minutes since his last season in Detroit in 2019/20.

Sirvydis, 22, was the No. 37 pick in the 2019 draft. Born in Lithuania, he holds two years of NBA experience with the Pistons and played for the Pelicans’ Summer League team in July, averaging 15.5 PPG in just 22.5 minutes per game in four contests.

Galloway’s deal with the Pacers didn’t include an Exhibit 10 clause, but Sirvydis’ did, and the Mad Ants acquired his G League rights over the summer, so he’s a candidate to head to Fort Wayne as a returning-rights player.

Not counting their three new Exhibit 10 signees, the Pacers are carrying 17 players — 13 on guaranteed contracts, Oshae Brissett and James Johnson on non-guaranteed deals, and Kendall Brown and Trevelin Queen on two-way pacts.

Pacers To Sign Eli Brooks To Exhibit 10 Deal

Undrafted rookie Eli Brooks is signing an Exhibit 10 deal with the Pacers, his father tells Andrew Kahn of MLive.com. Brooks will also compete in Summer League for Indiana, Kahn adds.

Brooks, a 6’1″ guard, appeared in 34 games (36 MPG) as a fifth-year senior last season, averaging 12.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 2.9 APG and 1.2 SPG on .444/.394/.877 shooting. According to Kahn, Brooks is the Wolverines’ all-time leader in wins and was team captain in his final two seasons.

Exhibit 10 deals, which are non-guaranteed, can be converted into two-way contracts before the regular season begins and also make a player eligible for a bonus of up to $50K if he’s waived and then joins his team’s G League affiliate.

Southeast Draft Notes: Murray, Hawks, Wizards, Hornets

The Magic hold the No. 1 pick and Iowa’s Keegan Murray isn’t expected to go higher than No. 4 in the lottery. That didn’t prevent Orlando from doing its due diligence on the high-scoring wing. Murray came in for a pre-draft workout on Thursday, Khobi Price of the Orlando Sentinel tweets. The two sides also had a discussion during the draft combine in Chicago, Price adds.

We have more developments from the Southeast Division:

Jazz Notes: Far From Contending, Mini-Camp, Prospect Workouts

All four of the 2021/22 Conference Finalists — the Warriors, Mavericks, Celtics and Heat — proved how far the Jazz are from contending for a championship, Sarah Todd of The Deseret News opines.

Todd notes that head coach Quin Snyder, whose status remains uncertain for next season, said Utah was very close to competing at the highest level at his end-of-season press conference.

This year, I thought that our record didn’t necessarily reflect what we could do in the playoffs. I felt like we were this close to having a spark and kicking it in and finding that unity, that extra secret sauce, and taking off. And obviously that didn’t happen,” Snyder said, per Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune.

Todd disagrees. Even assuming the Jazz had advanced past Dallas in the first round (they lost in six games), Todd is doubtful the Jazz would have been able to take the Suns to seven games in the second round, as Dallas was able to do.

She also doesn’t think the Jazz would have fared any better than the Mavs did against the Warriors in the Western Conference Finals, if they’d gotten past Phoenix.

Ultimately, the Todd believes the flawed roster was too much to overcome, and Utah’s front office will have a tough job improving it this summer.

Here’s more from Utah:

44 Prospects Announced For 2022 NBA G League Elite Camp

The NBA G League has formally announced its field of 44 draft prospects for the 2022 NBA G League Elite Camp.

The event, which will take place May 16 and 17 in Chicago, “gives draft prospects an opportunity to display their skills in front of NBA and NBA G League scouts, coaches and front-office executives over the course of the camp by playing in five-on-five games and participating in strength and agility drills.”

The top performers from the camp will be invited to the NBA Draft Combine, which will take place from May 18-22 in Chicago. Some NBA players who have participated in past G League Elite Camps include Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado, Pacers forward Oshae Brissett, Clippers wing Terance Mann, and Heat wing Max Strus.

Here’s the list of 44 draft-eligible attendees:

The list of attendees features 13 players on ESPN’s big board, notes Jonathan Givony of ESPN (via Twitter), so some players have a chance to be drafted.

The top-ranked prospect at the camp is Scheierman (No. 69), who averaged 16.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.3 steals on .508/.469/.802 shooting this season for South Dakota State (35 games, 33.3 minutes per contest).