{"id":2033872,"date":"2026-07-08T19:11:58","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2033872"},"modified":"2026-07-08T19:11:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T16:11:58","slug":"pacers-larry-nance-jr-reach-agreement-on-1-year-deal-source","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2033872","title":{"rendered":"Pacers, Larry Nance Jr. reach agreement on 1-year deal: Source"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"Article_ContentContainer__jBNW3 article-content-container bodytext1\">\n<p>The Indiana Pacers have reached an agreement with free agent big man Larry Nance Jr. on a one-year deal for the veteran\u2019s minimum of $3.88 million, a team source told <i>The Athletic<\/i> on Wednesday. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been completed.<\/p>\n<p>Indianapolis is the latest stop on a well-traveled career for the 33-year-old Nance. A former first-round pick of the Los Angeles Lakers (No. 27) in 2015, he has also played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, New Orleans Pelicans, Portland Trail Blazers and Atlanta Hawks. The 6-foot-6 forward-center played just 35 games last season in Cleveland, averaging 3.7 points and 2.7 rebounds.<\/p>\n<div data-ath-video-stream=\"oB9rKwvq7sb177C\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_Root__QeM_i\">\n<div class=\"VideoHost_VideoWidth__XjNKI VideoHost_Portrait__XBaJC\">\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Root__AGckL\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Title__npf3B\">The team that makes the most sense for LeBron James<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_Authors__jxyYV\">Esfandiar Baraheni<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"VideoTitleFrame_VideoWrapper__Xgp47\">{&#8220;@context&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/schema.org&#8221;,&#8221;@type&#8221;:&#8221;VideoObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/oB9rKwvq7sb177C\/&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/video\/oB9rKwvq7sb177C\/&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;The team that makes the most sense for LeBron James&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;Esfandiar Baraheni determines the one team LeBron James should sign with.&#8221;,&#8221;uploadDate&#8221;:&#8221;2026-07-08T18:04:23.515Z&#8221;,&#8221;duration&#8221;:&#8221;PT2M48S&#8221;,&#8221;thumbnailUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/cdn-media.theathletic.com\/video-stream\/auto-thumbnail\/oB9rKwvq7sb177C\/ZWJ1katoC6xw.0000000.jpg&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/video.nyt.com\/athletic\/streams\/oB9rKwvq7sb177C\/ZWJ1katoC6xw\/ZWJ1katoC6xw.m3u8&#8243;,&#8221;transcript&#8221;:&#8221;LeBron James has played his last game as a Laker, but do you know the one team that would make the perfect ending to his story? There&#8217;s already been so much star movement in the NBA offseason, and the final domino to fall this summer will be 41 year old LeBron James. And the King has his options. According to Rich Paul&#8217;s whiteboard, many teams are under consideration, with a few of them being more likely than others. While you can make a case for LeBron to join any one of them, they&#8217;re actually. Two different ways to look at this. There&#8217;s what makes sense as a story for the final chapter of his all-time career, and then there&#8217;s what gives him the best chance of winning a championship and ending on a high note. And there&#8217;s one team that hits both. Let&#8217;s go by process of elimination. Playing alongside Steph Curry and finishing their careers together as two players who defined a generation of basketball would be incredible. But how close would the oldest team in the NBA really be to winning it? Can you bank on Curry, James, Draymond Green, and potentially Anthony Davis to play 100+ games in the fast-paced modern NBA? I doubt it. If you squint, you can see the reason a Miami Heat reunion would make sense. The new-look Heat with Giannis Anntokopo and Bam Adebayo need ball handling and shooting, and LeBron at this stage in his career is excellent in both areas, even from a narrative standpoint. It would be cool to see LeBron chase his last. Last title in the place he won his first one, but admittedly, it falls short of being storybook. On the other side of the spectrum, the Nuggets, Timberwolves, and Sixers all have little historical connection to LeBron, but they make compelling cases from a basketball perspective. LeBron would add much-needed size, ball handling, and shooting to the Nuggets&#8217; front court. In Minnesota, the Wolves desperately need a starting power forward, and Braun would fit in snugly. The. Same goes for Philadelphia, but it&#8217;s hard to see LeBron finishing his final chapter in Denver or Minnesota as cool as it would be. And while the case for the Sixers is clear, Joel Embiid&#8217;s availability and their lack of depth at the center spot make it far from a guarantee that they&#8217;ll stay healthy enough for LeBron to truly compete. But the one team, and the only team that truly delivers from both a basketball and a storytelling perspective is the Cleveland Cavaliers. It would be poetic for LeBron to finish his career in his home state where it all started. And from a basketball perspective, this Cavaliers team has been knocking on the door for the last few seasons, making it to the conference finals just last year, but falling short to the eventual champion, New York Knicks. If LeBron is able to put the Cavs over the top, delivering the city its 2nd championship and helping Donovan Mitchell and James Harden to their 1st in his last season, now that. That would be storybook.&#8221;,&#8221;ineligibleRegion&#8221;:[&#8220;BI&#8221;,&#8221;BY&#8221;,&#8221;CD&#8221;,&#8221;CF&#8221;,&#8221;CU&#8221;,&#8221;IQ&#8221;,&#8221;IR&#8221;,&#8221;KP&#8221;,&#8221;LB&#8221;,&#8221;LY&#8221;,&#8221;ML&#8221;,&#8221;NI&#8221;,&#8221;RU&#8221;,&#8221;SD&#8221;,&#8221;SO&#8221;,&#8221;SS&#8221;,&#8221;SY&#8221;,&#8221;UA&#8221;,&#8221;VE&#8221;,&#8221;YE&#8221;,&#8221;ZW&#8221;],&#8221;publisher&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;NewsMediaOrganization&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/#publisher&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/&#8221;,&#8221;foundingDate&#8221;:&#8221;2016-01-25&#8243;,&#8221;logo&#8221;:{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;ImageObject&#8221;,&#8221;@id&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;url&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;contentUrl&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/theathletic.com\/app\/themes\/athletic\/assets\/img\/the-athletic-wordmark-black.png&#8221;,&#8221;creditText&#8221;:&#8221;The Athletic&#8221;,&#8221;height&#8221;:&#8221;60&#8243;,&#8221;width&#8221;:&#8221;435&#8243;},&#8221;publishingPrinciples&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/edit-guidelines\/&#8221;,&#8221;sameAs&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Athletic&#8221;},&#8221;author&#8221;:[{&#8220;@type&#8221;:&#8221;Person&#8221;,&#8221;name&#8221;:&#8221;Esfandiar Baraheni&#8221;}]}<\/p>\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_root__AKv5b\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16;max-height:min(100%)\">\n<div class=\"AspectRatioBox_inner__86C_2\" style=\"aspect-ratio:9 \/ 16\">\n<div class=\"VideoStreamPlayer_GridStack__2H0p2\"><video preload=\"metadata\"><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Nance has been more of a part-time player the past two seasons in Atlanta and Cleveland, as injuries have kept him on the shelf for long stretches. But at his best, he can help Indiana on the glass as a reserve four behind Pascal Siakam (and, sometimes, playing with Siakam and Ivica Zubac if coach Rick Carlisle opts for bigger lineups).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Indiana Pacers have reached an agreement with free agent big man Larry Nance Jr. on a one-year deal for the veteran\u2019s minimum of $3.88 million, a team source told The Athletic on Wednesday. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been completed. Indianapolis is the latest stop on a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-2033872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2033872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2033872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2033872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2033872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2033872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}