Former Thunder forward, Domantas Sabonis, is getting paid.
Sabonis was reportedly offered a four-year, $77 million contract extension by the Pacers Monday, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
Sabonis has spent the last two seasons in Indiana. In 2018-19, he appeared in 74 games as a backup to Myles Turner, averaging a career-best 14.1 points and 6.8 rebounds in 24.8 minutes per game.
It seems like Sabonia has found his niche off the bench, which is a good thing because he looks to be Turner’s backup for the foreseeable future. According to Bleacher Report, Turned signed a four-year, $72 million extension in October of last year.
Scott Agness of The Athletic reported that Sabonis’ extension “does not include any player or team options”.
The Pacers and Sabonis were able to agree to a deal just prior to the NBA’s deadline for rookie-scale extensions, which ended at 6 p.m. ET Monday night.
ESPN’s Kirk Goldsberry points out that there are some “concerns about defense and spacing” but in limited minutes Sabonis has the potential to be a “double-double” machine.
Sabonis was drafted out of Gonzaga with the 11th overall pick in 2016 by the Orlando Magic before being shipped to Oklahoma City on draft night, along with Ersan Ilyasova and Victor Oladipo, in a trade for Serge Ibaka.
In his lone season with the Thunder, Sabonis started 66 games at power forward, averaging 5.8 points and 3.6 rebounds in 20.1 minutes.
