Pacers Bring Back James Wiseman On 10-Day Deal

Wiseman, who will be active for Saturday’s game in New Orleans, was released by the Pacers about a week into the 2025/26 regular season amid a wave of backcourt injuries. He re-signed with Indiana over the summer on a two-year, minimum-salary deal that featured a $1MM partial guarantee (the second season was a team option).

The second overall pick of the 2020 draft, Wiseman has dealt with multiple major injuries during his NBA career, having missed the entire 2021/22 campaign following knee surgery. The 24-year-old also tore his Achilles tendon in Indiana’s regular season opener in October 2024, an injury which sidelined him for the remainder of ’24/25.

In 149 games with Golden State, Detroit and Indiana, Wiseman has averaged 9.1 points and 5.6 rebounds in 18.9 minutes per contest.

While the Pacers have been ravaged by injuries to open ’25/26, their three centers (Jay Huff, Isaiah Jackson and Tony Bradley) have been active for every game to this point, observes Tony East of Circle City Spin (Twitter links). However, that may change on Saturday, as Bradley has been diagnosed with a fractured right thumb and is considered questionable to suit up against the Pelicans.

The addition of Wiseman could mean Bradley will miss some time with the injury, East notes.