Pacers Insider Makes Bold Prediction on Aaron Nesmith Extension

Aaron Nesmith was one of the most important players that the Indiana Pacers had during their run to the NBA Finals last season. Nesmith was the biggest reason why they came back to beat the Knicks in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

Nesmith scored 30 points in that game and made five three-point baskets in the fourth quarter to help the Pacers come back and send the game into overtime.

Once October gets here, Nesmith is eligible to sign an extension. The Pacers are certainly going to give him one. One insider tried to figure out how much he might get.

Insider speculates how much Aaron Nesmith might get in an extension from the Pacers

Nesmith is eligible to sign an extension on October 1st. Tony East of Forbes tried to figure out how much money the Pacers will be willing to give Nesmith.

"His extension value is based on the NBA’s average salary, which isn’t easy to calculate – but the maximum possible added deal for Nesmith would be a three-year agreement totaling about $63 million."

Just because that's how much Nesmith is able to get doesn't mean that's how much the Pacers want to give him. They would like to leave room in the cap to sign some of their other guys.

Nesmith still has two years left on his deal, so these two sides don't have to rush in order to get the extension worked out. Still, it might behoove the Pacers to get a deal done sooner rather than later.

The Pacers might want to sign Nesmith to an extension as soon as possible

With the way the cap works, the Pacers might be better off locking Nesmith into a number now before the cap continues to grow. East notes that other players might drive up Nesmith's price if the Pacers wait to sign him to the extension.

"But guaranteeing himself more than $60 million is still significant. It’s easy to say he could make more than about $20 million per year a few seasons from now – the salary cap projects to keep increasing, and Nesmith is a talented player," East writes. "Yet others in his range of skills at the time they signed recent agreements, including Herb Jones and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, inked multi-year contracts worth just over $20 million per season."

The Pacers want to bring Nesmith back, and he wants to be in Indy. At this point, it's just the number at which they bring him back.