Pacers Sign Braden Smith To Two-Way Contract

A four-year college player for the Boilermakers, Smith was a consensus first-team All-American in both 2025 and 2026, earning Big Ten Player of the Year honors in 2025 and making the all-conference first team for three straight seasons from 2024-26. As a senior in 2025/26, the 23-year-old averaged 14.3 points, 8.8 assists, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.7 steals in 34.5 minutes per game over the course of 39 appearances, with a shooting line of .440/.362/.825.

The Pacers made a draft-night deal with Chicago in order to acquire the No. 38 pick to nab Smith. Reporting on the night of the second round indicated that he was expected to sign a two-way contract with Indiana. However, it took a while for that deal to come to fruition as the team shuffled various players in and out of its two-way slots over the course of the offseason.

After carrying over Taelon Peter and Ethan Thompson on two-way deals from 2025/26, the Pacers re-signed Kobe Brown to a two-way deal early in July. They subsequently waived Peter in order to sign Jalen Slawson to a two-way contract, then recently parted ways with Thompson, who reached a deal to sign with KK Partizan in Serbia. Cutting Thompson opened the third two-way slot for Smith.

The Pacers’ roster now looks set for the regular season. The club has 14 players on standard deals and three on two-way contracts and doesn’t have enough room below its first-apron hard cap to sign a free agent as a 15th man.

As we detailed on Friday, Smith was one of nine players in the 2026 draft class who remained unsigned — that number is now down to eight.

Smith appeared in five games for the Pacers’ Summer League team in Las Vegas last month, contributing 6.8 PPG, 7.0 APG, 4.4 RPG, and 1.6 SPG, though he struggled with his shot (.265/.294/.778).