Indiana Pacers veterans George Hill and James Johnson still free agents with August approaching

Hill and Johnson were valuable locker room pieces for the Pacers

With free agency slowing down significantly, Indiana Pacers free agents James Johnson and George Hill are still without a team for the 2023-24 season.

Both players were excellent veterans for the blue and gold this past campaign. They were key locker room voices who occasionally provided a boost in game, which is all that can be asked of vets. They were exactly what the younger Pacers needed.

But as it stands, they are free agents and not with Indiana. Hill hopes to be a Udonis Haslem like player for the team, but the Pacers added multiple players during free agency and the draft and currently don't have room for the veteran guard. The same goes for Johnson.

The Pacers have 15 players on standard contracts, which is the most that a team can carry in the regular season. In the offseason, teams can hang on to 21 players, so the Pacers could sign someone right now, including the veterans. But that would cause them to have to waive a player that has value before the season starts.

"Those guys are guys that we'll be looking at," Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard said of Johnson and Hill, as well as Oshae Brissett, after the season. "But with all these draft picks and cap space, they're not July 1 deals, they're July 10 [deals]... I just don't think we get to that decision tree until later on."

July 10 came and went, and the Pacers full roster made adding a veteran difficult. They would have to clear a roster spot (via trade or waiver) to have room for Johnson or Hill, and while they have logjams at multiple positions, they don't have any obvious trade candidates. All of their players are too valuable to cut, too, so there is no easy way to clear a roster spot unless a deal materializes.

For Hill and Johnson, they are in a tough spot. A quick glance at Spotrac shows that there are between 15 and 20 roster spots left in the league right now, and many of them could fill up after some key star trades happen elsewhere. There aren't a ton of open spots left on rosters

Both veterans, should they be signed, will be among the final additions to whatever team they join. They could still be in the league next year. But they are likely playing the waiting game until closer to the season. Johnson didn't sign with the Pacers until September 15 of 2022.

The Pacers didn't start signing players to training camp deals until mid August last year and didn't finalize their roster until the end of training camp. Trades can happen at any time. If the blue and gold want to keep Johnson or Hill, there is no specific timing that they need to be looking at. They would just need to open up a roster spot at some point.

Any team looking for leadership would be smart to add either Hill or Johnson, but the market doesn't currently appear to be there for them. Any team, Pacers included, that determines it needs another veteran before the season could try to grab either player. It seems unlikely, though, that both players wind up back with Indiana. There just aren't enough spots on the team. In the absence of both vets, T.J. McConnell, Daniel Theis, and Myles Turner will have to step up as leaders for the Pacers.

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