Pacers cut ties with 16.6 PPG summer star to make room for rookie

Billy Heyen

Pacers cut ties with 16.6 PPG summer star to make room for rookie image

The Indiana Pacers faced a tough roster crunch with their two-way contracts.

In the end, they let Enrique Freeman walk.

Indiana withdrew its two-way qualifying offer to Freeman, according to Spotrac's Keith Smith. That makes Freeman an unrestricted free agent, able to sign with any team.

Freeman was the 50th overall pick in 2024 and played 22 NBA games as a rookie, averaging 2.1 points in 8.2 minutes per game.

In the G League, he put up 16.9 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 blocks per game.

And then in Summer League this year, he averaged 16.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 1.8 blocks per game while shooting 72.5% from the floor and 55.6% from 3.

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Freeman was the odd man out, though, with the Pacers' three two-way contracts lined up for RayJ Dennis, Quenton Jackson and new second-round pick Taelon Peter.

It's a bummer for a player in Freeman who has an awesome backstory.

He had no college basketball offers out of high school, so he accepted an academic scholarship at the University of Akron and walked-on to the basketball team.

Freeman grew four inches before his sophomore year of college and became a star in the MAC.

Now, he's looking for a new NBA team.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle