With only nine days remaining until NBA training camps are set to open, Indiana’s roster continues to take shape. According to The Athletic’s Shams Charania, reserve big man JaKarr Sampson has reached agreement on a one-year, fully guaranteed deal to return to the Pacers.
In a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency role last season, Sampson performed admirably, averaging 3.4 points and 2.6 rebounds in 13.8 minutes per game while crashing the glass for demonstrative putback dunks, manufacturing angles for drop-off passes, and scrapping here, there, and everywhere on defense. That said, with an archetype similar to that of a low-calorie version of Thaddeus Young in terms of how he finds his shots on offense, Sampson used exactly four possessions as the roll-man in the playoffs, usurping rookie big man Goga Bitadze in the playing rotation, despite the bench’s obvious need for shooting and roll-gravity at the five spot against Miami’s switches.