Indiana Pacers To Waive James Wiseman And Sign Guard Mac McClug

INDIANAPOLIS – The Indiana Pacers plan to waive center James Wiseman and, with the roster spot created by doing so, sign guard Mac McClung to a multi-year contract.

The move comes as the Pacers are battling several injuries, and most of them come at one of the guard positions. Tyrese Haliburton, T.J. McConnell, Andrew Nembhard, Kam Jones, Quenton Jackson, Bennedict Mathurin, and Taelon Peter have missed time to start the season in the backcourt – and that is on top of frontcourt injuries to Obi Toppin and Johnny Furphy. Indiana has been banged up, and they need bodies.

In particular, they need those bodies to be a guard who can handle the ball. But they didn’t have many ways to acquire one this early in the season, so they had to cut a player to open a roster spot in order to bring in McClung.

That’s why Wiseman had to be let go by the blue and gold. The team needed a slot to bring in a guard, and letting go of a center was the clear choice. The team carried four of them (Wiseman, Isaiah Jackson, Jay Huff, and Tony Bradley) into the season due to ability and health concerns, but so far that has been the healthiest position group for the blue and gold. With Isaiah Jackson, who tore his achilles last season, able to play in a back-to-back over the weekend, the Pacers had fewer concerns at the five.

With more clarity, albeit not much, at center, the team knew they could make a waiver. The two most likely candidates were Wiseman and Tony Bradley, who both are on contracts that aren’t fully guaranteed. Bradley has been the more productive player of the two – he just logged a 12-point, five-rebound performance on Sunday.

Wiseman was the fourth center on the depth chart. Even though he had $1 million guaranteed in his contract, the Pacers chose to move on from the big man just a few days after he started a game for them in Memphis against the Grizzlies. “Just to be able to be out there is a blessing,” Wiseman said that night, his first game in over a year. “It’s all about just getting used to the bumps and everything, and getting back to NBA play,” he added of the challenges of recovering. The five-year pro tore his Achilles in the first game of the 2024-25 season.

Now, he’s a free agent. Across the last two seasons, Wiseman played in just two games for the Pacers. He averaged 5.0 points and 2.5 rebounds per game and re-signed with the team in the offseason.

With a spot on the roster open after the waiver, the Pacers had the space needed to sign a guard. Insert McClung, who has limited NBA experience but is still a well-known name in basketball.

Why are the Pacers signing Mac McClung?

McClung, 26, is athletic and shows it every year – he has three dunk contest titles to his name. The Virginia native has played for four NBA teams since joining the league in 2021, though he has played in just six games in total. Most of his time as a professional has been in the G League.

There, he has been one of the better players. He averaged over 25 points per game for the Osceola Magic two seasons ago and posted per-game numbers of 23.1 points and 5.3 assists per night in his most recent campaign. His jumper has improved quite a bit since joining the NBA ranks.

McClung appeared in two games for the Orlando Magic last season. His appeal for the Pacers is a combination of the previously-mentioned factors – he’s athletic and may be able to fit into their up-tempo style, he’s a healthy guard, and his jump shot has gotten much better in recent years. The Pacers could use a player like that, especially one that can credibly play both guard positions.

“We’ve just got to focus on what we have and not what we don’t have,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle said of his team’s injuries earlier this week. “It’s a tough situation, but there’s opportunity here. And we’ve got to find it.”

Some of that opportunity may go to McClung, who has averaged 5.5 points per game in his NBA career. He’s a combo guard that can play the two spot much better than the one, which may be a sign of things to come on the injury front for Indiana.

Wiseman gets his guaranteed money and hits free agency while McClung will join Indiana on a two-year, non-guaranteed contract – his first-ever contract that isn’t a 10-day deal or a two-way pact. Those moves, in tandem, bring the Pacers closer to the luxury tax line. But they are still about $5.3 million shy of the tax threshold and have plenty of wiggle room to use the rest of the season.

The Pacers roster will stand at 15 players when the transactions become official. They next play on Wednesday when they finish a road trip against the Dallas Mavericks.