Indiana Pacers sign big man Bennie Boatwright to contract

The Indiana Pacers announced on Friday that they have signed big man Bennie Boatwright to a contract.

Boatwright, a frontcourt player who has yet to play in an NBA regular season game, has prior ties to the Pacers organization. He has played on the Pacers summer league team for two consecutive trips to Vegas, and he spent one day with the club during training camp in 2022. In the most recent summer league, he averaged 6.7 points and 3.3 rebounds per game in three appearances for the blue and gold.

Most of Boatwright's experience within the Pacers organization comes in the G League. He played for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Indiana's G League affiliate, this past season, where he averaged 14.5 points and 11.5 rebounds per game under head coach Tom Hankins. Hankins is also an assistant coach for the Pacers.

Boatwright attended the University of Southern California and spent four seasons with the Trojans. He went undrafted in 2019 before being scooped up as a free agent by the Memphis Grizzlies. One year later, he made his preseason debut for Memphis. In total, Boatwright appeared in two preseason games, where he scored five points and grabbed four rebounds.

Boatwright is a fairly mobile big man for his size. At 6-foot-10-inches, the frontcourt player is tall enough to hang in the post, but his mobility allows him to be effective on the perimeter. While it isn't a reliable weapon on a nightly basis, the former Grizzly is a decent three-point shooter — he's knocked down 35.7 percent of his outside shots in the G League.

Boatwright was signed at the same time as several other Pacers signees over the weekend. Those moves brought the team's roster to 20 players, the maximum allowed for the offseason. Indiana's roster is now full ahead of training camp, meaning they can't make any additions unless they waive or trade a player.

At this time, it is unclear how strong Boatwright's chances are of making the Pacers final roster for the regular season. The team does have an open two-way contract slot that he can compete for if he impresses in camp.

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