Pacers to waive Duane Washington, Malik Fitts, Juwan Moran and Nik Stauskas to make room for Ayton

Adrian Wojnarowski: The Pacers are waiving guard Duane Washington and waiving and stretching the three players who arrived in the Boston trade for Malcolm Brogdon: Malik Fitts, Juwan Morgan and Nik Stauskas, sources tell ESPN. That’ll create the cap space to sign Ayton to the max offer sheet.
Source: Twitter @wojespn

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

Scott Agness @ScottAgness
To sign Deandre Ayton to an offer sheet, the Pacers have waived Duane Washington Jr., Nik Stauskas, Juwan Morgan and Malik Fitts.
Suns have matched the offer sheet, per @Shams Charania.
Nonetheless, a worthwhile effort by the Pacers front office. – 8:19 PM Keith Smith @KeithSmithNBA
For any Celtics fans wondering:
Boston can’t sign Malik Fitts, Juwan Morgan or Nik Stauskas. They are restricted from signing any of those three players for this season, unless they go to another new team and then are waived from there.
Basically, forget them coming back. – 4:11 PM Adrian Wojnarowski @wojespn
The Pacers are waiving guard Duane Washington and waiving and stretching the three players who arrived in the Boston trade for Malcolm Brogdon: Malik Fitts, Juwan Morgan and Nik Stauskas, sources tell ESPN. That’ll create the cap space to sign Ayton to the max offer sheet. – 4:07 PM Bobby Marks @BobbyMarks42
Indiana has to clear out $4.7M in cap space to reach $30.9M in salary.
Several mechanisms to do that including waiving the non-guaranteed contract of Duane Washington and using the stretch provision on several players, including Malik Fitts. – 3:13 PM

More on this storyline

The Pacers currently have $26.4 million in cap space so they need to make some moves to generate the $30.9 million needed to sign Ayton to a maximum contract. According to Wojnarowski, the Pacers plan on doing that by waiving Duane Washington, who is non-guaranteed, and waiving-and-stretching Nik Stauskas, Juwan Morgan, and Malik Fitts. Washington’s contract is non-guaranteed, so waiving him opens up $1.6 million. Stauskas, Morgan, and Fitts, all of whom were brought over from Boston in the Malcolm Brogdon trade, had their guarantees increased to all but $86,988 of their full salary amounts. By stretching their cap hits over the next three seasons, the Pacers will have $31.9 million in cap space. -via HoopsHype / July 14, 2022 Scott Agness: Sources: Pacers have informed Stauskas, Morgan and Fitts of their plans to waive them. The trio was included to make the Brogdon-to-Celtics deal work, and now they get fully compensated despite being waived. -via Twitter @ScottAgness / July 14, 2022 Keith Smith: Just as a note: If the Suns choose to match the Pacers offer sheet for Deandre Ayton, the Pacers can’t then reverse the waivers of the players they let go. If you renounce free agents, you can reverse those renouncements if an offer sheet is matched. You can’t reverse waivers. -via Twitter @KeithSmithNBA / July 14, 2022