Free Agent David West Plans to Re-Sign With the Indiana Pacers


According to David West, there should be very little drama when it comes to his free agency this summer. The veteran big man says he has no intention of playing for any team but the Indiana Pacers. Per the Indy Star: “For team President Donnie Walsh and General Manager Kevin Pritchard, re-signing West will likely top their summer to-do list. To hear it from West, his teammates and coach after Indiana’s Game 7 loss to the Miami Heat on Monday night, one thing was readily clear: Nobody — West included — wants him in a different uniform next season. ‘I’m not (expletive) dumb,’ West said after a 99-76 loss ended the Pacers’ season. ‘I don’t plan on going anywhere. This is my team. These are my guys.’ It’s not hard to understand why Indiana so badly wants him back. Since signing him through free agency before the 2011-12 season, West has been the perfect fit for a young Pacers core desperate for the sort of veteran leadership that has been the backbone of his career. ‘David West is a big part of our team,’ Pacers coach Frank Vogel said. ‘Our intent as a franchise is to bring back our whole core.’ But doing so is never so easy. West’s market value will be determined by the teams chasing him during the free agency period, and his age, he’ll be 33 in August. He is coming off a two-year, $20 million deal. […] And this team, fresh off its deepest playoff run in 13 years, is one he doesn’t see himself leaving. ‘We’re the second-best team in the Eastern Conference, one of the top four teams in the league in my estimation,’ West said late Monday night. ‘This group is a solid group. It gives me, as an individual, the best chance to accomplish the goals I have left in terms of my future, and that’s competing at this stage every single year from here on out.'”