Bird: Next year's Pacers budget 'a lot better than this year's budget'

Longtime Indiana Pacers president Larry Bird has stepped aside to let Kevin Pritchard to take over the team's basketball operations department, but Bird, who was apparently briefed on the team's 2017-18 budget before leaving his post, is jealous of the situation his successor is inheriting.

"After looking at next year's budget, I almost wanted to stay," Bird told reporters Monday. "We're going to have a better budget, we're going to be able to do more things. It's exciting.

"Next year's budget will be a lot better than this year's budget."

It's unclear whether that's just a function of the salary cap jumping - from $94 million this year to an estimated $101 million next season - or whether Pacers owner Herb Simon is prepared to get serious and flirt with the luxury tax.

As it stands, the team is poised to have a ton of flexibility in the summer. They can give themselves max-level cap space if they renounce Jeff Teague's Bird rights, and even bringing a marquee free agent aboard likely wouldn't preclude them from extending Paul George - something both sides appear open to. Pritchard feels confident that under the right circumstances, Simon will do what it takes to keep the Pacers competitive.

"I don't like talking about a small market; we are a market," Pritchard said. "We're given every opportunity to succeed. Going into the tax will be challenging, but I've never heard Herb say, 'Hey, listen, we can never go into the tax.' If you're on a timeline where you've got good players and you want to win, you're on the cusp of moving up, I don't think there's a doubt he would take a look at that."

Bird is expected to remain with the franchise in an advisory role.