Eli Brooks didn’t hear his name called in Thursday night’s NBA draft, but by Friday he had signed an NBA contract.
Brooks, who played the past five seasons at Michigan is the program’s all-time wins leader, signed a Summer League deal and Exhibit 10 contract with the Indiana Pacers. His father, James, told MLive of the deal.
Last season, the 6-foot-1 guard averaged a team-high 36 minutes per game -- he was too valuable to Michigan on both ends of the floor to sit on the bench for long. He averaged 12.8 points and 2.9 assists (both second on the team) to go along with 3.7 rebounds per game. Brooks shot 39 percent from 3 and 88 percent from the free throw line. He was team captain each of the past two years.
Brooks will get a chance to make the Pacers roster -- and show off his skills for the rest of the NBA -- in the Summer League. All 30 teams gather in Las Vegas from July 7-17. (Eight different teams play a week before in California and Salt Lake City, but the Pacers are not among the participants.)
Regardless of how Brooks plays in Vegas, it appears he’ll get another shot to impress in the fall. An Exhibit 10 contract is essentially a training camp deal that incentivize a player, should he not make the NBA roster, to join the team’s G League affiliate. NBA training camps open on Sep. 28. Regular-season rosters are not set until Oct. 18.
Two Wolverines were drafted on Thursday (June 23), both in the second round: freshmen Caleb Houstan, who went No. 32 to the Orlando Magic, and Moussa Diabaté, taken 43rd by the Los Angeles Clippers. Another starter from last season, point guard DeVante’ Jones, could land a deal similar to Brooks’.
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