INDIANAPOLIS — Cameron Payne was just about to move out of his home in New York to go back to his full-time residence in Phoenix after spending all offseason waiting for a phone call.

He spent last season with the Knicks on a one-year deal, but New York declined to keep him, instead adding Jordan Clarkson and Malcolm Brogdon for guard depth behind Jalen Brunson along with returners Miles McBride and Tyler Kolek. Payne stayed in shape but started to accept that if he was going to get another shot, it wouldn’t be in this year’s preseason camp.

But after a workout Wednesday, he got a call from his agent and within six hours he was on a plane to Indiana. Payne’s former Knicks teammate Delon Wright had suffered a head injury in a collision in the Pacers’ preseason opening win Tuesday night over the Timberwolves and veteran point guard T.J. McConnell strained a hamstring that will keep him out a month. With All-Star Tyrese Haliburton already out for the season with an Achilles tendon tear suffered in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the Pacers needed a veteran point guard and they needed one fast, so Payne had an opportunity he needed to jump on immediately.

“Everything kinda just went out the window,” Payne said Thursday after his first practice with the Pacers, which came less than 24 hours after that phone call from his agent. “My brother, my mom, my dad, we were all on a phone call yesterday. I haven’t had time to really process it. I’m still just figuring it out honestly.”

But Payne was quick to clarify that by “working through it” he just meant in the logistical sense. He understood immediately how fortunate he is to be getting another chance. Payne was signed to a training camp deal, but it is a standard, non-guaranteed contract that will become guaranteed if he’s still with the Pacers through Jan. 10. As was the case with Wright, he is one of 16 players on standard contracts — and one of three on non-guaranteed deals — fighting for 15 spots.

Unlike Wright, who had played with Pacers All-Star forward Pascal Siakam in Toronto and for Pacers coach Rick Carlisle in Dallas, Payne doesn’t have any experience with Pacers’ coaches or players. He does, however have plenty of experience against them. He appeared in Game 1 and Game 2 of last season’s Eastern Conference Finals for the Knicks and also got work against them the previous season when he played for the Bucks and the 76ers.

“I know they play really fast,” Payne said of the Pacers. “I know I can adapt to that. I like to play with a lot of pace. Obviously their defensive intensity is on 100. I have to make sure I bring that. But honestly they have a great group of guys. Obviously we played the Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. I know them a lot. They play so much random basketball, it’s hard to really scheme for them. It’s good to be on this side of things and learn what they do and try my best to fit in.”

If Payne’s learned one thing in his time in the NBA it’s how to fit in and how to do it quickly. The 31-year-old is heading into his 11th NBA season and he’s about to join his eighth franchise. Since being taken No. 14 overall in the 2015 draft out of Murray State by the Thunder, he’s been traded three times including twice at the deadline. He spent three full seasons with the Suns from 2020-23, helping them to the NBA Finals in 2021, but that’s the only time in his career he’s played with the same team for two complete seasons in a row. He’s been waived three times, he played on a 10-day contract in Cleveland, and he initially signed with the Suns in June of 2020 between the suspension of the season because of COVID-19 pandemic and its resumption in Florida bubble.

“Absolutely,” Payne said when asked if he had experience he could draw on. “… The year before last I was with Milwaukee and I got traded at the trade deadline and literally the next day I was starting for Philly, so I had to pick up things fast. I’m used to just dropping everything and going somewhere else and having to pick up things and learn them.”

Payne came to the NBA after earning Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year honors at Murray State as a sophomore in 2014-15, leading the Racers to a regular season conference title and a pair of NIT wins. Since entering the NBA he’s been a career backup point guard, appearing in 477 games and starting 71 of them. He’s never started more than 15 games in a season and never averaged more than 23 minutes or 10.9 points per game for a season. However, for his career, he’s averaging 16.0 points, 6.6 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 1.3 steals per 36 minutes. At 6-3, 183 pounds, he has a slight frame that limits his defensive assignments and it affects his ability to finish at the rim — he’s made a modest 54.6% of his career field goal attempts within 3 feet of the basket. However he is a 36.8% career 3-point shooter with 547 career 3-pointers.

“His speed, his long-range shooting ability is high level,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said when asked what he likes about Payne’s game. “He’s experienced, knows the game, has good feel, and he’s a playmaker.”

And with McConnell out, the Pacers are in desperate need of playmakers. Wright had an inside track to a roster spot already against centers Tony Bradley and James Wiseman, who are the other two players on non-guaranteed contracts. It’s even more important now that the Pacers break camp with a veteran point guard behind Andrew Nembhard who will be shifting over from shooting guard to his natural position at the point to take Haliburton’s starting job. Rookie Kam Jones, who played point guard at Marquette last season after playing most of his career there at shooting guard, will miss most if not all of preseason camp with a back injury. Carlisle said the Pacers other options at point guard are two-way contract guards Quenton Jackson and RayJ Dennis, and those two are limited to 50 regular-season NBA games while they’re on two-way deals and they are not eligible for postseason.

Payne still has to make the team and the Pacers can still determine they want to go in another direction and look for someone else on the market. But if he can stick he’ll get a critical role to keep the Pacers’ afloat before McConnell’s return in — they hope — early-to-mid November. Presumably he’ll be thrown into running the second unit by Saturday’s preseason game against the Thunder, their first preseason home game.

“I can’t wait to get to know these guys,” Payne said. “It should be a fun year.”