Jarace Walker’s rookie season with the Indiana Pacers was a series of sporadic promising flashes of his tantalizing talent that made him a lottery pick followed by long stretches planted on the bench, waiting for another opportunity on one of the deepest rosters in the league.
“It was just a lot of learning,” Walker said of his first NBA season after Summer League practice on Saturday. “A lot of picking up concepts. Learning things about the league, language, terminology. I think it was a good preparatory year for my second year.”
Unfortunately for Walker, the Pacers depth chart is still incredibly packed after re-signing Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin to long-term contracts. He may be competing with Ben Sheppard for the 10th spot in the rotation when everyone is healthy.
“It’s easy for a young player to get discouraged, especially when you’re picked where he was picked and to not be in the rotation,” Chad Buchanan told Setting the Pace in a recent interview. “I think he was disappointed. I mean, who wouldn’t be, you want to play, you want to be out there contributing. The opportunity very rarely came for him because we had guys playing well at his position that deserved to play. Not that Jarace didn’t deserve to play, but the guys in front of him didn’t deserve to just go sit because another guy is waiting to play. That’s not how Coach Carlisle and our staff operate. You’ve got to earn your spot.”
Summer League in Las Vegas will be Walker’s first chance to start earning that spot for his second season. Pacers assistant coach Jannero Pargo said that Walker will be starting at small forward during the exhibition games and will use him in a variety of ways.
“Today’s game is positionless,” Pargo said. “If he’s out ahead in the play, we want him ducking in and playing in the paint. If he’s not, we want him spacing the floor, handling the ball, playing in the pick and roll, making decisions off the dribble. In all facets of the game, we’re going to use him because he’s that kind of a player.”
Walker’s versatility has stood out with the Pacers even with limited opportunities. He played point guard during garbage time during Indiana’s playoff run. He was thought of as more of a power forward that could potentially play as a small ball five coming into the draft and now the Pacers see him as someone that could be the big wing that they’ve long been missing on the defensive end.
“He had such a good year scoring the ball for us in the G League, and that’s good, but we want him to be that kind of utility guy who can do a little bit of everything,” Buchanan said. “And we really need the defensive side, we need that big bodied guy that can match up with some of these 6’7”, 6’8”, 6’9” scoring wings that sometimes are a little big for Aaron, whereas Jarace has more of the size and the length and the body to handle that.”
Buchanan said they encouraged Walker to watch film of the bigger wings they faced throughout the playoff run like Khris Middleton, Jayson Tatum, and Jaylen Brown so they he could envision how he would try and slow them down. Walker knows what the organization needs and will be looking for from him to earn his time on the court.
“Defense, rebounding, that’s what is going to take us to the next level,” Walker said of what he’s looking to showcase in Summer League, “but also doing all the little things better: communicating, boxing out, pressing up on ball screens. Things that will keep me on the floor and help us on defense and offense as well … I feel like playing the 3, I’m bigger and longer. I’m usually stronger so I’m probably going to have a smaller, quicker matchup. Being able to move my feet, stay in front of those matchups and keep them from going downhill. That’s always been kind of my strong suit almost, my defensive versatility being able to guard multiple positions. It will be a challenge, but nothing I haven’t done.”
Despite Walker not having a clear path to consistent playing time, the Pacers still think highly of him and have rebuffed trade talks from opposing teams acquiring about his availability to this point.
Something to watch for through the games that Walker plays in Las Vegas will be the amount of force that he’s played with as Buchanan brought up wanting to see that consistently from the young forward after it would come and go during his rookie season.
“We wanted to see Jarace every opportunity he got, to go out there and play with intensity, play with physicality, play with force. That’s something that would kind of fluctuate this year,” Buchanan said of what they want to see from Walker. “And that’s what we talked to him a lot about. I think this summer, it’s a real priority for him to learn to use the gift that he’s given physically and use his body on both ends of the floor. I think he’s got very high two-way ability but it’s just going to take a little time for that to come out. He’s got to earn his way.”
A few weeks later Buchanan mentioned in a radio interview that Walker’s already had a couple of weeks in the practice facility with another Pacers assistant coach Jim Boylen where he’s showing growth in those areas.
“I just want to continue to grow and develop my game,” Walker said of playing in Summer League. “I feel like this is the perfect opportunity to do it.”
Pargo, in his second year of leading the coaching staff for Summer League, has already noticed an improved level of communication from Walker in just two days of practice.
“It’s the talk. The first year he was quiet and when he did talk it was just kind of rah-rah,” Pargo said of what he notices that is different about Jarace now compared to where he was at this time last year. “Now he understands defense, understands offense, understands concepts. He isn’t just yelling but now he’s talking with a purpose and helping his teammates.”
Walker noted that having been through this process before has definitely led to more vocal leadership through these first couple of practices and he’s encouraged the rookies on the camp roster to move on quickly from mistakes that are bound to happen in this setting where guys are learning not only how they’re supposed to play in the Pacers system but learning each other as well.
One thing that he’s certainly glad to leave behind from his initial season: rookie duties.
“No more Chic-Fil-A, donuts. Just straight to the airport,” Walker said with a laugh when asked if he was happy to be done with rookie duties. “That’s Johnny (Furphy). That’s Johnny. He got that.”
Some years, Pacers rookies that didn’t follow through with the requests from their veteran teammates and eventually they got hit with their car filled with popcorn like Cassius Stanley or with packing peanuts like Goga Bitadze or maybe just the entire outside of your car wrapped in Saran Wrap like Bennedict Mathurin. Walker and fellow rookie Ben Sheppard avoided any shenanigans this past season.
“No, I was a good rookie. I did my job,” Walker said when asked if he ever had to deal with popcorn filling his car. “It was me and Shep. We both did what we were told because we knew what would happen. We made the right decisions.”
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