Jarace Walker was drafted to the Indiana Pacers as a potential long-term answer to the team’s quest for a quality starting power forward, but during his rookie season, the team traded for Pascal Siakam and then they re-signed Obi Toppin to a 4-year deal this summer. Suddenly, the power forward position was crowded.
And while Walker was only able to show sporadic flashes while buried on the depth chart in his first season, the team is still a big believer in his potential, only now it’ll be at a new position as he transitions to small forward. With the position change, Walker said he has lost 7-10 pounds over the off-season which he credits primarily to simply eating better and taking better care of his body.
“It’s rare that a guy can go from a bigger position to a smaller position in the NBA,” Rick Carlisle said after practice Sunday. “It’s just rare. It usually goes the other way with the speed and the tempo and the skill, all of that kind of stuff. Jarace is unique. He has unique gifts, unique basketball IQ, he’s in the process of being successful doing it. If he can, it just enhances his value to our team.”
Where the Pacers need Walker to succeed the most is on the defensive end specifically with hard, physical play as stated by Carlisle numerous times whenever asked about the second-year player. While the young forward was drafted as an intriguing defensive prospect, his offensive game has been where he’s shown the most promise to this point. With rotation spots up for grabs, the unglamorous end is what will earn him a consistent role.
“The important things are—I’m going to sound like a broken record—physicality, hard play, hit somebody, get rebounds,” Carlisle said. “That’s the starting point and his other gifts will be on display because they will come out as he’s playing the game but to make this about skill and those kinds of things ahead of hard, physical play would be a mistake. He’s gotten the message. He’s doing a lot of good things through these first two preseason games. He’s been very physical in practice so I like where he’s at.”
In two preseason games so far, Walker has scored 20 points in 38 minutes while making 6 of 9 shot attempts to go with 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block. One play that stood out in the first two games didn’t even result in a statistic as Walker jumped in the air to pass to Siakam on the roll just as Siakam tripped and fell to the floor. Normally this would result in an unlucky turnover but Walker was able to instantly move on to another option in midair and swung the ball crosscourt to Toppin on the opposite wing. While his jump shot is vastly improved from the start of his rookie season and his passing and processing speed continue to look like his most impressive skills, Walker knows where he needs to get better.
“It’s always going to come back to defense,” Walker said. “Fighting overs screens, being in the right spots, playing passing lanes, boxing out, defending, rebounding. I feel that side of the ball is what is going to take us to the next level.”
His teammates see how his skill set can help the team get to the next level as well.
“He has a chance to be really special on both ends,” T.J. McConnell said after practice Sunday. “[He has the] ability to shoot, take people off the dribble, get to the rim, but his defense, his ability to guard multiple positions makes him a really great player. We’re ready to see his growth and to see him do it on both ends for us. When he’s locked in on both ends for us, our team goes to the next level.”
Everyone knows for the Pacers to reach their ultimate goal of an NBA championship, the defense will have to get better. While they made improvements last season be 18th in defensive rating after the All-Star break, there’s plenty of room for growth.
“We certainly want to get into the top half of the league in defense … to do that one thing that we’ve learned is that positional size is very important,” Carlisle said during his opening statement at Media Day. “When you play small, you get killed. You can win some games with skill and offense but consistency defensively has a lot to do with size and physicality. If there are ways for us to get bigger, get bigger to start games that help our long term growth everything is on the table.”
It’s no coincidence that Carlisle also mentioned Walker giving the team possible positional size later in his media day availability and after practice Sunday. He’s their path to getting more positional size with what’s currently on the roster. While Aaron Nesmith certainly isn’t going to give away his starting spot without a fight, it’s clear that the Pacers would love for Walker to eventually earn that spot and give them a little more size against some of the league’s bigger wings.
“[I’m seeing] a higher level of maturity this year, more understanding. He’s learned from last year and put it behind him,” Carlisle said on Sunday. “He’s concentrated on the things that are necessary for him to be a factor in our rotation. We love him. He’s a high IQ guy, he has positional size at the three, he can rebound, he can defend, and he’s demonstrated consistency here in the first week or so, a lot of good signs.”
Siakam has seen that maturity growth as well and has taken Walker under his wing this summer with the forward eagerly taking in the lessons from the Pacers second star. Walker would text Siakam to see when he was coming to the gym during the team’s mini-camp at his home in Orlando to get as much time with him as possible.
“I just always tell him ‘Your time’s coming. You just have to continue to work, be ready, and don’t take anything for granted,’” Siakam said of Walker at Media Day. “I think he has the tools as a player, he’s super talented. We all know what we can do. It’s just about timing and I know his moment is going to come. I’m sure he’s going to be ready because I’ve seen him, his focus and all the different things that changed about him that I saw even from just a short period of time (last season). Him taking the initiative to want to work and want to get better, want to learn is very rare and something you need to have in order to improve.”
Siakam can relate to Walker as someone who spent a large amount of time in the G-League his rookie season while coming into a team with a lot of established veterans instead of a rebuilding team were a rookie might play a lot more but not learn how to win.
“If you’re around winning, you build those habits,” Siakam said. “Those habits are super important as you grow as a player. It might be frustrating because you want to play but if you keep your mind in the right place and continue to work on your game and you learn good winning habits that’s going to take you further as a player. I think that’s something that he’s learning.”
Walker believes he’s made a lot of progress on the defensive end specifically with avoiding the gambles that would put him in hot water with the coaching staff. With the position change, he seems confident in his ability to make the change as he struggled initially to come up with something challenging about the switch.
“Guarding the smaller guards,” Walker eventually came up with as an answer. “Offensively our sets are pretty similar for those positions. We play such a fast game that we sometimes have random matchups on defense. Guarding those smaller guards, keeping them in front that would probably be the biggest change.”
Walker and fellow lottery pick Bennedict Mathurin, the team’s highest draft picks since 1989, are the Pacers best chances for major internal growth. Both players have shown great signs in the preseason and in training camp with the two consistently finishing at the top of the team’s 1-on-1 drills during the first few days of camp.
“It’s fun. He’s a competitor, I’m a competitor. We both want to win and that’s why we were both at the end,” Walker said of the camp battles between him and Mathurin. “That’s why we had a good day. We have two really competitive guys on the team that want to grow, that want to get better, that want to keep elevating our games. I feel like me and him can just continue to push each other each and every day even when we’re on the same team. He’s pushing me, giving me pointers. He’s a great teammate to play with and play against. He’s going to get you better regardless.”
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