With the preseason in the books and the countdown zeroing in on Wednesday for the Indiana Pacers’ season opener against the Detroit Pistons, a few questions remain.
Among the most asked questions is how exactly the Pacers will manage their rotation. The Pacers may be the deepest team in the league, with upwards of 13 players who can come in on any night and provide decent to great rotation minutes to get the job done. However, NBA teams never run 13-man rotations. Instead, Indiana will most likely stick with the typical 10-man rotation that most teams use, and this will cause some players to sit out that may feel like they deserve to play.
“You look at our roster and you can make the case that there are 11 guys at least that should be playing,” Rick Carlisle said before training camp, “and that’s not likely to happen. I want to see which guys have the wherewithal, the character to just bring a spirit and an energy and a physicality every single day. Regardless of what’s happening moment by moment with minutes. We’ll see where the chips fall.”
Indiana’s starting lineup from last season and the top four bench players seem to fairly set for now with TJ McConnell, Bennedict Mathurin, Obi Toppin, and Isaiah Jackson. But that 10th rotation spot is where things get interesting as Carlisle will have to pick between two second-year players, Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard, who have both shown some promise over the last year.
The decision between Walker and Sheppard encapsulates a bigger question. Should one go for raw talent and potential or an already-proven track record with perhaps a lower ceiling?
Jarace Walker was Indiana’s primary target in the 2023 NBA Draft, coming in with high expectations with many calling him one of the best defenders and playmakers in the draft, regardless of his rather burly build. As the season progressed, Pacers fans grew frustrated over Walker’s lack of minutes and copious amounts of time spent in the NBA G-League. When he played, he often showed flashes of potential stardom, like his 15-point performance against the Sacramento King and his 10-point, nine-rebound performance against the Phoenix Suns. However, these were also cut by questions surrounding his play. At Houston, Walker’s NBA-ready frame helped him block shots at will and switch onto any assignment needed of him. However, scouts’ fears about his lateral quickness, stiffness, and consistency have fulfilled themselves at the NBA level. Walker has the tools to be an elite defender in the NBA but has yet to hone his talent and figured out how to use his frame with consistency at the NBA level.
“It’s always going to come back to defense,” Walker said recently. “Fighting over 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.”
Of course, the potential is there, and Walker has shown flashes of being a great NBA defender, such as his solid defense against Kawhi Leonard in Indiana’s win over the Clippers last season. Still, there are more questions than answers and now he’s making a position change from power forward to small forward.
“It’s rare that a guy can go from a bigger position to a smaller position in the NBA,” Rick Carlisle said after a camp practice. “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.”
As a playmaker, Walker sometimes seems too ambitious and rough with his passes. He has potential as a secondary playmaker and top-of-the-key facilitator in the league. Still, his execution has been quite bumpy at times, leading to plenty of turnovers. For the Mad Ants in the 2023-24 NBA G-League season, Walker averaged a relatively high 2.8 turnovers per game compared to 4.6 assists per game, leaving a less-than-desired assist/turnover ratio of 1.62/1. In the 2024 preseason, this ratio decreased to 1.14/1, which is alarming. Of course, Walker will have flashes of guard-like playmaking ability, such as his fantastic outlet or lead passes. However, there is still quite a bit to be concerned about, leaving Pacers fans questioning whether the second-year man out of Houston should get the final roster spot. With Walker, Carlisle has consistently mentioned since before summer league that hard play and physicality was the biggest thing he wanted to see from the forward as he tries to earn the rotation spot.
“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.”
Ben Sheppard’s story is a bit different as the 26th pick in the 2024 NBA draft and only the second player to be drafted out of Belmont, and little to no expectations that he’d find minutes his rookie season, but hustle and hard play aren’t something you ever have to wonder about with Sheppard.
“For guys like me and Enrique (Freeman), it’s a non-negotiable and that’s how we get on the floor,” said Ben Sheppard about playing with energy and effort after the final preseason game.
As fate would have it, Sheppard did get some run in his rookie season and put together an impressive run, particularly in February and March, where he was instrumental in the Pacers pulling out a few extra wins following the trade deadline. Following Bennedict Mathurin’s shoulder injury on March 5, Sheppard became a full-time rotation member and did not miss a beat, playing double-digit minutes for the rest of the season and playoffs, except for one game while Walker remained outside of the rotation. In the playoffs, Sheppard’s consistent defense and steady hand from deep (38% on almost three attempts per game) led to him carving out a role and making a case to stay in the rotation after Mathurin healed, even starting the final two games of the Conference Finals against Boston.
While Sheppard may not be as versatile as Walker, and his contributions may not be as flashy, he is, without question, a valuable team member worthy of a rotation spot. As recent as Indiana’s final preseason game against Charlotte, Sheppard showed precisely why he has a case for a rotation spot, scoring 14 points to go along with three steals and the biggest shot of the night, a four-point-play to force overtime and an eventual Pacers win.
“He’s a proven competitor. I can’t give a higher compliment, really, to a guy going into the beginning of his second year,” Carlisle said of Sheppard after the final preseason game. “You know what you’re going to get. It’s boundless, it’s pure, it’s all about the team, and it’s all about trying to win a game.”
Despite some of Carlisle’s rotations in the preseason suggesting that Walker has already usurped Sheppard in the rotation, he has not let Sheppard forget how much he means to the team and how there is always a chance to claw your way back, even if you start at the bottom. Speaking further about Sheppard in the post-game interview, the coach stated, “A lot of times, guys like that are taken for granted because they’re great people, and they appear to be low-maintenance. But it’s important that we keep reminding him how important he is to our culture and our team. Certainly, all the really, really positive things he did in the playoffs last year. This is a new year, but the great thing is that he hasn’t changed one bit and likely never will.”
Of course, you never know with NBA coaches, but Rick Carlisle’s words seem to point in one direction. Entering his second year after being a lottery pick, Jarace Walker will most likely receive the 10th rotation spot to prove himself. After all, it is not right to write off a 21-year-old lottery pick because they appear raw. Walker will probably be given a chance to prove fans right and make an impact on the team. However, suppose Walker is not delivering or providing what the Pacers need, specifically on the defensive end. In that case, Ben Sheppard is always there to take care of business and do the dirty work nobody else wants to do. This dynamic may seem peculiar to some, but it may be the only way two talented youngsters can get as equal of a chance as possible. After all, Ben Sheppard also started his rookie season out of the rotation before his hustle and steady hand made him undeniable, especially with the injury to Mathurin.
Now that Indiana’s entire roster is healthy going into the season, it will be another uphill battle for Ben Sheppard to get noticed, especially with Jarace Walker most likely making the rotation over him. However, it is not impossible, especially for someone with a work ethic like Sheppard. Lest we forget, he entered the league with little fanfare and worked his way up to a temporary starter role on a Conference Finals team. If he can do it once, he can do it again.
As for Jarace Walker, the reins seem to be off this year. Most likely, a full-time rotation member as the backup small forward this year, in contrast to his time at power forward beforehand, Walker can easily prove many folks wrong and progress on the flashes of defensive stardom and playmaking ability he has shown so far.
For 90% of NBA teams, the battle between the 10th and 11th man in the rotation is nothing to pay attention to, but for a team as deep as the Indiana Pacers, where plenty of bench players can pass as starters on other teams, the battle between Ben Sheppard and Jarace Walker will be something to look out for this year.
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