In NBA Summer League, Jarace Walker has made his case to crack Pacers' rotation

In NBA Summer League, Jarace Walker has made his case to crack Pacers’ rotation

Posted by Admin July 18, 2024 NBA

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The Indiana Pacers rallied back from a 19-point first half deficit to get within four points in the fourth quarter, but faded down the stretch in an 86-71 loss to the Nuggets on Thursday in an NBA Summer League game at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

The Pacers fell to 1-3 in Summer League play. They finish their Summer League trip Saturday at 5 p.m. against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Nuggets improved to 1-3.

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Here are four observations.

Pacers’ shooting was brutal

The Pacers finally played a Summer League game without committing 20 turnovers, finishing with 17. That meant more shot opportunities, but the Pacers in turn missed a lot of those shots, especially early.

The Pacers made just three of their first 16 field goal attempts and were 4-of-20 at the end of the first quarter. By halftime they were 8-of-39, including just 2-of-17 from beyond the 3-point arc. They finally rallied on offense with a 26-point third quarter and stayed in contact with the Nuggets throughout the second half, but even when it was over, they still finished just 23-of-73 (31.5%) from the floor and 9-of-35 (25.7%) from 3-point range.

Even the players who have made shots for the Pacers in Summer League struggled. Rookie Johnny Furphy made just 3-of-12 field goal attempts and 1-of-8 from 3-point range. Jarace Walker made just four of his 15 attempts. Along with guard Tristen Newton, the Pacers starters at positions 1-3 shot a combined 10-of-42 (23.8%) from the field. The bench as a whole was 6-of-20 from the field.

Jarace Walker posts double-double

As previously mentioned, Jarace Walker was just as off-the-mark as the rest of the Pacers on Thursday and he continued to have some issues with forcing passes and turnovers.

Still, he had a productive afternoon operating as the Pacers’ shooting guard in a big starting lineup, posting his first double-double this summer and keeping himself involved in the action throughout.

Though Walker was just 4-of-15 from the floor and 2-of-5 from 3, he still had the second-most field goals of anyone on the team and matched Tristen Newton for the most 3-pointers. His 13 points were second only to Newton’s 15. He led the Pacers with 11 rebounds, nine of them on the defensive end, and he also led the Pacers with six assists against four turnovers. He added a steal and a block.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Walker is held out of the Pacers’ fifth game. He’s done some things to help his case to be a rotation player in 2024-25, showing improvement in outside shooting and the ability to create for others as a passer, but he’s also taken unnecessary risks and his defense hasn’t shown as much improvement as the Pacers would have hoped. He’ll still need a very strong camp to crack the Pacers’ top 10, but he has shown useful positional versatility.

Enrique Freeman, Oscar Tshiebwe efficient but relatively quiet

The only players who shot better than 50% from the floor for the Pacers on Thursday were forwards Enrique Freeman and Oscar Tshiebwe, who combined led Division I in rebounding the past three seasons with Freeman winning the crown at Akron in 2023-24 and Tshiebwe winning it at Kentucky the previous two years. They finished a combined 7-of-10 from the floor Thursday with Freeman scoring 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting. However, they finished with just seven rebounds combined on an afternoon where missed shots were everywhere. The Pacers also didn’t find them enough to take advantage of what they could bring at the rim, and their presence didn’t create nearly as much impact as they would have hoped. Freeman was -14 in his 25 minutes and Tshiebwe was even in just 13.

Much of that had to do with excellent defensive play by the Nuggets, led by former Clemson stars P.J. Hall and Hunter Tysen. Hall grabbed 13 rebounds, helping the Nuggets win that battle, 45-37.

Pacers emptied the bench

With just one game left to play, the Pacers dipped deep into their bench to give opportunities to players who hadn’t seen the floor yet in Summer League. Those players obviously don’t have much of a chance of making the Pacers’ 15-man roster or grabbing one of the three two-way slots, but they could get an opportunity to be members of the Mad Ants.

Purdue guard Lance Jones got his first action, hitting a 3-pointer in five minutes of work. Guard Trey Woodbury, former Illinois forward Giorgi Bezhanishvili and former Oklahoma center Jamuni McNeace also checked in for the first time in the event. Though none of them scored. Tennessee wing Josiah Jordan-James also hit a 3-pointer in his second appearance after getting his first action in Game 3.

Former Purdue wing Dakota Mathias, who had shown excellent marksmanship in the first three games, did not score in Thursday’s game.