The Indiana Pacers made a trade before the deadline to send Torrey Craig back to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Jalen Smith.
Jalen Smith is currently in his second NBA season and is just 21 years old. Will the former lottery pick be in the Indiana Pacers’ plans going forward?
Before joining the Pacers, Jalen Smith was not a great three-point shooting threat, shooting near the 23% mark with the Suns this season. Oddly, he has flipped some switch in his last four games that makes him a different shooter than when in Phoenix.
He has found the hot hand since becoming a Pacer, shooting 46.2% on 3.3 attempts per game in the four games he has played in a Pacers uniform. Though the sample is small – just four games.
His age and talents provide Indiana with at the very least options in how they approach his offseason. The Pacers will have to extend Smith after this season if they want to retain him since he declined his player option.
To me, Smith’s age makes him quite an interesting option as the Pacers move towards a roster reconstruction. Could he be a rotational backup four for this team?
It depends on what Indiana decides on Goga Bitadze’s fate, as it seems a change for him is needed.
Smith’s shooting improvements have come from his ability to simply hit home on open catch and shoot three-point opportunities. With Tyrese Haliburton leading the charge, the catch-and-shoot opportunities certainly open up.
Before joining the Pacers, Jalen Smith was averaging 6.0 points per game and 4.3 rebounds, in just 13 minutes a night.
He has essentially doubled every stat column since becoming a Pacer, where he averages 12.0 points per game and 6.3 rebounds in 21 minutes.
"Rick Carlisle has said in post-game media sessions, “This is going to be a great situation for him. With Torrey moving on to Phoenix, there are going to be four minutes we have to fill. Jalen did a good job and he played some five minutes as well and he did some very effective things in both positions”."
If Smith’s shooting remains this good throughout the rest of this season, Rick Carlisle might really enjoy his upside for reshaping the roster. Tough decisions will have to be made but the Pacers do not seem too shy to make those kinds of moves at this point.
The Indiana Pacers have just 22 games remaining before the 2021-22 season comes to a close, so they have 22 more games to see what they can do with their current roster.
I believe Smith has a lot of potential in which the Pacers should look to explore in their plans for next season, but there are several factors that could change between now and then.
He will become an unrestricted free agent when the season is over, so we will see if Indiana is truly where he wants to grow as a player or if he has his eyes set on another court.
For the Pacers, his leaving generates around $4.7 million in cap space which might be more valuable to a Pacers team trying to make moves that take thrust this team into relevancy once again.