The fate of Indiana Pacers’ Chris Duarte is unclear….at best
Every moment that Duarte gets into a rhythm he sustains some sort of injury
Now with opportunity obviously requires availability. It seems that every moment that Duarte gets into a rhythm he sustains some sort of injury. (He just went out with a sprained ankle as I am typing this you can’t make that up) This was seen and felt even more so this year with the lack of options on the wing. It was Duarte’s early injury in November that started this trend and I am not so sure he’s ever properly gotten his footing since. Especially when that injury is what allowed for the emergence of Andrew Nembhard as the starter. (Rick Carlisle LOVES having 2 ball-handlers on the court) This is also important to note as while so many guys have had the benefit of playing alongside Haliburton and excelling because of it, we haven’t seen much of Duarte as the secondary guard alongside him. Instead we’ve seen him play mostly alongside TJ McConnell who at times seems to only want to give Chris the ball with 5 seconds left on the shot clock. With only so many games left it might be okay to try some new lineups (pending health) and I think one of the great benefits of having a floor-raiser of Haliburton’s caliber is you can really find out what you have with a guy much quicker.
Related Story. 5 pacers who are playing for their future. light
I have a lot of Duarte bucks (official currency of Duarte fans everywhere) and I am not ready to cash them in yet. He was mentioned a lot in trade IDEAS (not the same as rumors and I’m a fan so I saw all of the ideas) and look how that panned out for Myles Turner. He was an older rookie so with that came the perception of a limited ceiling, but that ceiling is still higher than what lot of 25 year old players have. I think we know what we have with Chris Duarte and that is potential, and a lot of it.
