When the Indiana Pacers drafted Jarace Walker out of Houston, they imagined a version of him that took his college play, his strength, and connective defensive abilities and combined it with some point forward skills to create a two-way force at the center of their rebuild alongside Tyrese Haliburton.
That has clearly not worked out for the Pacers or for Walker. The former eighth-overall pick is entering the final year of his rookie contract on an expiring deal and is not even a top-eight player in his team's rotation.
While the Pacers said goodbye to another failed draft pick of their expedited rebuild earlier last year in the trade for Ivica Zubac, Walker is sitting on the roster as the last of the Pacers 'own lottery picks from this rebuild.
Chris Duarte is out of the league. Mathurin is still a free agent. It's just Walker.
That may be enough to signify a belief in the burly forward. Even when trading for Pascal Siakam to play in front of Walker, they kept him on the roster.
It's time to pay off that belief.
What would an optimized Jarace Walker look like on the Pacers?
If we go back and look at Walker at Houston, it becomes abundantly clear what got Indiana so excited about him. He activated shooters around him as a passer, was a fantastic weakside shot blocker, and handled forwards and some centers on a night-to-night basis.
Ignore what the best version of Jarace would look like, if he could bring that back, it'd be a huge step.
A huge part of the reason that Mathurin looked so good in the Finals against the OKC Thunder was that he was able to create shots for himself, while the rest of the roster, outside of Haliburton and Siakam, struggled to do any of that.
Walker creating open threes for Kelly Oubre Jr., Aaron Nesmith, and Andrew Nembhard would do a lot to lessen the load on Haliburton while bringing him a real niche.
The time for Jarace to become a real-deal shot-creator is probably over. If that was part of his prioritized development, it would have happened by now.
There simply has to be more there, whatever it may be.
The other option
In that other situation, Walker would earn a big payday, either with the Pacers or elsewhere, finally becoming a player deserving of his top-pick status.
However, there is yet another option available to Indiana as the season slowly comes into view.
What could the Pacers get back for the $13 million expiring deal? There has to be a team excited about Walker as a second-draft player.
Indiana should be looking to acquire an option that raises their floor and ceiling, aiming for younger options instead of spending assets on older options that may only help for one or two years.
Swapping a few middling prospects for each other or finding a discarded young player with an asking price of a few seconds, in this trade climate, can immediately vault the Pacers back into contender status while getting out of the Walker business.
Jarace is the last young guy the Pacers might be willing to trade. There has to be some way to find another talented player off the bench, whether they're on the roster already or not.
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