The Indiana Pacers built a team that tore through the Eastern Conference playoffs last season and made the NBA Finals. One player who made minimal contributions was Jarace Walker, who is looking like a failed pick three years into his career. To make matters worse, the players taken after Walker are breaking out this season.
There was a lot to like about Jarace Walker coning out of the University of Houston. The 6'7" forward was a defensive wrecking ball in college who brought playmaking and scoring chops as well. While not the same exact player, the upside of a player like Pascal Siakam was in play for Walker.
The eighth overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft now looks like a bust. While he has shown some flashes in his first few seasons, and been more accurate from 3-point range than expected, he hasn't carved out a full-time rotation role on the Pacers. When given the opportunity early this season to play big minutes in the absence of multiple players, Walker fell flat on his face.
Walker is shooting just 30.5 percent from deep and an inexplicable 38.1 percent from 2-point range. He has 44 turnovers and just 51 assists, showing an inability to scale up into a larger usage. His steal and block rates have never been excellent since entering the league, but they have both gone done significantly this year.
In short, Walker was given room to spread his wings this year and he has failed to fly. That has to be a painful reality for a Pacers team hoping to develop young talent during this gap year. And their regret over drafting Walker is only growing as the other options in 2023 begin to blossom.
The players the Pacers passed on are breaking out
Two picks after the Pacers took Jarace Walker, the Oklahoma City Thunder traded up to take Cason Wallace. The Kentucky guard has proven himself quickly, starting at times during the Thunder's run to the title last season and now locking down the full-time starting role next to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander this season, starting all 21 games he has appeared in.
The Pacers lost their starting center in Myles Turner and are trying to piece together a center rotation this year with popsicle sticks and Elmer's glue. Yet on the table in 2023 was Dereck Lively II, a starter himself in the NBA Finals with Dallas in 2024. His size and touch would be a massive boon to Indiana if they had taken him over Jarace Walker.
The true breakout player of the first round this season has been Keyonte George, a combo guard who went 16th to the Utah Jazz. He is averaging 22.8 points, 4.0 rebounds and 6.9 assists and looks like a long-term starting guard in the NBA. The Pacers may have point guard locked down, but George could be filling an Andrew Nembhard-like role as a combo guard and be a premier centerpiece trade chip to add an upgrade at another position.
There are plenty of other names as well: Brandin Podziemski, Jaime Jaquez Jr., even Gradey Dick for the Toronto Raptors has shown some flashes as a movement shooter "plus" despite up-and-down playing time. To go way down the draft board, Toumani Camara would go in the Top 10 of a 2023 redraft; Walker may not be a first-round pick.
The Pacers missed when they drafted Walker in 2023, and that mistake hurts. Twisting the knife is just how many players who went in the next ten picks or so have turned into NBA starters. The regret only grows for a Pacers team that has otherwise gotten so many things right.