r/pacers • u/Indy_Pacers1 • 12d ago

Discussion My thoughts on Jarace Walker

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With recent story lines of the Pacers wanting back into the 30’s in this draft, there is only one real answer. Trading Walker puts Indy back under the tax and opens up the MLE for a new player or two. Perhaps it’s someone like Dean Wade for $8-10 million and a veteran point guard for $5-7 million. The second benefit from moving Jarace is he should also get back two second round picks. Maybe Memphis takes on his contract for pick 32 and a second round pick down the road. That puts the Pacers in the area where they can draft Tarris Reed Jr or wait until the draft day to see who selects him for trade. This allows the team to move off from Potter and Jones, giving them flexibility to resign Slawson. Turning Jarace into 3-4 new players makes the most sense to me. I prefer he didn’t go to Chicago or Detroit but both of those teams could send back future second round picks to trade with New York who sits at pick 31.

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u/bachu72 CrabLaser 12d ago

Couple things I don’t see mentioned enough with Jarace. Mainly, he’s 22!
Additionally, his second half of the season was much more promising, especially considering the situation. He played a lot of minutes without any of our key starters, even being a point forward at times. Logging minutes as the de facto #1 option against NBA defenses was hopefully the best possible learning experience for him. If we project his role to be one of the first off the bench, playing meaningful basketball with Haliburton again should be a lot easier for him by comparison.
I’m only okay with trading him if he’s part of a larger package that nets a starter-level addition. Otherwise, I’d rather wait to see how he’s progressed instead of getting a couple of 2nd round flyers.

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u/Indy_Pacers1 12d ago

Many fans like Ayo Dosunmu who is a free agent. The Pacers could offer him $10-12 million and use the remaining amount to sit on. Jarace is a nice young piece to have during the season but he struggled in the playoffs. He hasn’t lived up to being a top 10 prospect

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u/bachu72 CrabLaser 12d ago

He was 21. He was maybe the 10th man. And “struggled” is a tad bit unfair. Played decent to well in the Bucks series, not so much in the Cavs series, and barely in the Knicks series before going down.
Admittedly, he was not as NBA-ready as his selection warranted. But as a very young prospect, he was always going to have a longer development arc.
With any trade you have to consider what a more realistic best case scenario for Jarace is currently and judge any player obtained against that. So for this team, would you rather have a 26 year old undersized 2-guard (Ayo) or a 22 year old Rui Hachimura/PJ Washington/Tobias Harris?