In most extended outing of season, Pacers rookie Jarace Walker shows promise (and limits)

SALT LAKE CITY -- As they dressed to depart the Delta Center visitor's locker room following a 132-105 loss to the Jazz that they were trying to forget almost entirely, veteran Myles Turner made a point to tell rookie Jarace Walker that his time is coming.

At some point, Turner told Walker, the feel for the game he showed at points Monday night in his most extended action of the season will get him on the floor and keep him there. He wasn't speaking in specifics, as Turner is quite aware that the Pacers are fully committed to being a playoff team this season and have power forwards with more experience ahead of Walker on the depth chart. He just wanted the rookie to know that his skill set is something NBA teams need.

"He has great feel for the game," Turner said. "Passing, knowing when to cut, knowing when to get others involved. Rookies want to come in and they want to score. Score, score, score, score. Someone like him who competes defensively and he can get others involved, he'll earn minutes that way. It's just obviously tough for him coming in with a team that's competing for the playoffs and has older guys in front of him."

All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton still has another week to go until his strained left hamstring is re-evaluated. Guard Bruce Brown, still managing a bone bruise in his right knee that has been an issue for him all season, sat out the second night of a back-to-back after posting 18 points and 10 rebounds in Denver on Sunday. Forward Aaron Nesmith, who has spent time in front of Walker on the power forward depth chart, missed his second straight game with bi-lateral shin soreness.

The absences of those three players made it a really bad time to face a sizzling Jazz team that entered Monday's game having won five straight, eight of their last nine and 11 of their last 13. Utah entered the game ranked second behind the Pacers in bench points and their star, Lauri Markkanen, had just been named Western Conference Player of the Week. Perhaps predictably, things went sideways and the combination of the unusual lack of depth and the blowout score led the Pacers to get their longest NBA look at Walker, their lottery pick, this season.

In the course of Walker's 26 minutes -- his 13th NBA appearance and the second game with more than 20 minutes -- Walker displayed so many of the reasons the Pacers took him with the No. 8 overall pick in the draft and also showed some of the reasons why he's had a hard time getting on the floor. He showed clear signs of improvement that can be attributed to his willingness to spend more time in the G League with the Mad Ants, but also signs of how desperately he still needs time with the Pacers' veterans to be able to seamlessly integrate into the rotation even on a short-term basis.

He scored eight points on 3 of 11 shooting, hitting 2 of 5 3-pointers but also making just one of his six shots inside the arc, a fast-break dunk. He had four assists, four steals, four rebounds and two blocks, but the Pacers were out-scored by 17 points when he was on the floor. That said, he was also performing in high elevation after missing two games with an upper respiratory infection.

"Jarace has some special abilities," Carlisle said. "He showed a lot of those tonight, his vision, his play-making. He's been shooting the ball well in the G-League. He was out for a couple days with an illness and joined us late on the trip, so all that considered, I thought he did a good job."

Walker was at his best with the ball in his hands, or especially when he was looking to pass it. He entered the game with 7:39 to go in the second quarter and seemed to find his footing as soon as he got an assist on the board. He took a handoff from Turner above the 3-point arc at the right elbow. He immediately notice that Markkanen and Jazz forward John Collins tried to blitz him and no one followed Turner. He found Turner under the bucket for a layup before the tag man arrived, and Turner pointed at Walker in appreciation on the way back down the court.

"Any time I get my teammates involved it will always get me confidence," Walker said. "That's one of my favorite things to do is just share the ball, move the ball, watch my teammates eat, so whenever I can do that, it gets me going for sure."

Passing has been one of his top offensive skills since he played point guard as a sophomore at IMG Academy in Florida. He averaged just 1.8 assists in his one college season at Houston, but that was in large part because they had other ball-handlers. Though he has a body for back-to-the basket work at 6-8, 240, he's at his most comfortable facing up and even bringing the ball up the floor like a point guard.

That was a skill the Pacers felt good about when they drafted him. One thing they wanted to see more of is consistency shooting the ball as he was a 34.7% 3-point shooter at Houston, hitting 35 of 101 attempts.

The shot has been a constant work in progress, and he shot less than 18% from 3-point range in NBA Summer League play and under 30% from 3-point range in the preseason. In G League play with the Mad Ants, however, he made 15 of 32 3s (46.9%) in five Showcase Cup games and 21 of 42 (50%) in five games since. In 10 games with the Mad Ants, combining regular season and Showcase Cup, Walker is averaging 23.6 points per game.

Walker hit two of his first three 3-pointers on Monday before missing his last two to finish 2 of 5 from 3-point range.

"I've just been getting more and more confident," Walker said. "The more time I've been spending in the gym as well, especially on the road, off days, just really whenever I can just being able to get in the gym and get some shots up, just find that touch. I'm definitely getting more comfortable in my jump shot."

Carlisle has been trying to make Walker take fewer gambles on the defensive end and more frequently stay down in a stance instead of trying to get steals. On Monday, though, gambling was paying off as he shot passing lanes for steals and picked pockets. His fastbreak dunk came when Jazz forward Kelly Olynyk dribbled by him and rather than try to stay in front, Walker reached around him from behind and poked the ball loose. Forward Kendall Brown collected it and found Walker streaking to the basket for an easy dunk.

"It was a good night at blackjack," Walker said. "Good gambles tonight. All jokes aside, just being able to read that and knowing who we're playing against. Just making the reads and being in the right spots, but I would say most of them just came from being in the right spot, honestly."

Walker seemed comfortable in the fourth quarter when he was surrounded by other rookies and players he's spent time with in the G League including wings Ben Sheppard, Brown and big man Oscar Tshiebwe. He seemed a little less confident when he was on the floor with established players and veterans, especially when he didn't have the ball in his hands. He seemed unsure of when exactly he was supposed to move and how to space the floor without literally stepping on someone else's toes. The Pacers don't run a lot of set plays and much of what they do is based on reads, so Walker still has to figure out how to read his teammates to put himself in the right spots.

"I just touch the ball less," Walker said. "When I'm with the first group, it's just more playing a role. When I'm with that last group, the ball is in my hand more and I have the opportunity to make plays. It's really just spacing."

There was one moment where his lack of experience in spacing cost the Pacers a possession. Walker was stationed beyond the 3-point arc at the left elbow when veteran wing Buddy Hield tried to drive along the left side of the lane. Hield tried to kick out to Walker for 3, but he was expecting him to drift along the 3-point line as Hield was driving so he'd be in a place where he could actually complete a pass to him, not too far behind him to throw back. Hield's pass skipped into the first row and Hield immediately after made clear where Walker was supposed to be. But after the game he recognized that's something Walker wouldn't have known without spending more time on the floor with him.

"It comes with growth," Hield said. "I did that a lot of times as a rookie. He hasn't played a lot. It's not his fault. He's still learning the game."

Said Walker: "The more I play with my teammates, the more I'll be able to pick up on where they won't me and where they deliver the ball. Everything will come with time."

That time isn't coming quickly, of course. The Pacers hope to get Nesmith back quickly, and he, Obi Toppin and Jalen Smith are taking up all the time at power forward. Unlike last season when the Pacers considered the year mostly developmental, the Pacers view every game as critical this year as they try to get back into a playoff series for the first time since 2019-20. As they navigate Haliburton's absence, they're trying to stay part of a five-team pack with the Cavaliers, Knicks, Heat and Magic that essentially forms the Eastern Conference's second tier behind the Celtics, Bucks and 76ers. Staying with that group would mean finishing somewhere between 4th and 8th in the East. That's a wide range of outcomes, but finishing in the top six means earning a playoff spot without going into the play-in round. Even being in the top eight means the Pacers would only have to win one of potentially two play-in games to get into a best-of-seven series.

So that means Walker's needs in terms of development remain secondary. That's frustrating considering there are seven NBA rookies averaging double-digit scoring including Miami's Jamie Jaquez Jr., Utah's Keyonte George and New Orleans' Jordan Hawkins, all of whom were picked well after Walker and could be on playoff squads. However, the Pacers' veterans have noticed that he's maintained his composure even as he's seen little playing time and spent so much time in the G League.

"I've been very impressed with him since Day 1," Turner said. "His patience has been something that is not very common. You don't see a lot of rookies like him. It's hard for him to come in every day and see all of his peers playing on other teams as a lottery pick. He's doing his process the right way."

And there will come a time, Turner said, when that process gets Walker on the floor in more than just blowouts.