Pacers Summer League Grades: Jarace Walker shines but Indiana loses sloppy opener

The Indiana Pacers committed an obscene amount of turnovers with 27 coming in the first three quarters and made just 4 of their 23 attempts from deep as they lost in overtime to the Brooklyn Nets after blowing a 15-point lead with five minutes to go. Welcome to NBA Summer League, isn’t it grand?

Every year I like to grade these often sloppy, poorly executed games that serve as introductions to the team’s draft picks and a first look at where the returning young prospects have started to improve. It’s nonsensical to put grades on these guys as they play a lot without a ton of familiarity with each other after just a few days of practice but let’s have some fun and dive into the performances of every player.

Jarace Walker – B+

Walker looked like the best player on the floor for much of the game as he finished with 25 points (9 of 18), 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block. He showed off his passing and playmaking chops with quick feeds inside to Oscar Tshiebwe and a dart to Johnny Furphy in the corner off of one of his drives. The way he can make quick passing decisions in any situation whether off the catch or off the bounce has always stood out as one of his best traits.

Seven turnovers the big blemish on his offensive game as he forced the issue too much at times instead of making a simple pass to an open player or tried to squeeze in a pass that just wasn’t there.

“Definitely had a lot of turnovers, got to cut down on that,” Walker said of how he felt he did tonight. “Feel like I got to rebound better, shot selection was decent. Overall was just a decent game. Next game I’ll be better.”

The shot-making was phenomenal where he hit multiple mid-range jump shots including off the dribble and one off of movement on a baseline out of bounds play. He was unable to connect on any of his 3-point attempts.

He had some impressive finishes inside including a euro-step in transition and never settled for his floater but played with physicality going to the rim which is something the Pacers want to see from him with using his big body as he earned 8 attempts from the free-throw line.

The Pacers found him repeatedly on similar plays with Tshiebwe with the ball at the elbow and Jarace ducking into the paint and getting inside position on a smaller defender. He scored his first points of the game on a dunk on this play, got an and-1 layup later in the first half, and finished a third time on an acrobatic finish off the catch while still in the air while being fouled again.

Walker had some highlight worthy plays on the defensive end as well while blocking a shot viciously while guarding a smaller guard on the perimeter and showed off his elite hands with a couple of steals as well.

One thing that the Pacers want to see from Walker this week and beyond according to both Rick Carlisle and Summer League head coach Jannero Pargo is improved conditioning that allows him to play hard and with energy for long stretches of the game and that’s the only area besides the turnovers where it doesn’t feel like this was a great performance from Walker. He played 35 minutes in this one and did seem to wear down a bit as he made just one of his final six shot attempts. But even beyond that, there were multiple plays where he was slow to get back on defense after a turnover or a missed layup. He could be seen standing upright on the perimeter on defense on occasion not ready to help a teammate that had been beaten off the dribble. Late in the fourth as the Nets made their run to tie, Walker didn’t even get past halfcourt before Noah Clowney had a tip dunk finish to cut the Pacers lead to three. The coaches will have plenty to point to if needed when continuing to work towards an increased endurance to be able to play hard consistently. That’s what they need him to do to earn a spot in a crowded rotation.

“We knew he was going to score the ball,” Pargo said after the game. “We were focused on his defense, his energy, his effort. For the most part, he was really good. He got tired a couple of times but he’s playing hard. He played well for us; we just need him to—along with some of our other guys—take care of the ball better and not turn it over.”

Walker said after the game that he felt like his conditioning held up pretty well considering this was his first game with this level of minutes in a long time—a fair point—but said it is among the things he’s working on along with being physical and driving all the way to the rim.

Enrique Freeman – A-

Speaking of hard play, Enrique Freeman has a relentless motor. He played 17 minutes and I’m not sure he ever stopped running at full speed. He immediately made a huge play as soon as he entered the game with a phenomenal block even with the offensive player trying to his off arm to push off the Pacers rookie from making the play.

Amazingly this wasn’t even his best block of the game as he erased a potential highlight dunk with a perfectly timed jump and clean swat of the ball that turned into a Pacers transition opportunity.

Freeman doesn’t stop hustling and looks like a pure energy big. He wasn’t perfect on the perimeter on defense but moved his feet well and always made an effort to get back into the play when beat.

He scored 7 points (3 of 4) with a strong tip dunk and a nice hook shot that may serve him well in the G-League even if he doesn’t get many opportunities to showcase his post game in the NBA. He added 5 rebounds, an assist, and a steal to go with those two emphatic blocks as well. I was really impressed with his relentless spirit and high energy during his time on the floor. In the first half, he had strongly outplayed Tshiebwe, who bounced back with a big second half performance.

Oscar Tshiebwe – A-

Tshiebwe just feasted on the glass as he does while racking up 19 rebounds including eight on the offensive glass to go with his 17 points (7 for 11). He was repeatedly the beneficiary of numerous passes inside from both Walker and Quenton Jackson and made his own offense with his work on the glass as well including the first points of the game for the Pacers.

He had those three nice passes from the elbow to Walker on those aforementioned plays where he found inside position. The play worked so often for the Pacers that at one point they doubled Walked and left Tshiebwe wide open at the elbow. He badly missed the jumper but just immediately followed the ball and gobbled up his own shot and put it in the basket from there.

Tshiebwe scored the Pacers first four points in overtime to give them a lead early in the first to seven Elam Ending target score extra period and got a nice steal on the defensive end that gave the Pacers a chance to win the game.

Defensively, he struggles any time he needs to leave the paint and closing out on shooters. He often looks stiff with how he moves and he’ll struggled to guard against a big that can shoot or teams would likely look to attack him as the big covering the screener in the pick and roll. But his rebounding and drive to control the glass is phenomenal and he was very good at what he does in this game.

Johnny Furphy – C+

Furphy started a little slow but was nearly the only Pacers player to be able to make a 3-point shot in this game. He finished with 12 points (3 for 8 from deep), 4 rebounds, and a steal. He also had a nice lob finish from fellow rookie Tristen Newton for his only basket inside the arc.

He got his jumper blocked a couple of times in a short stretch where he underestimated the length of his defender. Defensively, it was a mixed bag, seemed to get beat often off the dribble but did make a few solid plays to get stops on that end as well. Overall just an okay performance from the 35th pick who I perhaps had some unfair expectations for after he surprisingly jumped Kendall Brown into the starting summer lineup after Pargo said the starters would be all returning players, got compared by his summer coach to Lauri Markkanen, and Carlisle said the team’s scouts had him as the 14th best player in the draft. Excited to see how the rest of the week goes for the rookie.

Kendall Brown – A-

Brown looks like a perfect fit for the Pacers hyper fast play style anytime he get involved in transition where it’s pushing the break himself or getting out on the wings and gliding down court. Coming into his third season, he hasn’t had many opportunities at the NBA level but you can still see the vision of a fun NBA wing. Unfortunately as he prepares for his third season, it’s difficult to see any path to playing time for him.

Brown finished with 19 points (6 for 11) in 27 minutes in this game including some tough finishes at the rim and earned 9 free throw attempts for the game. He scored 10 points early in the fourth quarter when it looked like the Pacers were going to cruise to an easy victory before the wheels fell off. He went 1 for 3 from deep as one of only two Pacers to make a 3-point shot in the game. He also added 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 2 blocks.

The blocks were impressive including one with impressive reach in transition that knocked the ball off of the shooter on a play the broadcast team thought initially may have been a foul before seeing the replay.

Quenton Jackson – F

Jackson was bad, there’s no getting around that but—even though I’m giving him an F because there’s just no other choice—I don’t think he was as bad as his box score would suggest with an ungodly 9 turnovers and 3 of 10 shooting. It was rough, don’t get me wrong, but I still saw some glimmers of what makes Jackson an interesting player.

Jackson showed off his burst and quick speed often but as soon as he got near the rim things just did not go his way. While he took some ill-advised shots and made many poor decisions passing the ball (similar to Walker where they too often avoided making the simple play, held onto the ball too long, and then ended up turning it over), the way the game was officiated didn’t do him any favors as he was called for a bad charge where he wisely avoided hitting the defender straight on and made the basket and had many drives to the basket where contact was not called a foul and instead resulted in a missed shot or a ball knocked out of bounds. At one point he airballed a 3-pointer that landed a nearby casino.

His defensive effort was strong as he harassed the Nets guards into many turnovers of their own including four steals. He calmed down a lot with no turnovers after the third quarter and finished with five assists including some nice dump offs to Tshiebwe.

Many plays will haunt him in this nightmare of a game but missing the final two free throws with the game tied and just two seconds remaining was absolutely brutal. Jackson hit 77% of his free throws in the G-League last year. I expect to see him bounce back the rest of this week but we shall see. That one was ugly. He finished with 9 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 9 turnovers.

Tristen Newton – INC

With how things simply weren’t going Jackson’s way tonight, I don’t know why a guard like Newton didn’t see more time than just 7 minutes. He had 4 assists, nearly leading the team, in his short stints including the lob to Furphy. He had one offensive rebound on a nice play that he converted into another one of his assists as well. I hope we get to see him more in the rest of these games.

Ben Sheppard – D–

Summer League is not the place for Ben Sheppard. He made just one of his nine shots in this game and missed all four of his 3-pointers. He stays away from the F because his defense was awesome as he had the best +/- at +7 as he had 3 steals, including one T.J. McConnell style steal in the backcourt that earned him his only field goal of the game. He opened up the game with a forced turnover with strong defense.

He tried to do a bit too much at times where he didn’t seem to be playing within himself like he normally does with three turnovers. He did get hammered on a no call in overtime that would have given the Pacers free throws with a chance to get to within one point of winning the game and the lead. I’m just not going to worry about this one exhibition game for a guy that just played valuable minutes in the playoffs and led the team in net rating through the postseason as well. We know what he can do as a role player in limited minutes.

Dakota Mathias (C) is the only other player to have got into the game for the Pacers in this one. He scored two points on a baseline two that was reminiscent of McConnell as well as he drove under the basket before pulling up on the other end. He missed two 3-pointers but clearly got fouled on one attempt that wasn’t called. He somehow played more than Newton which seems odd.