INDIANAPOLIS -- The biggest difference Pacers coach Jannero Pargo sees in Jarace Walker from his first to his second summer as an NBA player is the way he talks on the floor.
With one season under his belt, Walker is a veteran by Summer League standards. Only players with three seasons of NBA experience or less are eligible. Just five players on the Pacers 2023-24 15-man roster are eligible and two of them -- Andrew Nembhard and the injured Bennedict Mathurin -- are spending the Olympic summer with Team Canada -- so Walker, guard Ben Sheppard and wing Kendall Brown are the only returners on the summer league team.
Still, it's notable to Pargo that Walker sounds like a player who has been around for a year. It's clear that, even though the No. 8 overall pick of the 2023 draft didn't get a lot of playing time in his rookie year, he spent the season listening and understands the Pacers' concepts well enough to explain them to younger players.
"It's just the talk," Pargo said Saturday after the Pacers' first practice of pre-summer league camp. "The first year he was just quiet and when he did talk it was just a lot of rah-rah. But now he understands defense, he understands offense, he understands concepts. He's not just yelling and talking. He's talking with a purpose and he's helping his teammates."
After a season in which Walker's development had to take something of a backseat to the Pacers' Eastern Conference finals run, this year's Summer League offers Walker the chance to be a leader and focal point. The Pacers didn't have any first-round picks this season, grabbing Kansas' Johnny Furphy at No. 36 in the draft, Connecticut's Tristen Newton at No. 49 and Akron's Enrique Freeman at No. 50. All three will certainly get looks and some spotlight in Las Vegas, but at least one and possibly two of them will end up on two-way contracts by the time the season starts. The Pacers won't invest nearly as much in any of the three as they have in Walker, with $6.36 million coming his way this season in the second year of his four-year rookie scale contract.
So Summer League will give him a chance to show how much progress he's made toward fulfilling his considerable promise on both ends of the floor. Though he appeared in just 33 NBA games and averaged just 10.3 minutes in those games, Walker believes his rookie year in total allowed him to take significant steps in that regard.
"It was just a lot of learning," Walker said. "A lot of picking up concepts. Learning things about the league, language, terminology. I think it was a good preparatory year for my second year."
For as little time as he got to play, though, Walker used both his limited NBA minutes and his more extended work in the G League with the Mad Ants to show off his versatility, and this summer will give the Pacers more of an opportunity to test it.
Walker was drafted as a power forward and at 6-7, 235 pounds he has the size for that spot. However, he was a point guard as a sophomore at IMG Academy in Florida, and he got opportunities with the Pacers and the Mad Ants to show that he's still comfortable bringing the ball up and that he has the feel and the passing skills to play the point in a pinch. He averaged 4.5 assists per game in 13 regular season contests with the Mad Ants against just 2.8 turnovers.
His jump shot also improved dramatically over the course of the season. He made 34.7% of his 3s in his lone college season at Houston, but he shot 40% from 3 in NBA games. He also shot 40% from 3 in the G League, knocking down 52 of 130 attempts. That helped him averaged 21.5 points per game in 18 G-League contests.
Walker's ability to handle, pass and shoot suggested to coach Rick Carlisle that Walker could play small forward as well as power forward, and Carlisle got Walker some minutes at the 3 after All-Star power forward Pascal Siakam was acquired by trade in January. Carlisle reasoned then that Walker would have to play other positions to get on the floor if Siakam was going to be a long-term addition, and that is, in fact, the case. Siakam intends to sign a four-year max contract worth approximately $189.5 million.
Pargo said Walker will play primarily small forward in Las Vegas, but said he will be given the opportunity to play a lot of roles.
"He's going to start at the 3, but today's game is positionless," Pargo said. "If he's ahead of the play, we want him dunking it and playing in the paint. If he's not, spacing the floor, handling the ball, playing in pick-and-roll, making decisions off the dribble. In all facets of the game, we want to use him because he's that kind of a player."
Walker said he feels confident with the ball-handling and pick-and-roll responsibilities that he'd have to take on playing the 3. He knows it's also important to show he can move without the ball and hustle to get to his spots.
"Definitely running the floor and getting up and down after misses and makes," Walker said. "Understanding when to fill those corners on the floor and then cause chaos on offense. Blurring, setting screens, chase screens, chest screens, getting downhill, anything to cause problems for the defense."
He also knows his rebounding responsibilities don't decrease at the 3, and that he'll have to keep the ball in front of him on defense. Carlisle said early in the season that Walker had a tendency to gamble too much for steals on defense, but he seemed to shake that off toward the end of the year. He still managed 19 steals in 18 G League games.
"Continuing to crash and always being a presence on the boards and also staying in front of smaller guards," Walker said. "I feel like playing the 3, I'm bigger and longer. I'm usually stronger so I'm probably going to have a smaller, quicker matchup. Being able to move my feet, stay in front of those matchups and keep them from going downhill. That's always been kind of my strong suit almost, my defensive versatility being able to guard multiple positions. It will be a challenge, but nothing I haven't done for."
Earning rotation minutes still won't be easy for Walker this season. The Pacers re-signed not only Siakam but Obi Toppin at power forward. At the 3, the Pacers return starter Aaron Nesmith and both Mathurin and Sheppard can play the position off the bench. However, the Pacers have had opportunities to trade Walker, so they could have moved on from him if they didn't think he'd be able to make a case to play. He'll get to start his argument in Vegas.
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