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Way too early impressions of Jarace Walker
🕑 Added 2024-07-13 15:26:47 +0000 UTCRecapping Summer League with the play and player of the game
By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper
"That's crazy," Jarace Walker said following the third quarter in the wake of finding out that his team had already committed 27 turnovers in what became a 97-95 overtime loss for the Summer Pacers after surrendering a 15-point lead to the Summer Nets. Overall, with tons of turnovers and tons of missed shots, it was a struggle-fest on offense -- even by Summer League standards. After all, despite the fact that the Summer Pacers played some familiar lineups to those that earned action in the G League last season, they still finished with more turnovers (28) than three-point attempts (23), while only making a total of four threes. So, to recap, no one wants a recap of those plays, right?
Instead, the idea for these exhibition games is to select both a player and a play of the game that either highlights that player's progress or reflects something specific about the long-term future of the team. In this case, both apply to Jarace Walker, who finished with 25 points, six rebounds, four assists, and (yes) seven turnovers on 9-of-18 shooting.
As such, this is a way-too-early breakdown of where the rising sophomore for the Pacers showed improvement, as well as where he still needs to improve over the course of his stay in Las Vegas.
Here's are the relevant timestamps:
0:00 - Introductions
1:25 - "C" as the play of the game (i.e. the Tshiebwe-Walker connection)
6:01 - Physicality against switches
7:05 - Screening and hand-off setting
10:04 - Finishing footwork
12:11 - So... about the defense
15:11 - Thank you and Goodbye
Comments
Mike Brooks
Watched a recording of tonight’s game and Jarace played extremely well. He gave up 2 drives, 1 was a blow by which he raise his hand and acknowledged the gaff. However, I counted 6-7 iso where he was able to turn and stop the ball resulting in 2 caused TO and 3 x was against a much smaller guard. He also didn’t help unnecessarily and was in much better position. Don’t understand the narrative that he only uses his hands. Just not true. Also, he made some incredible athletic plays to create advantages and had several hockey assists. He also should have had 10 assists if teammates could finish. And, of course, his jumper looks great. He is clearly the best player on our summer league team. If we are looking for a guy that can plug for 10 minutes then Sheppard is your guy. If we are looking for a player that can elevate our team and be a true impact player, it’s clearly Jarace.
Caitlin Cooper
That's exactly it, which is what I covered in the preview. You're on target.
WeGonSee
Defense and Rebounds. I know that’s the boring stuff, but that’s clearly what the Ps are prioritizing with JW. That’s what is Gon get him playing time.
WeGonSee
Physicality
Caitlin Cooper
He has some instincts you can't teach -- and a really high motor. It's really too bad that his defense is still his defense. HIs best skill is dependent on getting stops, which mainly happened in this game because no one could make shots.
Caitlin Cooper
Yes, I generally concur on that. That's why I liked seeing him roll toward the basket and at least getting a few possessions as the hand-off setter.
Flyover Country
Thank you for rhe post. I learn more about basketball every time I visit your site. Did anyone else think Enrique Freeman looked good? I thought he looked like what everyone wants Keendall Brown to be. Five rebounds in 17 minutes isn't bad (maybe Tshiebwe was on the bench 🙂). Also, I thought Quinton Jackson looked good. He consistently pushed the pace and distrubuted ball well. Every season I think TJ is having a career year. Then he goes out and proves me wrong the next year. However, when does it make sense to sell high on him in a package for a wing size wing? And if that happens, can Quenton Jackson or Tristen Newton fill the the point (full time pest/inbounds steals/I WILL work harder than you) guard size hole TJ would leave behind?
Kyle Taylor
I totally agree with you about Jarace's game last night. My twitter feed was like 100% praise, 0% criticism, and a smattering of "he's gotta be in the rotation" and I was like... Even live it was clear he was making exactly the same mistakes he made last year, your analysis confirms it, and these are, as you point out, exactly the same mistakes the coaches have told him not to make. As someone who wants to see Jarace supplant Obi at the backup 4 / get minutes at the 3, it was a somewhat disheartening performance. It is of course just one game, but these are habits he's gotta break.
Lyle Yaggy
Love seeing Jarace take it right up or make the right pass when he sees someone converge. Also glad they’re getting him some run at the rim cause he’s pretty floater happy when he sees the floor in the NBA
James T Sandberg
Any chance Oscar could teach the starters how to rebound? What does he do that Pacers rotation players can't figure out consistently?
Robert T Ives
Pascal is the perfect player to teach Jarace to maintain his dribble in the post.
Pacerfansince1969
He seems much to cavalier with the basketball and not really sure of where he is going to have the ball in his hands making decisions at the point of attack.
Pacerfansince1969
Excellent analysis. My impression was Jarace loves to play that point forward role, but he is much better, at least for now, using his size, strength and agility to score inside and his pretty credible shooting touch to take open shots when they come his way.
