Pacers Overlooking Underutilized Player Could Ruin Playoff Run

The Indiana Pacers are preparing for their first-round series against the Milwaukee Bucks. It's an opponent they know very well, as they took them down in last year's playoffs.

Down the stretch of the regular season, the Pacers won 15 of their final 19 games. They played some of their best basketball of the year.

Indiana was able to get a good feel for who they should have in their playoff rotation. They are one of the few teams around the league who has a pretty set rotation.

The Pacers did have some injuries that they had to play around, especially the toe injury that was plaguing reserve guard Ben Sheppard.

With Sheppard out, Jarace Walker got more playing time. Quite frankly, he deserved it. Walker has been playing the best basketball of his young career with the minutes he's been getting.

Now that the playoffs are here, the Pacers could regret not giving Walker regular rotation minutes against the Bucks. He has been far more effective than Sheppard has.

In the last ten games that Sheppard played, he shot just 27 percent from deep. He is only out there because of his 3-point shooting and his defense. If he can't make a shot, there's no reason for him to be out there.

In contrast, Walker shot 53.6 percent from beyond the 3-point arc in his last ten games. He shot 47.2 percent from the field and 40.5 percent from three during the regular season.

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Walker's defense has been solid, as well. He always seems to be in the right spot, getting a ton of deflections during games.

Even if he's not getting steals, he's disrupting the timing of passes and creating havoc on that end. That's something the Pacers will need against Milwaukee.

Sheppard is going to have a very short leash in this series. If he doesn't start shooting the ball better, Walker could take his minutes. That would make the Pacers' bench unit much bigger, too.

Walker has earned more minutes. He has finally started to show the potential that Indiana saw in him when they took him in the 2023 NBA Draft.

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