What the Indiana Pacers Can Get Out of Taelon Peter

With one of the surprise picks of the 2025 NBA Draft, the Indiana Pacers selected Taelon Peter with the No. 54 overall pick. The sharpshooter out of Liberty immediately drew intrigue as he entered the spotlight of the Indiana Pacers, who just completed a Cinderella playoff run, falling short of a championship by one game.

Peter has since competed in all five of the Pacers' NBA Summer League contests, and while struggling to shoot the ball, impressed enough to earn himself a two-way contract with the team. Given that his Summer League performance may not have won over Pacers fans entirely, here's the full outline of the stellar player he could become.

Who is Taelon Peter?

Peter is a 6-foot-4, 210-pound off-guard who entered the draft as a 23-year-old with five seasons of collegiate experience. In his 2024-2025 campaign with Liberty, he averaged 13.7 points, four rebounds, one assist, 0.9 steals per game, 57.8 percent from the field and 45.3 percent from deep.

Peter was the team's sixth man for the majority of the year, and excelled in the role taking home Conference USA's Sixth Man of the Year, and earning Third Team All-Conference honors.

He's one of the 2025 draft class's premier 3-point threats, showcasing an NBA-level jumper for the majority of his career. Peter shot 37.3 percent from deep between three seasons at Arkansas Tech, with an outlier 32.6 percent 2023 campaign being cancelled out by two 40-plus percent seasons surrounding it. He finished his college career with the aforementioned 45.3 percent 3-point shot, and is over 80 percent from the free throw line for his career – solidifying his status as a deep threat.

Peter appears very comfortable shooting both off and on-ball threes, from NBA range or contested shots at a consistent rate. His shot diet is much more NBA-oriented than the typical college sharpshooter, which should help him translate well.

He's a movement shooter who’s going to be a plug-and-play for a multitude of offensive scenarios. He sticks out from other movement shooters because he’s not just a pure, standstill sniper with severe offensive limitations and defensive woes.

Peter is one of about 20 players since 2009 to attempt at least 100 threes, shoot 40 percent or higher on those, and maintain a true shooting percentage of at least 70. Most of those players didn’t make the NBA, but most of those guys weren’t NBA athletes.

What separates him from the pack is his NBA-Level body, as he’s quite the underrated athlete. Peter converted 21 of his 22 dunks the past season, while nobody else on the list reached five, most not even getting one. 

Peter's fit with the Pacers

He fits in nicely with the Pacers' fast-paced tempo as a player who really likes to push the pace and get after it in transition. Peter can also finish plays on his own at the rim with, and holds respectable free throw rate relative to other sharpshooting specialists. He can play as a backcourt partner with every Pacers lead guard option – Nembhard and McConnell for this year, even Kam Jones, and eventually Tyrese Haliburton in 2026-2027. 

He's shown to be a great mover both with and without the ball – smart baseline cuts, but also knows when to keep going through. He's probably not ready to run an offense or be a backup point guard, but he’s certainly a capable secondary handler. Makes good reads in pick-and-roll situations and can consistently hit guys on dump-offs. He also rarely turns the ball over, averaging just 0.6 turnovers per game in 2024-2025.

He's bought in on the defensive end as well, combining his athleticism with a smart pass perception to rack up steals and deflections for an underrated defensive playmaking package. He's no lockdown defender by any means, but won't be getting beat often and can hold his own in the right system.

It's easy to see why the Pacers took Peter, and it seems like he's earned the opportunity to prove himself as a piece of Indiana's championship-aspiring puzzle.