The Pacers let Monday’s 6 p.m. deadline for rookie-scale extensions pass without new deals for Jarace Walker or Ben Sheppard, as Pacers beat reporter Tony East posted on X a few minutes after it closed. Both will play out the last year of their rookie contracts and head into free agency next summer.
I think Indiana got this right, and the reason is different for each player. Walker is the one worth a real contract, and this season will tell the Pacers how big it should be. Sheppard is playing for a rotation spot before he plays for money.
What Indiana kept by waiting
Seven players from the 2023 draft signed rookie-scale extensions before the deadline, per NBA.com, including Cason Wallace (No. 10) in Oklahoma City and Brandin Podziemski (No. 19) in Golden State. Players who didn’t sign are eligible for restricted free agency next year, as long as their teams make qualifying offers in 2027. That means Indiana can match any offer sheet Walker or Sheppard signs elsewhere.
The money is why I wouldn’t have paid either player yet. Indiana already has $203.1 million in guaranteed salary for 2027-28 tied up in eight players: Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam, Ivica Zubac, Andrew Nembhard, Aaron Nesmith, Obi Toppin, T.J. McConnell and Kelly Oubre Jr. For scale, this season’s luxury tax line is $200.428 million and the first apron is $209.015 million.
Haliburton and Siakam alone make $52.3 million each that season. Before adding to that number, I’d want to know whether this core, with Haliburton back from the Achilles tear that cost him all of last season, is a contender.
Walker earned the bigger bet
Walker, 23, is playing this season on an $8,478,542 salary, the final year of his rookie deal. Last season was his first real run. He played 76 games, started 41 and averaged 11.6 points, 5.1 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 25.7 minutes, all career highs, per Basketball Reference. He took 4.7 threes a game and made 37.4% of them.
The catch is efficiency. His true shooting fell from .590 in 2024-25 to .543 last season as his usage rose from 17.1% to 20.7%. That’s the gap between a useful role player and the starting-caliber forward a big extension would assume. Indiana went 19-63 without Haliburton, per Basketball Reference. I’d expect his efficiency to climb back with Haliburton running the offense, and if it does, his price climbs with it.
The preseason showed what that version looks like. In the first two games Walker had 17 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists in 48 minutes off the bench, including 10 assists in the opener against Minnesota, per the ESPN box scores. He then rested in Oklahoma City and missed Friday’s finale with a sore left hip, according to the team’s game rewind.
My view: if Walker plays a full season as the passing forward he was in the opener, Indiana will pay him next summer, and it will be glad it has the right to match. If he doesn’t, the Pacers avoided paying for a season that hasn’t happened yet.
Sheppard is playing for minutes first
Sheppard’s case is shakier. He’s due $5,031,669 this season, the last year of the deal he signed as the No. 26 pick in 2023. Last season he averaged 7.1 points in 21.4 minutes across 65 games, with 20 starts, and shot 36.2% from three on 3.6 attempts, per Basketball Reference.
His preseason went the wrong way. He scored 13 points and made 3 of 5 threes in the opener, then scored two points across the last three games combined. Over all four he shot 5-of-19 and 3-of-11 from three in 77 minutes, per the ESPN box scores, including a start in Oklahoma City. As I wrote after the finale, the Pacers’ bench is the weak spot, and Sheppard is a big part of why.
He also has more competition on the wing. Nesmith and Oubre each started more preseason games than he did, and Johnny Furphy will add another body once he finishes rehab from the right ACL he tore in February. The Pacers roster page shows how crowded that group is. A 25-year-old shooter who went 3-of-11 from three in the preseason has a hard case for a raise, and an even harder one for minutes.
The 14-man roster
The other move this weekend made the roster official. Indiana waived James Johnson, Keba Keita and Rienk Mast on Saturday, which leaves 14 players on standard contracts and three on two-way deals: Braden Smith, Jalen Slawson and Kobe Brown. Walker and Sheppard are both on the 14, and both open the season Wednesday in New Orleans on expiring deals.
Now the 2026-27 season sets both prices. For Walker, that’s a bet I’d take. For Sheppard, it starts with making shots again.