Purdue pair on Pacers’ summer roster
INDIANAPOLIS -- Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard will both be doing a second year in the NBA Summer League after completing their rookie seasons, and former Purdue stars Dakota Mathias and Lance Jones will be joining them on the Pacers' summer league roster.
The Pacers announced their complete summer league roster on their social media accounts Monday. They will begin training camp for the summer league on July 6 in Indianapolis and will begin play on July 12 in Las Vegas against the Brooklyn Nets at 8 p.m. in a game televised on NBATV.
Pacers second-round picks Johnny Furphy, Tristen Newton and Enrique Freeman are on the roster. So are center Oscar Tshiebwe and guard Quenton Jackson, who were part of the organization on two-way contracts last year. However, guard Isaiah Wong, who also held a two-way contract last season, is not on the roster, which suggests Wong and the Pacers will be parting ways.
Forward Kendall Brown, who was on a two-way contract throughout 2022-23 and until March of last season -- is on the Summer League roster for a third season.
Walker's presence on the roster isn't much of a surprise, as the Pacers had a hard time finding minutes for the No. 8 overall pick last season. The 6-7 forward out of Houston appeared in just 33 games with the Pacers and played a total of 340 minutes in the regular season, then recorded a total of 31 minutes in nine playoff games, appearing in those contests once they'd been decided. They frequently sent him down to the G League to play with the Mad Ants, where he logged 614 minutes in 18 games, getting more total action there than he did with the Pacers. The Pacers were pleased with his overall development, however, as he averaged 21.5 points per game with the Mad Ants and made 40% of his GLeague 3-point attempts.
It is somewhat surprising that Sheppard is on the roster after he took on a rotational role in the second half of the regular season and logged 335 minutes in the playoffs, even starting two games. The Pacers had Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard on the summer league roster last season and they played more regular season minutes than Sheppard did, but the Pacers did not make the playoffs that year. Sheppard averaged 4.4 points per game in the regular season and 5.2 per game in the playoffs.
The rest of the roster additions will most likely be battling for spots on the Mad Ants and for looks from other teams looking to fill their G-League rosters. Mathias and Jones are obviously in that boat.
Mathias is taking part in the NBA Summer League for the fifth time. The two-time Big Ten All-Defense pick at Purdue has been bouncing around since he finished his career with the Boilermakers in 2018. He has 14 NBA games to his credit and spent two full years in the G League, but has also spent time with three European clubs. He played in Germany last season with Ratiopharm Ulm in Basketball Bundesliga.
Jones is set to begin his professional career after playing four seasons at Southern Illinois, then transferring to Purdue to help them reach its first Final Four since 1980 this season before the Boilermakers lost to Connecticut in the national championship game. Jones averaged 11.7 points per game for the Boilermakers this season.
Also on the Summer League roster are forward Josiah Jordan-James from Tennessee, center Giorgi Bezhanishvili, who played at Illinois and Georgia, guard Trey Woodbury from Utah Valley, Jamuni McNeace from Oklahoma and Samson Froling from Australia.
Pacers player development coach Jannero Pargo will be the summer league head coach for the second straight season.