The Pacers’ roster math is getting tight, and that’s why Ben Sheppard suddenly looks like a pretty important piece of the puzzle.
Indiana has only one roster spot left, and the top of the depth chart already feels mostly spoken for. The five starters are set, and the main bench group appears to be TJ McConnell, free-agent addition Kelly Oubre Jr. and Obi Toppin. That leaves the Pacers leaning heavily on what they already have in-house.
The problem is obvious enough. Behind the starters, Indiana doesn’t have a clear backup shooting guard if recent retainee Quenton Jackson and Braden Smith don’t emerge as real difference-makers - and, as the source material notes, both are point guards anyway.
The center spot is trimmed down to Ivica Zubac and Jay Huff. Even on the wing, where Toppin gives the Pacers some help behind Pascal Siakam, there’s still a lot that feels unsettled.
Jarace Walker is another question mark, and the team is still waiting to see whether he can finally live up to his top-pick billing after years of inconsistency.
That’s the bigger backdrop here: Indiana seems to be hoping this gap year produced at least one internal answer, not counting the big trade that brought in Zubac. If it didn’t, then even after one of the most miserable seasons in recent Pacers memory, the team may still be short of true championship-level depth.
But the cleanest answer might not be some splashy breakout at all. It might be a player who doesn’t need the ball to transform the rotation.
Sheppard fits that idea. The Belmont wing shot 44 percent from the field and 36 percent from three despite not always being put in ideal spots, and he managed that without the kind of playmaking help Tyrese Haliburton usually provides. He’s the kind of player Indiana seems to like: useful, disciplined and capable of fitting into a bigger lineup without demanding the spotlight.
There’s a path where Sheppard becomes something close to Oubre - or at least the type of wing the Pacers clearly value. If the shooting ticks up, Indiana could get to a nine-man rotation and use the rest of the roster more as injury insurance than nightly contributors.
Of course, asking a player to be defined by his jumper is usually a dangerous game. Plenty of careers have been built around the idea that one more shot-making leap would unlock everything. The source material points to the Thompson Twins, Ben Simmons and Metta World Peace as examples of how often that dream doesn’t quite land.
Sheppard doesn’t need to become that kind of star, though. The point is simpler than that. He may not be the flashy answer fans are hunting for, but he could be the one who makes the roster work.
And in a league where depth is everything, that matters. The source compares it to baseball’s innings-eater idea - a player who soaks up valuable work because someone has to do it. Indiana needs that same sort of reliability on the wing, especially if it wants to protect minutes and keep the rotation fresh for the playoffs.
That’s where Sheppard comes in. He can help at both the two and the three, and he may be the Pacers’ biggest X-factor this season.
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The Pacers have spent the offseason reshaping their depth chart, adding veterans Kelly Oubre Jr. and Larry Nance Jr. while also bringing in Ivica Zubac in a previous trade, and the roster squeeze is already showing up in the margins. One of the players making the strongest early case is Jalen Slawson, who is on a two-way contract and has looked sharp in Summer League, putting up 20.5 points, seven rebounds, 2.5 assists and three blocks a game.
Slawson showed enough promise last season to stay on the radar, and his recent play has only intensified a competition that still has several names in the mix for two-way spots. Braden Smith, Kobe Brown, Taelon Peter and Ethan Thompson are all part of that battle, and no final decisions have been announced, which leaves Indiana with a familiar camp question: who has done enough to stick when the numbers start to get tight? [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Summer League Left One Brutal Question About Their Young Depth
Indianas summer league run opened with a win, but the rest of the trip in Las Vegas quickly turned into a reminder that young depth is never as tidy on paper as it looks in July. The group dropped three straight after that first result, and the overall performance left more questions than answers for a roster trying to sort out which developmental pieces might actually matter when the games count.
Rienk Mast gave Indiana one of the brighter notes, while Jalen Slawson put up points but did not always make them efficiently, which is the kind of split that can complicate a players case for a real role. Braden Smith also had a difficult stretch, and the bigger takeaway for the Pacers is less about any one box score than the uncomfortable possibility that summer league exposed how thin the margin is for some of these young names. [Read more 🡒]