Braden Smith may be headed somewhere nobody expected: back to college instead of onto the Pacers’ roster.
Indiana drafted the Purdue star with the 38th pick this year, and for a while it looked like a feel-good homecoming was in the works. A local kid, a hometown team, a neat little story.
But the paperwork never caught up. The Pacers hold Smith’s rights, yet he still hasn’t signed a contract, and the NBA’s official tracker lists Indiana’s summer additions - Kelly Oubre, Larry Nance, Kobe Brown and Jalen Slawson - without Smith anywhere in sight.
That delay has taken on a much bigger meaning in the last few days.
On Friday, Colorado judge Charlotte N. Sweeney issued a preliminary injunction involving college players from “the class of 2022,” opening the door for them to be eligible to play college sports this year.
Smith is part of that group. He played his fourth and final season of college basketball last season, then moved on to his professional path because his college eligibility had run out.
The NCAA had recently tried to tidy up the eligibility mess with a new “5 x 5” rule. Under that policy, players would be eligible to compete for five years after finishing high school or turning 19, whichever comes first.
That would block the long, messy appeals and the endless attempts to stretch college careers well past the usual window. But it also would have given many players a fifth year they otherwise wouldn’t have had.
Smith and the rest of his class landed just outside that line.
Now the judge’s ruling has changed the picture. The NCAA plans to appeal, but the organization has not had much success in court lately, and the ruling has suddenly made dozens if not hundreds of players eligible to return. Plenty of them are already looking at the transfer portal and weighing a move back to college, especially with the chance to land strong NIL money instead of taking the G League or overseas route.
Smith’s situation is different, but it’s just as real.
He could choose to return to Purdue. He could also stay on the NBA path.
Multiple players have already shown the NCAA can’t really stop them if they were pushed into the draft because their eligibility was exhausted. For Smith, the appeal of staying in the league is obvious.
So is the pull of another year as a college star, where he could reportedly make two or three times the money.
If Smith went back to Purdue, the Boilermakers would have to decide whether to bring him in again, and the money available there would likely dwarf what the Pacers could offer. Indiana would still keep his draft rights, so the NBA door would remain open a year from now. In the meantime, the Pacers could use that roster spot elsewhere instead of locking it up for a second-round rookie.
For now, there’s no reporting on which way Smith is leaning. But after Friday, the possibility that once sounded absurd is suddenly on the table: Braden Smith could return to Purdue.
In Other News...
Rick Carlisle Just Set The Tone For Indianas Next Step
Rick Carlisle used a recent appearance on The Draymond Green Show to lay out the Pacers mindset for the season ahead, and it was clear he wants the focus kept on the work, not the noise. After a Finals run followed by a tougher year, Indiana is approaching this next stretch with the kind of perspective that usually comes from having been through both sides of the leagues grind. The message from Carlisle was simple enough: start well, stay healthy and keep the preparation mostly behind closed doors.
For a team that has already tasted how far it can go, the next step is less about selling the possibility than handling the responsibility that comes with it. Carlisle pointed to the need for the group to keep building quietly, which fits a franchise trying to turn one big run into a sustained chance at another title. The Pacers know the target is there, but the real work now is making sure the season gets rolling the right way. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Suddenly Face A Tougher East Than Fans Expected
The Eastern Conference has quietly become a much less forgiving place for Indiana, and the Pacers are feeling it before the season even settles in. Boston, Milwaukee and New York have each already shown they can win at the top of the bracket, while a wave of roster movement across the East has only tightened the race around them. Indiana made its own move with the midseason trade for Ivica Zubac, but the conference around it has been busy reshaping itself too.
Lu Dort and Aaron Wiggins have been added elsewhere, Giannis Antetokounmpo remains the kind of centerpiece who changes a season by himself, and Norman Powell is part of the growing depth that makes this group less predictable than the one the Pacers expected to face. For Indiana, the question is no longer just whether the roster is improved enough to hang in the standings. It is whether a playoff path that once looked manageable now demands far more consistency than fans might have anticipated. [Read more 🡒]
Cavs Face An Early Mario Hezonja Decision That Could Matter
The Bulls may like Bennedict Mathurin, but league chatter suggests the interest has been overstated, and that matters for the Pacers because it keeps one of their young scorers in a more realistic market than some outside the league had assumed. Chicago has been focused on flexibility and future assets, which makes a sign-and-trade for Mathurin a tricky fit if it means giving up picks and locking into a long-term commitment.
Meanwhile, Mario Hezonjas new deal with the Cavaliers adds a different kind of wrinkle to the same stretch of roster planning. He signed a non-guaranteed contract that turns fully guaranteed if he stays past November 15, a deadline that could force Cleveland into an early decision while Indiana continues making the sort of smaller roster adjustments it has used since February to keep its own options open. [Read more 🡒]