Smith stops worrying, starts making shots
NEW ORLEANS — The best explanation Jalen Smith has for why he’s shooting the ball better in his fourth year in the NBA than he ever has before is that he stopped thinking about shooting the ball.
He’s no longer fixated on his 3-point field goal percentage because he’s not thinking about whether he’s shooting well enough from outside to justify being anointed the Pacers’ starting power forward. He’s trusting his defense, his rebounding and occasionally his shotblocking to keep him on the floor whether he’s starting or not and putting less weight than what he does on offense.
“I guess it’s just an ‘F-it’ mentality,” Smith said, politely censoring himself. “I’m pretty much saying if it goes in, it goes in. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.” And so it usually goes in. Smith may not be starting anymore, but even off the bench, the 6-10, 215pound 23-year-old is both the Pacers’ most efficient shooter and most effective per-minute rebounder. He’s cooled some since hitting 19 of his first 27 3pointers on the year, but he’s still shooting 44.2% from 3-point range which is second on the roster to wing Aaron Nesmith. No one on the roster is shooting at a higher clip inside the arc where Smith is hitting 71.1% of his shots. Isaiah Jackson is the only player on the team with a higher field goal percentage than Smith’s .613 and Smith’s .694 effective field goal percentage is by far the Pacers’ highest figure.
Since Smith is playing behind veteran center Myles Turner, he’s averaging just 17.7 minutes per game. Still, he’s averaging 10.3 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. Per 36 minutes, his 20.9 points put him behind only Tyrese Haliburton, Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner among Pacers who have appeared in at least 10 games. His 11.4 rebounds per 36 minutes are first among such players. (Two-way player Oscar Tshiebwe is averaging 22.3 points and 13.7 rebounds per 36 minutes, but he’s played a grand total of 42 minutes in NBA games.)
But before he got to be this productive, Smith had to get past what happened last season.
Smith was the 10th pick of the Suns in the 2020 draft, but he barely got an opportunity in Phoenix. His rookie year they reached the Finals before losing to the Bucks and he played in just 27 of their 72 games and a total of 18 minutes in their playoff run. The Pacers acquired him for Torrey Craig in February of 2022 after he played in just 29 of 54 games for Phoenix before the trade deadline.
The Suns, of course, were following their Finals run by posting the best record in the NBA before losing in the Western Conference semifinals to the Mavericks. The Pacers were in the midst of a 25-57 season after which they picked in the top nine of the draft for the first time since 1989. They had minutes — and shots — for young players and Smith got an opportunity unlike anything he’d had in his first two years.
And he made the most of it, averaging 13.4 points and 7.6 rebounds in 22 games, averaging 24.7 minutes. He shot 53.1% from the field and made 31 of 83 3-pointers (37.3%) after he’d made just 13 of 56 (23.2%) in his time in Phoenix.
The Pacers signed Smith to a threeyear, $15.1 million contract extension and coach Rick Carlisle said at the press conference announcing the signing that Smith would be the Pacers’ starting power forward.
Smith figured the continued outside shooting was a given. He’d improved from a 26.8% 3-point shooter as a freshman at Maryland to 36.8% as a sophomore, so he figured whenever he had that kind of opportunity, he’d simply be that accurate.
It didn’t work that way.
“For the next year I was like, “Oh yeah, I’m about to shoot it again at 40,’ but I didn’t,” Smith said. “That was just that pressure that, Yeah, you did it last season so do it again this season, so it pretty much messed me up.”
Smith didn’t have a terrible all around year. He shot 59.3% from inside the arc and 47.6% overall. He made an impact on the glass with 11.1 rebounds per 36 minutes, a team high, and he scored 18.1 points per 36 minutes. But he made just 54 of 191 3-pointers, 28.3%. In the modern game, teams need more perimeter skill from their power forwards and the ability to defend smaller players. Nesmith fit that bill better so in mid-December, Nesmith became the Pacers’ starting power forward even though he’s 4 inches shorter than Smith.
“I don’t think it was anything with my mechanics,” Smith said. “I think it was just the pressure I was putting on myself to make the shot rather than just shooting the ball. Obviously coming in and starting, as a young kid, it got a lot to my head. I just let that get to me. It was me just putting that pressure on me to be perfect. I believe that really affected my shot the most.”
So over the offseason, Smith focused on his shot but he didn’t make it his only focus. He stayed in Indianapolis almost the entire time and his apartment is within two minutes of Gainbridge Fieldhouse and the Ascension St. Vincent Center across the street, so he was there on a constant basis. He got bigger and stronger and there’s barely an ounce of body fat on his frame. He improved his perimeter quickness on defense and his handle, and his shot was simply a byproduct of it all. He arrived in training camp a changed man, and though he was in a three-man race with Jackson and Daniel Theis for the backup center spot behind Turner, his preseason performance made him the clear choice.
“That helped me game a lot,” Smith said. “I’m able to sustain hits a lot more. Obviously I’m playing against a lot bigger players. Playing against bigger 5s in the league, being able to withstand those hits and be able to guard guards on the perimeter.”
Smith operated mostly as the backup 5 until Dec. 26 when the Pacers decided to go bigger and he moved back to power forward. He stayed there until the Pacers acquired Siakam in mid-January and the stretch when Smith was at power forward was one of their best defensive stretches of the season. Though he’s not as much of a perimeter style player as power forward have become in the NBA, he was still able to keep those players in front of him and comfortably switch on to guards when he had to. And when Siakam was acquired and he immediately became the starting power forward, Smith seamlessly moved back to center and has been effective on the second unit.
“I don’t think his defense gets talked about enough,” point guard T.J. McConnell said. “He’s a great defender, he gets up and blocks shots. He’s our anchor back there. That’s what makes Sticks great is he’s versatile, he can play that 4 and when we need to he can play the 5 and he has the capability of guarding both the 4 and the 5.”
And of course he’s been excellent on the glass. Jackson is the only other player on the roster with at least 10 games worth of action averaging double-digit rebounds per 36 minutes.
“He’s a very good rebounder,” Carlisle said. “He may be our best rebounder pound for pound.”
And in large part because he’s been effective on the glass and on defense, he’s not had to worry about his shot going in. And because he hasn’t been worried, they’ve gone in.
“Younger players sometimes you take shots and you look over your shoulder,” Turner said. “But I think now he’s got rid of that approach. He’s just hooping.”
He’s hooping at a much higher level than he ever has before, and that’s a product of a purposeful, dedicated approach to his all-around game.