{"id":684639,"date":"2026-03-28T19:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T19:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/684639\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T19:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T19:39:16","slug":"pacers-notes-jones-sheppard-mathurin-i-jackson-walker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/684639\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers Notes: Jones, Sheppard, Mathurin, I. Jackson, Walker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kam Jones<\/a>\u2018 contract for next season is only 50% guaranteed<\/a>. Forbes contributor Tony East<\/a> considers what the Pacers might do with the rookie guard this offseason, suggesting that pushing back Jones\u2019 guarantee date from June 30 to sometime in July to allow him to play for Indiana\u2019s Summer League team is one option the two sides might explore.<\/p>\n

The 38th overall pick of last year\u2019s draft, Jones\u2019 NBA debut was delayed until late December due to a back injury, and he has been in and out of the rotation the past few months, East notes. While the former Marquette standout is technically under contract through 2028\/29, the final two seasons are fully non-guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 future with the Pacers could be tied to whether or not the team keeps its top-four protected pick in the upcoming draft, East observes, since Indiana doesn\u2019t have many roster spots available. Keeping Jones or waiving him and using the stretch provision to spread his 2026\/27 cap hit over multiple seasons are among the other options for the Pacers, East adds.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s more from Indiana:<\/p>\n

Third-year guard Ben Sheppard<\/a> will be eligible for a rookie scale extension this summer. After a slow start to the season amid a wave of backcourt injuries, Sheppard has found his footing since he returned from a calf strain in late December, showing growth on the offensive end while taking on difficult defensive assignments, according to Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star<\/a> (subscriber link). \u201cI\u2019ve been able to experiment within my game and my comfort level this season,\u201d Sheppard said. \u201cJust all the moving pieces, people coming in and out, offensive rhythm has been kinda off, but with all my coaches in my corner and my teammates in my corner just trying to be more aggressive and take my opportunities as they come. I feel like I\u2019ve been finding my shot a lot of different ways that I haven\u2019t gotten last year or the year before. Just creating a little bit more and just looking at the rim more.\u201d
\nIn a story for his website City City Spin<\/a>, East takes an inside look at the returns of Bennedict Mathurin<\/a> and Isaiah Jackson<\/a>, who faced the Pacers in Indianapolis on Friday night for the first time since they were traded to the Clippers ahead of the February deadline. The former first-round picks received a tribute video<\/a> and a warm reception from fans during the first stoppage in play, which Mathurin appreciated. \u201cIt meant the world. Indy is like my first home. I was able to get drafted over here. Just being loved by the fans,\u201d Mathurin said. \u201cI love the fans. I would say that they were the best fans in the world. Now, we have a different group of fans. It\u2019s all love.\u201d Head coach Rick Carlisle called the moment \u201cheartwarming\u201d and said he was happy both players have played well for Los Angeles, per East. \u201cWe just weren\u2019t going to be able to make it work with Benn contractually,\u201d Carlisle said of Mathurin, who will be a restricted free agent in a few months (Twitter link<\/a> via East).
\nJarace Walker<\/a> suffered a head injury in the first quarter of Friday\u2019s contest and was later ruled out for the remainder of the one-point loss because he was being evaluating for a concussion (Twitter link<\/a>). Carlisle didn\u2019t have much of an update on the third-year forward afterward, according to East. \u201cI don\u2019t know that he\u2019s going to be in concussion protocol\u2026 we\u2019ll see what\u2019s what on Sunday,\u201d Carlisle said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kam Jones\u2018 contract for next season is only 50% guaranteed. Forbes contributor Tony East considers what the Pacers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":684640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,642,363,113,126,3866,2542,643,4233,6,114],"class_list":["post-684639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indiana-pacers","tag-basketball","tag-ben-sheppard","tag-bennedict-mathurin","tag-indiana","tag-indiana-pacers","tag-indianapacers","tag-isaiah-jackson","tag-jarace-walker","tag-kam-jones","tag-nba","tag-pacers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116308500641431976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=684639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/684640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=684639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=684639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=684639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}