He was more experienced in a lot of areas. “That’s one of the things we liked about him as a 24-year-old Draft prospect. … Those are great qualities for a rookie. “For the most part, he doesn’t get sped up by the NBA game. “He plays with a lot of maturity, plays with a lot of poise,” Carlisle said this week after Duarte scored 18 points with five rebounds against defending-champion Milwaukee. Warren upsetting the Pacers’ rotation before the 2021-22 season even began - that he has started the rookie through the first five games. Then there’s coach Rick Carlisle, who so appreciates Duarte’s work at both ends of the floor that - with injuries to Caris LeVert and T.J.
General manager Chad Buchanan has talked of the late-lottery pick’s versatility and court awareness. Kevin Pritchard, Indiana’s team president, valued Duarte’s competitiveness as well as his ability to create and make shots off the dribble. They liked and wanted what they had seen during the 6-foot-6 wing’s senior year at Oregon and in his workouts afterward.ĭuarte’s ‘poise’ takes page out of Brogdon’s book The Pacers opted for now, selecting Duarte with the No. You don’t know what you’re going to get in the future. But you don’t know if he’s going to be a superstar - you don’t know, who knows? Then you can develop him and make him a superstar in three, four or five years. If you want to win in four years, go ahead and draft a 19-year-old kid. “I got mad and said, ‘Hey man, I don’t want to hear nothing about my age anymore. You’re old, Chris.’Ĭhris Duarte set a Pacers record with 27 points in his NBA debut vs. “I was like, OK guys, everybody keeps talking about this age thing. “I got mad one time,” Duarte said Thursday from his hotel room in New York, where the Indiana Pacers were awaiting their game Friday against the Nets in Brooklyn ( 7:30 ET, NBA League Pass). Until one day at a pre-Draft camp, when that same old refrain from scouts and coaches finally got the better of him. Duarte was angling to become a 24-year-old NBA rookie, in a league where so many GMs and executives like to snag the 19 and 20 year olds.Ī congenial and, as his age might suggest, mature fellow, Duarte shrugged it off again and again. There was an inherent tension between those dates, one that loomed over so many of Duarte’s scouting reports and individual workouts. The most recent NBA Draft, the one in which Duarte was on a bunch of teams’ boards, was held on July 29, 2021. So far this season, Chris Duarte is averaging 18.6 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 1.8 apg for Indiana.
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