What's the deal with T.J. Leaf?
The NBA trade deadline approaches at 4 p.m. this afternoon, and with that came the usual flurry of trades and rumors as teams look to bolster their rosters for a playoff push or sell off enticing pieces for future assets.
For the most part, their hasn't been much talk about the Pacers in the rumor mill this week, but the one whisper that did leak was that Indiana was looking to move on from 2017 first-round pick T.J. Leaf. In his third season with the Pacers, Leaf has once again failed to crack the rotation despite an apparent lack of depth in the frontcourt in Indiana.
Leaf has appeared in only 22 games this season, while averaging only eight minutes a night when he has played. When Leaf has seen the court, he has struggled, averaging just 3.0 points a night and shooting a career-low 42.4% from the field. Leaf has also struggled to develop into the floor stretcher that the Pacers envisioned when they drafted him with the 18th pick, as he has only shot 35.7% from beyond the arc as a pro.
Over the past two months, JaKarr Sampson has jumped Leaf in the rotation and it looks like that will remain the case unless the third-year big man drastically improves at some point this season. So now, as Indiana looks to move Leaf before the deadline this afternoon, Pacers fans are left wondering where it all went wrong?
For many, the answer is simple: selecting Leaf in the first place. As he has struggled to develop, it has been hard for Pacers fans to not look at other players taken in the 2017 draft and wonder what could have been if they ended up in Indiana instead. Notable players selected after Leaf that season include John Collins, Jarrett Allen, OG Anunoby, Kyle Kuzma, Josh Hart, and Thomas Bryant. All of these players have proven their value by earning their place in NBA rotations.
Missing out on former Indiana Hoosiers Anunoby and Bryant carries extra pain for Indiana basketball fans like myself. Having watched both players develop at IU, I knew that both had the talent to become serviceable role players in the NBA at the least. Anunoby has blossomed into a starter for the defending champion Toronto Raptors, while the Wizards' Bryant has become the exact kind of big man the Pacers wish they had coming off the bench.
As the deadline gets closer, the Pacers may end up trading Leaf or they may not. If he stays, the 22-year-old power forward still has another year on his contract to develop into the player Indiana always hoped he would be. However, if he were traded, any deal made would not net a return worthy of a former first-round pick, leaving Pacers fans still wondering about what could have been.