Braden Smith's NBA Draft Party Was A Statement To The League - He's HIM

First and foremost I'd like to address the haters who are clowning Braden Smith for having his draft party at a Buffalo Wild Wings - this is not Bdubs - It's mother fucking Crafters on the north side of Indianapolis. Get it right. 

Now, if I'm connecting the dots correctly, this location was selected not just because it's conveniently located near Smith's hometown of Westfield, Indiana (Not South Korea), but because it's a statement and direct shot at the doubters. Crafters has some extremely slept on pizza and wings that are top notch, who was slept on getting recruited out of high school? Who is currently being slept on as a an NBA prospect for being too small? Well, Braden Smith just said I am like the food at Crafters - perfectly portioned and available at a reasonable price.

My favorite thing about the Pacers drafting Braden Smith is everyone comparing Braden's game to TJ McConnell's because they both just happen to be under sized point guards that are white. It's like when analysts used to see any white wide receiver and say "hmmm I'm getting Wes Welker vibes from this guy" when their game has no similarities what so ever. It's the same as the Boss Baby tweet. 

While I don't think TJ and Smith's games are all that similar, think it is should be a mandatory requirement for any Pacers team to have an undersized white guy on the roster at all times, simply out of respect for the movie Hoosiers (RIP Gene Hackman).

I've seen a lot of people from Pacers twitter getting mad on the timeline saying "this was a waste of a move, it's a cash grab to sell tickets to hometown Boilermaker fans, and this was the front office's big contingency plan?!"

This move doesn't make me too excited, but I don't hate it.  It's the second round, our front office low key kind of stinks at drafting. I'm not getting my hopes up, but when you get a chance to draft the #1 assist leader in college basketball, why not? At the end of the day for this to be considered a success Smith just needs to be better than Kam Jones who the Pacers gave up for this pick. Clearly the front office wasn't too high on Jones struggled to get playing time even during a 19-63 season (injuries were part of that too). 

If this was the Pacers grand scheme of selling tickets, why wouldn't they have drafted TJD in 2023? The Hoosier fanbase much larger than the Boilermakers, so they would have had the opportunity to make much more money off the local college fanbase. I'm just not buying that the Pacers are worried about selling tickets when they have a fully healthy championship caliber team that puts asses in seats by simply playing winning basketball. 

This is 100% not the Pacers big contingency plan to win now, more moves are coming to add depth and scoring off the bench. The front office isn't the best at drafting, but they are could at evaluating talent that's been in the league. Kam Jones wasn't the move, Braden Smith is hopefully someone who can step in and play PG off the bench. Everyone doubted Zach Edey's NBA future because he was too big, so keep doubting Braden Smith for being too small.