INDIANAPOLIS – Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton was at the Iowa State-Purdue basketball game this past season. He was there to cheer on his alma mater, the Cyclones, but he paid close attention to the point guard for the other team. You know, the Boilermakers.
You know, Braden Smith.
Haliburton’s newest teammate, as it turns out.
News: Indiana Pacers trade for Braden Smith in 2026 NBA Draft
The Indiana Pacers followed through on their internal pledge to get Smith in the 2026 NBA Draft, sending Kam Jones and pick swaps to the Chicago Bulls for Smith after the Bulls had selected him in the second round with the No. 38 pick.
The Pacers wanted Smith on Wednesday night for every possible reason, starting with his impeccable basketball pedigree (IndyStar Mr. Basketball at Westfield High, All-American and NCAA career assists leader at Purdue), but also for his local popularity and deep personal connections to the Pacers’ front office. Add all of that up, and Braden Smith was the one who simply couldn’t get away. Not from this team, in this city, with this front office. Not if he’s going to be a solid NBA player.
Put it like this: The Pacers can afford the risk of failure, the modest price of Kam Jones, if Smith doesn’t pan out. What the Pacers cannot afford is for Smith to become an NBA rotation player – or more, and would it really surprise you if he becomes more? – in another city.
None of that was on the table the night of Dec. 6, 2025, however, when undefeated Iowa State pulled into Mackey Arena and defeated No. 1 Purdue, 81-58. The Cyclones were rough on Smith, who posted solid numbers in most areas – 11 points, eight assists, five rebounds, four steals, one block – but was hounded into six turnovers, the second-highest total of his 39-game senior season.
Haliburton and Smith didn’t talk that night, but they did later in the season. It happened on one of the nights Braden Smith spent at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, watching his favorite team – the Pacers, duh – as he does a few times every year. On this night Haliburton had put his surgically repaired Achilles tendon through a shooting workout, which Smith watched, and then the two got to talking.
Doyel last week: Size aside, Braden Smith works out for Pacers because he’s an NBA player
Doyel on Tuesday: Braden Smith’s connections to Pacers run deeper than you can imagine
Braden Smith, Tyrese Haliburton have connection
Haliburton told Smith he’d been at the Iowa State game. Then he told him something that stuck with Smith the rest of the season, through the draft process, something that no doubt is in the back of Braden Smith’s mind right now:
In some ways, the NBA will be easier.
Now, hang on. Notice the words “in some ways,” and understand what that means:
In the college game, a team’s star player gets manhandled – and Smith was manhandled all four seasons at Purdue, double-teamed on almost every possession, pounded when he attacked the defensive glass, pounded when he attacked a halfcourt defense, pounded when he got anywhere near the rim.
In the NBA game, sure, a star player gets manhandled. But not a second-unit point guard like Smith will be. Not with the game moving as fast as it moves, with so much spacing. That night at Mackey Arena, Haliburton watched as Smith shared the court with two lane-clogging post players, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff. Combined 3-pointers made last season by Kaufman-Renn and Cluff: 2.
In the NBA, Haliburton was assuring Smith, you won’t be double-teamed. And nobody clogs the lane. Total 3-pointers made last season by Pacers center Jay Huff: 119.
Haliburton was telling Smith these things, then started getting into the nitty-gritty of the game, talking Smith through the art of drawing contact – on your terms, not on the defender’s terms – and imparting other bits of wisdom and encouragement.
This is what I’m telling you, today, after the Pacers drafted Smith to be one Haliburton’s backups, because it’s what Smith’s mother – Ginny Smith – was telling me earlier this week. She was telling me how Tyrese Haliburton, months ago, well before anyone knew the Pacers would be drafting Smith, gave her son so much of his time on a night he was rehabbing his leg.
“He was telling Braden, ‘You do and see things most kids don’t,’” Ginny Smith had told me. “He was sharing so much with him. It was such a nice, authentic conversation.”
It was the start of what will be a beautiful relationship – sorry, another beautiful relationship – for Smith and the Pacers. The connections start with Pacers GM Chad Buchanan, whose son Trey played alongside Braden at Westfield and, before that, played with Braden for the Grand Park Premier AAU team … coached by Dustin Smith.
Yes, Braden’s dad.
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Braden Smith, TJ McConnell also have connection
Through Buchanan and former Pacers scouting director Ryan Carr, whose son Austin was a manager on those Westfield teams, Braden Smith has developed a friendship with Pacers President Kevin Pritchard. Braden also has the makings of a fine relationship with the player he was drafted to replace – someday, not this year – 34-year-old T.J. McConnell, who has two years left on his contract.
Both Smith and McConnell have worked with local skills instructor Joey Burton, who set up shop in a pole barn in Zionsville. It was Burton who told me, years ago, that the secret to the undersized McConnell’s success in the NBA is his quick first step. And it was Burton who told me, a few years later, that Braden Smith has the same kind of first step.
And it was Smith, on June 15, who had a pre-draft workout with the Pacers and then told the assembled media about his admiration for McConnell.
“Huge fan,” Smith said of McConnell. “I watch his game. Been a Pacers guy my entire life almost – been to multiple games every year – just watching T.J. Obviously being similar size, I’ll have to do probably what he has to do in the league even to just make it, so for me, why not watch somebody who’s been successful and has done it at a high level for so long?”
Doyel in 2018: NBA prospects prepare for 2018 NBA Draft in a barn in Zionsville.
Doyel in 2024: There are two versions of Braden Smith. Meet the one you don’t know
To that end, Smith agrees with Haliburton when it comes to the NBA being, in some ways, easier than the college game.
Don’t make me repeat myself – but hang on. Notice the words “in some ways,” and understand what that means here:
At Purdue, Smith did the heaviest lifting in college basketball history. A mouthful? Sure, but so is this: Smith led the country in minutes played twice at Purdue and played 5,067 career minutes, an NCAA record for a four-year player. He averaged 36 minutes per game in 20 Big Ten contests, taking a beating along the way, then did it again in four games in the 2026 Big Ten Tournament and four more in the 2026 NCAA Tournament.
If you’re wondering why Smith’s production dwindled, specifically his shooting percentages, in March … stop wondering. Now you know. He’d been beaten down for four years.
Now, listen to Smith talk about his future role as a second-unit point guard in the NBA. This is what he said June 15, before he knew the Pacers would draft him:
“Obviously it’s going to be a lesser role than I had at Purdue,” Smith said. “I feel like it’ll be easier on me – three-minute spurts, four-minute spurts where you’re playing super hard, and come off and sit for eight minutes, whatever, then you come back and bring energy.”
Easier, harder – whatever it is, the 5-10¼ , 166-pound Smith will be one-of-a-kind in the NBA, same as he was at Purdue, where he set himself apart with all those school and NCAA records. Before playing a game Smith already has set himself apart in the NBA, being one of just five current NBA players measuring less than 6-0 and 180 pounds … and the only one to enter the league as a drafted player.
Skeptics will ask: Can a player of this size succeed in the NBA?
Better question: Is there a level where Braden Smith can’t succeed?
“It continues to be a factor,” Smith said June 15 when grilled about his size, “and I find a way around that.”
Here’s another quote:
“Braden has always been someone who has overcome the odds. He’s a winner and will have a successful NBA career.”
Who said that? Purdue coach Matt Painter.
More: Join the text conversation with sports columnist Gregg Doyel for insights, reader questions and Doyel’s peeks behind the curtain.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Doyel: If Braden Smith makes it in the NBA – and he will – it has to be with the Pacers
Reporting by Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
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By Gregg Doyel, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
