Chris Duarte Is Labouring Through A Profound Sophomore Slump

Back in October 2021, in his first month in the NBA, Chris Duarte of the Indiana Pacers averaged 17.7 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. But sadly, he has not gotten near that since.

He was the rare older guy among a plethora of underclassman. Drafted 13th overall in the 2021 Draft, Duarte was the only senior selected in the lottery, and, along with Corey Kispert, was one of the only two drafted in the entire first round. He needed to land with a bang, to make up for the age disadvantage he had against the field. And he did.

Duarte arrived from day one with a ton of shooting confidence, a maturity in his game, and a scoring bag. His pull-up game was immediately ready, and he had the craft with his hesitations, side dribbles and the like to create slithers of space for scoring opportunities from all three levels. He also seemingly had the green light to do so, on a Pacers team without much else to play for.

Duarte’s rookie season was truncated by minor injuries, ones he may have been more encouraged to power through had the team had something to play for. As a result, he appeared in only five Pacers contests after the All-Star break, and although he scored in double figures in three of them, he never supplanted 13.5 points per game in any other month that season.

Even that mark now, though, seems so very far away.

This season, Indiana are much improved. They won only 25 games all of last season, yet are already up to 19 in this one, and currently rank as the provisional sixth seed. The key to that improvement has been the addition and ascent to stardom of Tyrese Haliburton, and yet while this obviously benefits the team as a whole, it does mean less of the freedom for Duarte to do more o

As a result of this, and of yet more injuries/illness, Duarte so far this season has averaged only 7.4 points and 2.1 rebounds in 18.2 minutes per game. He has 111 points on 111 shots, is shooting 31.6% from three, 40.7% from two, and seems to have lost the tempo and control in his game.

The adjustment alongside Haliburton must have factored. Because of his presence, plus that of fellow trade acquisition Buddy Hield (who has got his shot and his swagger back in Indiana) and upstart rookie Andrew Nembhard (this year’s draft upperclassman who has already started 22 games), Duarte has spent much of the little time he has managed at the small forward spot. His size is good for the guard rotation, but as a forward, he is often at a disadvantage, which makes many shots a little bit harder and many opposing defensive match-ups more troublesome.

On top of that, Duarte’s injuries that have seen him in and out of the line-up will have affected his rhythm, his agility, and thus the lift/herky-jerkiness that gave him the scoring bag in the first place. The rotation has also settled without him, with the aforementioned guard trio being flanked by another rookie in Benedict Mathurin (averaging 17.3 points per game as a sixth man, doing Duarte-like things, but for longer), as well as decent defensive contributions from Oshae Brissett and a resurgent Aaron Nesmith.

Put simply, Duarte – already nearly 26 years old – is essentially out of Indiana’s rotation, when this time last year he was one of the highlights within it.

For Duarte to get back into his individual groove, he will either need to blend in better, or have more designed for him. When the Pacers were all at sea last year, Duarte, as an older rookie, received minutes in the constant absences of Caris LeVert and others. As a result, he received plenty of minutes, shots and responsibility. As a volume scorer, this suits him well.

At his best, of course, Duarte is not just a volume scorer. He can drive the ball a little, make passes on the move, and is a solid and committed decent defender. The offensive readiness, though, was supposed to be the point.

The risk for any team for going for older players in the draft – and especially the lottery – is that they have to be ready to go, just as Nembhard has been. For a short while, this was Duarte. But because of the lower upside, the older draftees also have to be ready to adapt. Duarte, not helped by multiple injuries, has not done that yet. And if he does not start to do so rather soon, he might struggle to ever get back into the rotation this season.