NBA Players Who Need More Minutes Starting Now
Don't be fooled into thinking the passage of the NBA trade deadline means teams have their rosters set and rotations settled. For many squads, these next two months will be full of experimentation.
Postseason contenders may need to nudge some of their rising talents out of the nest to see if they'll be ready to fly when the games really count. Rebuilders will turn over larger roles to players they hope can become cornerstones. The clubs in between will undertake fact-finding missions to determine which, if any, lightly used pieces need to be more heavily featured heading into next year.
Here, we'll highlight several NBA players who deserve more playing time between now and the end of the 2023-24 season. Some need to justify their draft status, while others could be playing for a starting gig next year. Either way, these guys need more minutes.
Jalen Smith, Indiana Pacers
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Back spasms are the main reason Indiana Pacers big man Jalen Smith has been missing from his team's rotation lately, but Smith was deserving of more playing time before health issues cropped up.
The 23-year-old provides elite shooting from a frontcourt spot, hitting a ridiculous 48.4 percent of his threes in 18.1 minutes per game this season. Throw in the 52.0 percent shooting Smith holds opponents to inside six feet (better than what Myles Turner, Pascal Siakam or any other Pacers big has managed), and you've got the "rim protection and spacing" archetype so many modern teams covet in their bigs.
Siakam's arrival cuts into Smith's opportunities at the 4 alongside Turner, but Indiana also excised Bruce Brown Jr. from the roster in that deal and sent out Buddy Hield at the deadline, opening up the sniper's 26.0 minutes per game to redistribute between a number of wings and forwards. Aaron Nesmith and Bennedict Mathurin should benefit, but consider this a suggestion to apportion some of that tick to Smith, who functions well next to both Turner and Siakam.
Indy outscores opponents by 6.6 points per 100 possessions with Turner and Smith on the floor together, while Smith and Siakam's shared playing time has been even better, producing a plus-10.9 net rating in 187 possessions.
Zoom out, and you see Smith with a plus-2.5 Estimated Plus/Minus on the year, a figure bettered only by Tyrese Haliburton and Siakam among Pacers players. Across the league, just two big men—Kevin Love and Goga Bitadze—top that among bigs logging under 20.0 minutes per game.
Siakam's arrival, Turner's indispensability and even the solid play of deep reserve Isaiah Jackson make it tricky to carve out time for Smith in Indiana's frontcourt rotation. But a player this effective on both ends deserves more time to see if his small-sample impact holds up in a larger role.
Day'Ron Sharpe, Brooklyn Nets
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Finally back after going down with a hyperextended left knee on Jan. 9, Brooklyn Nets center Day'Ron Sharpe may need some time to ramp up to full strength. Whenever the 22-year-old gets his wind back, the Nets need to see how far they can push Sharpe past his season average of 16.0 minutes per game.
Though he offers no spacing and is a 61.4 percent career free-throw shooter, Sharpe is a hellacious rebounder whose work on the offensive glass has been among the league's best from the moment he debuted in 2021-22. His current average of 6.3 offensive rebounds per 36 minutes is third in the league among players who've logged at least 30 games.
Are the tantalizing flashes of deft footwork and the occasional eye-opening interior passing signs Sharpe has more offensive value than he's shown so far? Nothing's certain, but the Nets, currently outside the East's top 10, should make it a point to find out because they don't have anything to lose.
Speaking of things to lose, there's a decent chance the Nets will watch starting center Nic Claxton walk away in free agency this summer. Claxton finished ninth in Defensive Player of the Year voting last season (and probably should have placed two or three spots higher than that), and he's objectively a better two-way force than Sharpe. But with extension talks failing to produce a new deal this past offseason, it seems the Nets aren't convinced he's a keeper at any cost.
Considering Brooklyn is outscoring opponents by 9.1 points per 100 possessions with Sharpe on the floor (Claxton, going against starters, is at minus-9.5), maybe it's time to explore what life could look like in a post-Claxton Nets world.
Strange as it sounds, Sharpe might actually be the more important Nets center from a future-focused perspective. He'll be back on a cheap $3.9 million team option next season and would be in line to start full-time if Claxton is gone.
If Claxton isn't long for Brooklyn, why not use the rest of this season to preview that scenario?
Taylor Hendricks, Utah Jazz
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Picked ninth in the 2023 draft but currently sitting 34th in total minutes among first-year players this season, Utah Jazz rookie Taylor Hendricks hasn't really gotten the chance to show what he can do.
Thankfully, that's about to change.
After the Jazz traded away Kelly Olynyk, Simone Fontecchio and Ochai Agbaji at the deadline, more rotation minutes should be available for Hendricks. If he uses them to showcase the skills he displayed during his extended G League stint, Utah will be better for it. Hendricks, theoretically a floor-spacing forward who can defend multiple positions, averaged 14.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks while hitting 2.2 threes per game in the G League.
If head coach Will Hardy's recent comments were any indication, Hendricks will get a shot to prove those numbers translate to the NBA level.
"Taylor's going to be a part of our rotation," Hardy told reporters. "He's going to be playing every night. How much he plays every night will be determined by how well he plays. But, his responsibilities now are far different. He's being counted on every night."
Utah is very much in the Play-In hunt. If reaching the postseason is a priority, it still has three frontcourt players who should be ahead of Hendricks in the rotation: Lauri Markkanen, Walker Kessler and John Collins. But with Olynyk and Fontecchio out of the way, Hendricks will have more opportunity to prove himself than at any point this season. Considering how valuable a defensively versatile floor-spacer (who might even have some untapped skill as a creator) would be alongside Markkanen or Kessler, it'd behoove the Jazz to give Hendricks extended run.
Peyton Watson, Denver Nuggets
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Coming into a title-defense season without Bruce Brown Jr. and Jeff Green, everyone knew the Denver Nuggets' chances at repeating hinged on young players proving they could handle larger roles.
Christian Braun and Peyton Watson figured to be in for additional minutes, and both are averaging more court time in their second seasons than they did as rookies. And while Braun was the one who actually saw the floor occasionally during last season's championship run, Watson is the guy Denver should be pushing into more playing time now.
Watson is a top-flight stopper with a plus-2.2 Defensive EPM that ranks in the 94th percentile, a block rate in the 97th percentile among forwards and a springy 6'8" frame. His athleticism and high-revving motor generate jaw-dropping sequences of defensive disruption, exactly the kind of jolt the Nuggets may need in tight postseason games when Aaron Gordon or Michael Porter Jr. doesn't have it going.
Braun is a hard-nosed defender in his own right, but Watson's mobility and length allow him to cause trouble across a larger defensive area. In addition, the UCLA product is showing increased offensive confidence and leaning into a self-assured, physical style that nets him more trips to the foul line.
The Nuggets clearly trust Watson's defense when he's in the game. His most frequent defensive assignments this season, in descending order of total possessions: DeMar DeRozan, Scoot Henderson, Kevin Durant, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Kawhi Leonard and De'Aaron Fox. Now, in anticipation of what could be a key playoff role, Denver needs to turn to Watson for more than the paltry 18.3 minutes he's averaging.
Any less, and Denver may find itself in a tough postseason spot without knowing whether it can count on the second-year forward.
The Detroit Pistons' Lottery Trio
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Jaden Ivey, Cade Cunningham and Ausar Thompson have shared the floor for 273 minutes across 30 games this season. A dozen other three-man groupings on the Pistons have seen more time, though veteran departures via trade mean opportunities should increase. The trio is averaging 13.8 minutes per game together when everyone is healthy since Jan. 27, an uptick of about four minutes per contest on their full-season average.
Let's go ahead and make sure they never see less than 20.0 minutes together in any game for the rest of the season.
It's not just that the Pistons need every second of information they can get about the fit of these three; it's that a lot of the evidence to this point suggests lineups including all of them don't work.
Cunningham is best with the ball in his hands, as is Ivey. And Thompson's wretched three-point shooting means he, more than either of the other two, almost has to be on the rock to have any offensive value outside of second-chance points on the glass and the occasional transition breakout.
We're dealing with a subtle but critical distinction here. Some teams need to see their best young players prove they can work together. The urgency is greater in this situation because the Pistons' top three youngsters essentially need to disprove the well-founded notion that they can't function cohesively. The results of this stretch-run experiment should go a long way toward the team's broader roster-building plans, and it's not out of the question that the Pistons could end this season looking to move one of Cunningham, Ivey or Thompson if they look particularly bad together over a larger sample.
Overall, the Pistons' most important young players have been outscored by 11.4 points per 100 possessions when sharing the floor, undone by ghastly offense and awful spacing.
Detroit needs to find out if that's going to be the norm going forward. If it is, change could be coming.
Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Accurate entering games Tuesday, Feb. 13. Salary info via Spotrac.
Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter (@gt_hughes), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.
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