Braden Smith worked out for the Indiana Pacers on June 15, a step that keeps the Purdue guard in play as the team tries to trade into Round 2 of the 2026 NBA Draft. The workout gave the Pacers a closer look at a player they know well, and it came with the possibility that they could try to bring him home.
Smith is not just another draft name on a board. He won Indiana Mr. Basketball in 2022, became an All-American at Purdue and finished as the NCAA's career leader for assists, which is why his name carries weight in Indianapolis now. He said being 30 minutes from home and being around so many people he knows there makes it feel like a family, a rare kind of fit for a draft prospect in a city that already knows his game.
The connection runs deeper than geography. When Smith was a junior at Westfield, Chad Buchanan told him he would play in the NBA. Around the same time, Buchanan also called Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd and suggested that he recruit Smith from Westfield, before Matt Painter became the first high-major coach to recruit him and Smith went to Purdue. For the Pacers, that history turns a routine predraft workout into something more personal.
That pull is balanced by a real concern. Smith is viewed as an undersized point guard at the NBA level, and he is listed at not quite 6-0 and not quite 170 pounds. Those measurements do not erase what he has done, but they do shape the draft math: teams have to decide whether his touch, vision and production outweigh the question of how his frame will hold up against bigger guards over a long season.
Smith's local ties make the possibility of him landing with the Pacers feel natural, but the team still has to do the harder part and find a way into Round 2 before anyone can call it a hometown move. The next checkpoint is the 2026 NBA Draft, and until then the question is not whether Smith belongs on an NBA floor. It is whether the Pacers can get the pick they need to make the fit real.
