The Indiana Pacers NBA Summer League roster had a lot of intriguing players. From the No. 8 pick in the draft, Jarace Walker, to second-year sensations like Andrew Nembhard and Bennedict Mathurin. There were also plenty of fringe prospects who likely won’t play in the NBA next season. However, Pacers rookie Oscar Tshiebwe is an undrafted player who actually could make the team for the 2023-24 season.

Why the 2023-34 Pacers roster could include Oscar Tshiebwe

Kentucky senior Oscar Tshiebwe was one of the most fascinating draft-eligible players in the 2023 NBA Draft.

Tshiebwe grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and moved to America for high school. He played for two years at West Virginia before transferring to Kentucky and became one of the pioneers in NIL deals. That’s despite the fact that he had to fulfill his deals on a team preseason trip to the Bahamas because he was on a student visa and not an American citizen.

On the court, Tshiebwe was simply one of the best rebounders in college history. His 12.31 rebounds per game put him eighth in college basketball history, just slightly behind the all-time leader, Shaquille O’Neal, and names like Paul Milsap and David Robinson.

He was a two-time All-American at Kentucky, and after the 2021-22 season (where he led the nation with 15.1 rebounds per game to go along with his 17.4 points, 1.8 steals, and 1.6 blocks) he won the AP Player of the Year, Wooden, and Naismith Awards.

When it came time to enter the draft, though, despite all the success in college, there was one thing Tshiebwe couldn’t escape. He is a 6-foot-7 center in a league that is looking for guards at that height these days. The Congolese big man also didn’t shoot threes in college, isn’t a great passer, and is a hard-working defender and natural shot-blocker but not overly athletic to stay in front of the best NBA athletes.

For those reasons, Tshiebwe fell out of the two-round 2023 NBA Draft.

Still, while it isn’t valued like it once was, rebounding is still an incredibly important piece of basketball, and man, can Tshiebwe rebound. He has a Dennis Rodman-esque nose for the ball, and it’s hard not to think that there is a place in the league for someone who is elite at that skill.

The Pacers NBA Summer League roster was loaded with young players who will start or be key rotation players next season. For at least two games and, in some cases four, Jarace Walker, Andrew Nembhard, Bennedict Mathurin, Ben Sheppard, and Isaiah Jackson dominated the minutes on the floor.

In the end, Tshiebwe played a sparing 13.1 minutes per game (the 12th-most on the team). However, he was still fourth on the team with 6.8 rebounds per game and second in offensive rebounds per game with 2.4. Those numbers put him in the top 50 of Summer League for both those categories, and no one above him did it averaging fewer minutes.

Additionally, Tshiebwe put up 6.4 points per game and shot 68.4% from the field. The rest of the numbers don’t leap off the page, but in his first action against NBA-level competition, Tshiebwe proved he can pull down boards against anyone in the world.

Now the question becomes was that enough to force the Pacers roster to include Oscar Tshiebwe next season?

The Pacers frontcourt is crowded heading into the dog days of the 2023 offseason. The franchise has Myles Turner, Jarace Walker, Obi Toppin, Daniel Theis, Isaiah Jackson, and Jalen Smith at the 4 and 5 spots.

These players all bring different things to the table, but Walker, Toppin, and Theis are all undersized for their positions, like Tshiebwe. His best chance is that none of them rebound like him. Turner led the team in rebounds with 7.5 per game, and the team finished 24th in the league in that category and 28th in rebounds allowed.

For Tshiebwe to make the Pacers' opening day roster after NBA Summer League, he’s going to have to add something else to his game this offseason. Reports say that he is working on corner threes, and that could be huge for him, although it would pull him away from the basket a bit.

The former Kentucky star is currently on a two-way contract with the Pacers for next season, so he will be with the organization one way or the other. It was a shrewd move Indiana made by signing him, and now it is up to his hard work and the team’s coaching staff to get the rest of his game up to NBA snuff so that they can get his generational rebounding talent on the court.