Plenty of players have come through the halls of the Crypto.com Arena in the LeBron James era, and not all of them have been guys that etched themselves into the hearts of Laker Nation. Perhaps [one less-remembered player in Los Angeles was Jay Huff](https://lakeshowlife.com/2023/07/11/lakers-free-agency-need-center-jay-huff/), and he's about to have a big opportunity on his hands as he prepares to suit up for the Indiana Pacers this coming season.
Having seen him play way back in high school at Voyager Academy in Durham, North Carolina, I was pretty certain Jay was going to have a career playing professionally at one point or another. The fact he made it all the way to the NBA and is doing as well as he is says a lot about his work ethic and how well he's used all the resources afforded to him.
Now, if you're a Lakers fan, you probably don't have a ton of memories of Huff in the purple and gold. That's because [he only played four games for the NBA club](https://lakeshowlife.com/2023/04/06/lakers-roster-mistake-jay-huff-award-wizards/) back in the 2021-22 season. He didn't score any buckets, and he only averaged five minutes per contest.
Jay played a lot more with the South Bay Lakers in the G League that season, and he ended up competing with the Lakers' Summer League squad in 2022 as well. In July of that year, he signed an Exhibit-10 deal with LA, but was waived waived three months later on October 15.
Jay Huff can earn his way into a big role with the Pacers
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Since leaving Los Angeles, Huff has bounced around from the Washington Wizards to the Denver Nuggets and then the Memphis Grizzlies this past season. Now, after getting traded to the Indiana Pacers a couple of months ago, Jay is going to have a massive opportunity on his hands.
It was July 6 of this year when Huff was traded to Indiana for a 2029 second-round pick and a 2031 second-round pick swap. The very next day was when Myles Turner opted to leave the Pacers and sign a multi-year deal with the Milwaukee Bucks that surprised seemingly everyone.
All of a sudden, Jay finds himself a lot higher on Indiana's depth chart than he was thinking he would be when he first got the news he'd be going there. Now, the Pacers' options at center look like Huff, Tony Bradley and James Wiseman.
With all due respect to the latter two, Jay Huff isn't going to have impossibly hard competition to beat out as he's vying for minutes in the upcoming season. He already played a significant amount more in Memphis last season compared to previous years, and perhaps this is where his NBA career can start to really reach the next level.