Shayne Whittington insists the calm demeanor, confident persona and flawless shooting touch were mere facades. He really was nervous about making his NBA debut, even if it was just the opening pre-season game.

“I was a mess before the game,” he said.

A mess? Hitting all five field goal attempts and your only foul shot was the result of nerves?

“My first NBA-type game,” he said. “Really nervous, but the guys really helped me out.”

Whittington, an undrafted free agent with a contract that is guaranteed only to January, looked like a veteran in his 20-minute debut, and sounded like one afterward. He wasn't surprised by his performance – “I'm just doing what they ask me to do,” he said – but he was suitably humble, too.

Starting the second half, he got his first look less than 90 seconds into it on a transition feed from George Hill. He promptly swished a 22-footer from the left corner.

“That first shot was like 'Oooohhhh,'” he said. “It was a little farther than I wanted it to be. I had to put a little extra on it.”

You can read more on Whittington's background here, but the short story is that he broke his left fibula on May 8 during a pre-draft workout. Figured early on as a mid-second round pick, he went undrafted, as players with broken legs tend to do. He was expected to be out for about six months, but here he is, ahead of schedule.

“I shouldn't be playing, technically,” he said.

He estimates that he's about 30 percent short of complete strength in his leg. He's come a long way since joining the off-season workouts following the July 4 holiday, but is “still nowhere close to where I was.”

He was reminded of that on a fastbreak layup with 2:48 left, when he took a pass from Chris Singleton and had no choice but to lay the ball in.

“My explosion still isn't there,” he said. “I wanted to dunk that, but I just physically couldn't.”

Whittington, though, had enough strength to show off a variety of ways to score. He hit that open jumper from just inside the three-point line on his first attempt, then a five-footer toward the end of the third period. He added a 12-foot jump hook, a 20-foot jumper after curling off a screen on what appeared to be a called play coming out of a timeout and then that non-dunked layup.

“He's a good young player,” the good old player David West said. “He's heady. He knows who he is.”

Which is to say versatile. His jump shots gave the impression of a 6-11 power forward who qualifies as a “stretch four,” but his postup moves proved there's more to him than that.

“Shayne is really impressive sometimes in practice,” said fellow newcomer Damjan Rudez, who also hit his first shot, a three-pointer. “He's really versatile. He can post up and he has a great shot, so he can be used in a lot of ways.”

Coach Frank Vogel sees intangibles, too.

“He's got a great feel for the game,” Vogel said. “He's a tough kid. He picks things up pretty well. He's going to play like a rookie, but we're very high on what he can be. He brings an element of toughness to the big position that falls in line with how we play.”

Whittington's reality is that he's trying to find a spot on a roster with 14 other guaranteed contracts. There's room for one more, but the Pacers are under no obligation to keep a 15th player. One exhibition game in, though, he looks like a keeper.

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