Bennedict Mathurin swings wildly

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By: Samson Folk I @samfolkk

Every time I tune into a Pacers game – which is, admittedly less often than Caitlin, but still quite often – I am subjected to a different version of Bennedict Mathurin. I’ve seen him repeatedly help the Pacers steal victory from the jaws of defeat. I’ve seen him inbound the ball off of Trendon Watford’s back, collect it, move it on, and set a ghost screen before hitting a step-back, pull-up triple. I’ve seen him sky for 16 boards in one game, a very important game (!), despite being listed at 6 '6". I’ve seen him imitate Steph Curry over 41 minutes of high-octane basketball to keep the Knicks at bay. He can do things that a lot of other players can’t. He is fueled by his own audacity.

I’ve been a huge fan of Mathurin for some time. It’s not because he and I are both Canadian, it’s actually because he’s had my respect and intrigue ever since he dropped my favorite quote from any rookie ever: “A lot of people say he’s (LeBron James) great. I want to see how great he is. I don’t think anyone is better than me. He’s going to have to show me he’s better than me.” 

Is now a good time to mention I haven’t witnessed, ever, a game in which Mathurin has more than four assists? I know it’s happened, I’ve just never seen it. Every once in a while people discuss how confidence factors into the psyche of an NBA player and the common thought is that it’s very difficult to operate on an NBA court without a supreme level of confidence. The next part of the discussion then becomes about how you organize or create hierarchy amongst a whole whack of supremely confident players, right? Interpersonal soft skills are very important for coaches and front office members to have, as it turns out. 

Most players, if you include their passes out of isolation, pick n’ rolls etc., you’ll see their points per possession improve. Your teammates support you, hit shots for you, right? Pascal Siakam is one of the most-doubled isolationists in all of the NBA (he’s 3rd as of writing this), and it behooves him to make the read. When it comes to Mathurin’s isolations and pick n’ roll possessions, when you start to include the passes, his efficiency dips. When you see Mathurin at his best, it's easy to understand why he requires a more dire situation thrust upon him to elicit a pass. When you can make, virtually, any shot on the floor, possible passes represent a smaller percentage of your potential plays. 

However, the old adage of “pass when your teammates are open, not when you're out of options” is a worthwhile one for a reason. Many of the most talented shooting guards/small wings start out their careers testing the waters of just how many shots they can make and take, but they do eventually start bending the floor with an eye towards wholesale, teamwide creation rather than just scoring.

Mathurin’s presence, skillset, and audacity create a very interesting question of fit with the Pacers. The best version of this Pacers team obviously includes a lot of Mathurin, because he’s one of the most talented players on the team. However, his team is at their best when they share the ball, and he is at his best when he keeps it. 

It's like Caitlin said, as she highlighted how the Pacers can build out big chunks of offense around their talented guard: “That's the dichotomy with Mathurin. He's generally more dynamic and decisive when he can choose his own adventure, with the benefit of a map and compass guiding his path, than when he has to play off-the-grid, making reads at random.”

I was trying to figure out the best way to quickly sort out what the reason was for all of this, and I settled on watching all of Mathurin’s assists. The big thing that keeps rearing its head is Mathurin’s lack of ability to make live dribble reads (Caitlin wrote about this headed into his sophomore season, as far as his propensity for driving left out of triple threat but rarely making passes with his left hand). Not only are there a healthy amount of assists where no advantage is given (shovel pass to T.J. McConnell, freelancing ensues, six dribbles later an assist is recorded, etc., and to be fair, Mathurin does this for teammates as well), but the vast majority of them come after he’s picked up his dribble and is trying to scan the floor now that he’s stapled to one spot. For a player like Mathurin who can do so, so much - this is a real limitation. 

Of course, he can still succeed with this limitation because of his on-ball gravity. He’s capable of bringing defensive lines higher, two guys to the ball, and that makes entry passes to the likes of Pascal Siakam and Myles Turner fairly easy, but it’s not as easy to hand him a healthy chunk of the offense and expect him to work through a whole mess of reads. It’s this stuff that makes his game-to-game outcomes seem so far apart from one another -- a lot of the offensive side hinges on a very high level of shot-making. 

From the outside perspective you just wonder how the Pacers make this work in the most optimal way. I’m going to give a very simple answer to a very complicated question, and one that I know rages on between fans of the Pacers. 

Mathurin absolutely deserves the ball to try things, and to attempt to calcify the upper end of his very high ceiling. However, that won’t come easiest for himself or the team, as a part of the starting lineup. The perfect place for Mathurin – in my mind, as a Mathurin supporter and a person wishing goodwill upon the Pacers – is coming off the bench where more usage is afforded to him, and where his coach can identify on a game-by-game basis, whether he should usurp someone for a closing spot. 

This, of course, doesn’t account for all the politicking. However, if the Pacers can walk this line, and if you, the reader, trust Rick Carlisle (recent late-game quibbles against the Lakers aside) to push the buttons when they need to be pushed - then I think the Pacers can still maximize this version of the team while floating Mathurin’s potential big time player outcomes as well. 

Because, Mathurin doesn’t just swing wildly game-to-game, but he has the potential to swing the Pacers' fortunes in the future. 

Have a blessed day. 

More from Samson:

Pascal Siakam changed his step without losing one

Finding meaning in the death of a winning streak

Andrew Nembhard fixed the Pacers