Mathurin only 13 minutes vs. Miami: bigger issue?

[Pacers Forever]

In my opinion Rick and the coaches should be teaching and coaching up Mathurin, Nembhard, and Jackson more intensely. I’m all for reining them in and making them aware of the repeated mistakes they’re making.

Mathurin drives into congestion situations causing him to turn it over or put up a bad shot. Defense needs work.

Nembhard makes too many poor passes, leaves his feet without a plan, and dribbles into bad shots.

I Jax commits silly fouls and gets out of position on defense too often.

For these things that need improvement all 3 have unique really good traits that make them special and I am glad they’re Pacers. Bright futures for each.

Just have to keep coaching them up to break their bad habits.

[Wizop]

It's not like college where you might have many days to practice between games. The coaches understand the mission. In the meantime it looks like another late season tank.

[Wizop]

If you subscribe to theAthletic, there's a story on Mathurin in Mexico.

[8305]

At this point I’m not sure Ben is 1st team all rookie. You can make an argument the five best are Banchero, Kessler, Williams, Ivey and Murray. I know it doesn’t matter that much. The last 25 games Ben’s shooting has been bad. His defense has been bad all year. To be Tyrese’s #2 Ben needs to be a two way player and he needs to shoot well enough to space the floor. None of that is play right now and until that changes Nembhard is simply better than him. Not saying Ben doesn’t have promise but, there is work to be done and I’m not encouraged that he will ever be a plus defender.

[Grang33r]

If you subscribe to theAthletic, there's a story on Mathurin in Mexico.

read it this morning. Was just coming here to post. Very interesting read, i love hearing about the journey for some players. Not all are the same.

[xBulletproof]

Mostly on Twitter, I've seen Rick dragged for being an idiot for not starting Mathurin. However in starts, Mathurin has averaged 13 PPG, in games with Haliburton also starting, he's averaging 4 PPG, on 5 shots per game.

It's almost like coming off the bench is better for him, like I've kept telling people. Especially with Hali playing. He just won't get the ball. He learns and gets more opportunities from the bench. Some real goofballs on Twitter ranted that if we started Mathurin it would fix the slow starts and Mathurin would magically average 20 PPG because he would get 36 minutes per game.

[8305]

Seems like Hali and Ben should work well together but it doesn’t look like it’s happened yet. I like him in the starting lineup with Hali for the rest of the year. The sooner they figure out the chemistry the better.

[Wizop]

Nembhard is a much better defender at this point.

[Tom White]

Seems like Hali and Ben should work well together but it doesn’t look like it’s happened yet. I like him in the starting lineup with Hali for the rest of the year. The sooner they figure out the chemistry the better.

One big difference I see between them is Hali likes to pass the ball, and Benn doesn't. Maybe that sort of rubs Hali the wrong way? I don't see any actual dislike between them, or anything like that.

[Pacers Forever]

All season I have been a proponent of Ben coming off the bench because on second unit he got to more so be the man against opponents non starters.

This helped him offensively to learn what moves he can do and not get away with instead of getting shut down by opponents starters.

Defensively you would have thought it also would have helped him adapt but right now he feels like a one trick pony. A scorer. Mathurin seemed to grow first part of the season and Nembhard has been more steady season long.

Nembhard will defer to teammates almost to a fault and plays defense. Ben hasn’t shown yet that he is willing or capable of playing defense. That may hold him back as we add in more talent this summer. Just ask Duarte about our talent logjam.

Will be interesting who gets minutes next season with still too many duplicate skill players unless they swing some deals. Then add the 2-4 rookies and with our already younger players needing minutes it will be hard to develop the rookies this next season.

Kind of a good problem to have with better talent than years prior but Pacers need to develop stars faster to put with Tyrese and Myles.

[Wizop]

Cooper's mailbag post is a good read on lineup issues

[Pacers Forever]

Read on Twitter

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Mathurin done is a dagger in high playoff hopes. Yes they can still get in without him, but it won’t be a deep run.

[Pacers Forever]

Read on Twitter

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[Pacers Forever]

Sheppard will need to step in and score consistently. Not sure if there’s anyone else who can give productive minutes currently not in rotation.

[Pacers Forever]

Read on Twitter

?s=46&t=9ViPZrC6T8ng6kcZke0I5g

[Wizop]

Sheppard will need to step in and score consistently. Not sure if there’s anyone else who can give productive minutes currently not in rotation.

Walker and even Brown will have an opportunity.

[boomershadow]

Absolute bummer.

[Tom White]

This sort of thing never ends for the Pacers. Seems like New Year - Same Story.

[Pacers Forever]

Sheppard will need to step in and score consistently. Not sure if there’s anyone else who can give productive minutes currently not in rotation.

Walker and even Brown will have an opportunity.

Yep I forgot to mention Walker. IF(BIG IF) Carlisle will continue to play him this could result in a huge breakout stretch that Walker has needed and probably wanted.

Could be his motivation and path to never return to the G league. At the least it is valuable NBA minutes towards his growth towards next season sticking with the big club.

Of course I hate to mention this but the Pacer fans from Facebook want Lance Stephenson brought back.

[Scoot McGroot]

Of course I hate to mention this but the Pacer fans from Facebook want Lance Stephenson brought back.

I'm sure they do! But, there's no roster spot for him (would have to waive a Kendall Brown or James Johnson), and this is exactly why you've cross trained Nembhard at the 2, and you've developed Sheppard/Brown. It's also a good spot for Walker/Toppin to possibly get some offensive focus from off the bench. But also, this is the time of year that rotations will start to tighten a bit, and as much as we wouldn't have wanted Mathurin to lose any minutes, we now have to deal without him.