8305 wrote:I’ve waffled back and forth on Benn Mathurin. If returned to the down side. Wondering what everyone else thinks.
1. Has he really improved significantly from his rookie year?
2. Does he retain his starting role when Neismith returns to full strength?
3. When this team is healthy how many minutes/game do you see Benn getting?
4. Where does everyone see Furphy? Maybe a better prospect than Benn?
1 There’s been steady improvement and I think the biggest thing that he has done is realizing that he’s no longer the top dog and has to play team basketball. They’re trying to make him more than a scorer. I’m hoping that changing his mindset will translate into a better all around player in the future. I feel like he’s still a work in progress and I don’t see superstar potential like we had hoped and that’s on us for designating him as a future star. Not everyone blossoms into an Oladipo. I still believe that he could become a future star. I’m torn on if he’ll be a Pacer or if they decide that he wasn’t quite the right fit for this team like Nembhard became.
2 I believe Benn goes back to the second team and will play well with TJ again.
3 I don’t see Benn’s minutes dropping a huge amount because there’s nobody ready to take minutes from him. The only way he loses minutes is if he becomes more of a defensive liability or if defensive minded Sheppard gets back to form and eats into his minutes.
4 Just like Walker, Furphy is so young and needs a few years of NBA experience. The Pacers have taken on the strategy of developing young players instead of filling the bench roles with low cost veterans. The Pacers have been fortunate to have time to develop these young players to see if they’re capable of becoming role players or even more. We’ve seen Wiseman, Q Jax, Walker, Furphy, and Freeman are capable of flashing their talents in limited minutes at the right situations. It’s way too early for me to say Furphy will be a knock down 3 point threat and defender in the league, however I like his opportunity and hope he succeeds. He’s so young and his body needs to become NBA sturdy to take the physicality. I think the Pacers will be patiently developing him and it’s hard to say he’s a better prospect than Mathurin after such a limited run for Furphy.
Whether anyone on the Pacers outside of the veterans will mature into long term success stories depends upon many factors. Commitment, mentality, discipline, dedication are all key to rising above the average level players. We have to wait and see what the coaching will produce.
Sometimes it comes down to opportunity to play. Duarte was a young talent that had good opportunities to play here and couldn’t stay healthy enough to warrant the team investing more time into his development. Now he’s on his third team and his scoring average went from 13 to 8 to 4 to 2.5 points per season. Yes he’s still fortunate to be in the league, but he’s not developed into that player who can be a steady role player. It’s never a given that young top prospects will develop into NBA stars.
