The Further Growth Of Bennedict Mathurin
Bennedict Mathurin has had a terrific first half of the season, turning himself into one of the very best rookies from the 2022 draft class.
The 20-year-old is averaging 17.4 points, and 3.8 rebounds per game, while getting to line a whopping six times on average, in just 28 minutes of playing time.
Mathurin's potential is substantial, so let's take a look at what he does now, and which additions we can expect to see him make in coming years.
Let's start with something he's already doing very well: Putting the ball in the basket. While his efficiency has dropped off a bit recently, he still projects to be a highly capable 3-point shooter as his career progresses. In particular, his ability to identify shots within the flow of the offense could stand to improve, and it's a natural development for most young players, who refine their offensive skill.
Over his past 10 games, Mathurin has struggled from the outside, hitting just 22.2% from range, on 2.7 attempts. While it's commendable that he's identifying he doesn't have his jumpshot going, and is thus scaling back on it, you could easily argue he should instead be a bit more forceful and try to catch his rhythm of getting up frequent shots. He's clearly one of the top offensive options for the Pacers already, and embracing that fact as soon as possible would behoove the rest of his season.
To his credit, Mathurin has sought to make up for his lack of production from the outside by relentlessly getting to the line lately, which shows a mature understanding of the need to remain active, even when the shot isn't dropping.
Staying with his offensive development, Mathurin could stand to put a larger emphasis on his playmaking.
Now, this come with the caveat that Mathurin isn't tasked with setting up the offense. He's tasked with scoring, and he's often the end-target of a possession, which lowers his responsibility level of getting others involved.
However, there are times when his possessions become a smidge too predictable, and he doesn't spot obvious passing lanes. This isn't much of a problem...yet. But down the line, teams are undoubtedly going to blitz him, in order to get the ball out of his hands, and he needs to be able to identify options around him, even under pressure.
This needn't be a huge area of concern this year, or even next. But you'd like to see him improve steadily, especially as he projects as the long-term backcourt partner of Tyrese Haliburton, who also has the ability to average 25 points per night. It's fairly important that those have some interchangeability, allowing both to make plays, as well as be the recipients.
It's worth mentioning that Mathurin was also used as a scorer at Arizona, where fellow rookie Dalen Terry played the role of table-setter. Initiating the offense simply hasn't been an area where Mathurin has gotten a ton of reps, which needs to change moving forward. The Pacers will have to live with the potential growing pains of that expansion to his game, as it helps both him and them in the long run.
In connection to playmaking, Mathurin needs to become a more steady ball-handler. While he can maintain a live dribble just fine, he isn't yet advanced enough to consistently break down defenses off the dribble, and he's yet to find much success as a pull-up shooter, connecting on just 31.2% on the season. While he's got formidable lift on his jumper, he isn't great at creating enough separation on his shots, allowing defenders to crowd his shooting space.
This problem was one that also plagued Celtics wing Jaylen Brown for years, until he was able to add multiple dribbles to his game. Brown saw his entire game open up as he became more able to dribble through defenses, and got to the spots where he wanted to go. I see no reason as to why Mathurin couldn't make a similar leap, especially as he's ahead of where Brown was at the same age.
Overall, Mathurin's floor is fairly high, and his ceiling enormous. He's got work to do, but what 20-year-old doesn't? The early returns are extremely encouraging, and the path to stardom has been laid out. Now it's on Mathurin to follow it and spend his next few offseason polishing his game further.
Unless noted otherwise, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball-Reference. All salary information via Spotrac. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.
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