Pacers Season Reviews: Wesley Matthews

Season In Review

Wesley Matthews’ relatively short tenure featured some exhilarating moments. Matthews’ defining moment(s) came on March 14th. On this night, the heinous Paul George returned to Indianapolis to a plethora of jeering fans. It was none other than Wesley Matthews who poached his spotlight. First, his suffocating late-game defense on the MVP candidate:

Next, his game-winning tip-in, sinking Oklahoma City’s ship and Paul George along with it:

Matthews’ defense was as integral to the Pacers as was his offense. The impact metrics aren’t infatuated with his defense (-1.3 Defensive Player Impact Plus-Minus, -0.48 Defensive Real Plus-Minus), but I suspect much of that is due to Matthews’ time with the Mavericks and Knicks, whose defenses are far inferior to Indiana’s.

As a whole, his on-ball stopping was something the Pacers had lost when Oladipo went down. Combined with competent team defense, he was a valuable piece for Indiana on the defensive end. Matthews fearlessly defended the NBA’s sparkliest stars on a nightly basis, here putting the uber-electric Kemba Walker in a box:

As I previously mentioned, Matthews’ smart team defense fit in with the Pacers’ defensive mastery as a whole. He is a savvy defender, making correct rotations in a timely manner. Here, Matthews notices Myles Turner is slow to recover to Nikola Vucevic on the pick and pop. Matthews rotates to contest the three, resulting in a miss:

Constantly scanning on the weak side, Matthews reads the pick and roll ballhandler like a book, predicts his pass and steals this ball cleanly:

On the offensive side of the court, the bulk of Matthews’ offensive value came with his floor spacing and volume three-point shooting. The addition of Matthews brought on another versatile, off-ball shooter to the squad, something NBA teams can never have too many of.

Though his near 37 percent accuracy from long range was welcome, it was his preposterous 61.9 percent three-point attempt rate that recouped a ton of value. For the team who shot the second-fewest three-pointers per game, Matthews’ relentless chucking brought a necessary change of pace to the offense.

Matthews was a major threat running off of screens; he gave defenses headaches with this fake-flex into elbow pindown set all season:

The Pacers love their elbow dribble handoff plays, usually consisting of Domantas Sabonis sprinting around the free throw line, looking for running shooters. Matthews fit into this offensive flow beautifully as a threat to fire the ball as soon as the big man handed off the rock:

He uses his smarts as an off-ball mover, searching for cracks in the defense to get his shots off. Catching Evan Fournier sleeping early in the possession, Matthews runs to the top of the key and splashes the trifecta:

Every great off-ball shooter knows the easiest way to find open three-point shots: relocating to the three-point line after a drive and kick. Matthews executes, standing in so much space he could run through a cornfield and still get this three off:

For Matthews, his offensive contributions were mostly good. However, there is a significant catch…