Shocking stat confirms that Pacers’ Mathurin is bound for superstardom
By Joe Lyon
The Pacers knocked the draft this year out of the park. They draft both Bennedict Mathurin and Andrew Nembhard who are headed to this years Rising Stars Challenge. The amount of talent the Pacers were able to bring in is outstanding, especially with a second round pick in Nembhard showing so well early in his career.
But Bennedict Mathurin has taken it to another level. This season he is averaging the following stat line:
17 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist on 43% FG and 31 FG3% in 28 minutes played.
While those number don’t sound amazing for a player at the top of the league, for a rookie, those are amazing numbers. But there is one stat that seems to stand out among the rest: currently Bennedict Mathurin is averaging the fourth moth fast break points in the league, behind only LeBron, Giannis, and Hield. It puts him ahead of names like Tatum and Ja Morant.
While most things in life are not certain, one thing seems to be: Mathurin will find ways to get transition buckets.
https://twitter.com/Pacers/status/1624210450211643392
So why is Mathurin still coming off of the bench?
This question could be multifaceted. First, it appears that Carlisle and the team have decided to be more developmental this season with Mathurin than completely letting him loose. Is this a mistake? Some fans say yes.
The other is that Rick feels that putting him in the starting lineup would honestly lead to them winning more games, which may be something that the Pacers honestly don’t want to do a whole lot of this season with eyes on the upcoming draft.
In either case, Mathurin is playing at a level where he could very well become an All-NBA player in the next couple of seasons, especially is he sees a second-year jump that many rookies are able to see after they get their first season in the books.
All I know? I’m glad Mathurin plays for us and not for the other guys.