Bennedict Mathurin will officially be the Indiana Pacers' starting shooting guard for the 2025-26 season. What this decision will do is give the young guard a massive opportunity to prove himself in a year the Pacers will enter with a lot of question marks.
With Tyrese Haliburton set to be sidelined for the entire season, there's no telling what Indiana will look like as a team without its leader and best player. For players like Mathurin, that means it's time to step up and show what you're made of. The Eastern Conference is still going to be wide open, and the Pacers have shown themselves more than capable of pulling off the improbable.
This situation comes at a fortuitous time for Mathurin in particular, as next season will be the final one he plays on his rookie contract. Indiana had team options on his deal for both the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, for which they exercised both.
Mathurin will be earning $9.1 million next season, while knowing that he doesn't yet have a contract for the following season. Of course, that means he's going to have the maximum motivation to improve this summer and then show out in every game he gets the chance next season.
The 2025-26 season will represent a massive opportunity for Mathurin
Every time he steps on the floor, Mathurin knows he's going to be playing for his job. He knows that now, so he's likely doing everything he can to sharpen his skills and improve upon weaknesses. If he's preparing the right way now in August, there's that much higher a chance he's going to come out firing on all cylinders in October.
Speaking of correcting weaknesses, it seems one mission Mathurin might have in his upcoming contract year is getting stronger on defense. Rick Carlisle recently spoke about how this is an area he'd like the youngster to improve.
Talking about how Andrew Nembhard typically guarded the best perimeter option on the other team last season, Carlisle explained how Nembhard assuming the role of point guard is going to force some different matchups. "With Tyrese out, that's going to put Andrew on different matchups, sort of organically," Carlisle said. "And now Benn is going to be guarding some better players, so it's going to be a great challenge."
It sounds like there's already plenty of challenges for Bennedict Mathurin to take on in 2025-26. Fortunately for Pacers fans, he has every motivation in the world to live up to expectations.