It's such a shame, really. The Indiana Pacers will be without Bennedict Mathurin for the rest of the season after it was announced he is having shoulder surgery for a torn labrum. Mathruin suffered the injury in the victory against the Mavericks and played through it.
Mathurin is just in his second season and has really improved from his rookie year. While his scoring numbers were down from about 16 points to 14.5 points, his shooting efficiency went up. He finishes the year shooting 44.6% from the field and 37% from three.
Instead of getting a taste of the playoffs for the first time in his young career, he will have to deal with rehab. This is a devastating blow for the Pacers. They have the highest-scoring bench in the NBA. That takes a big hit now that Mathurin is gone. So what do they do now?
The Indiana Pacers must use a team approach to make up for Mathurin's loss
How do the Pacers deal with this loss? It has to be a team approach. The rest of the bench will need to step up. Mathurin would sometimes close games too, so a new player from the bench might have to step up in that role. That might end up falling on rookie Ben Sheppard's shoulders.
Sheppard has steadily been getting more minutes now that he has been able to hit his threes with regularity. In his last 10 games, he's been shooting a blistering 58% from three-point land. His minutes might increase to 18-20 minutes a game with Mathurin out.
Jarace Walker now gets a chance for regular minutes. He's the rookie who was picked higher than Sheppard but has seen much less playing time so far. With Doug McDermott still out, Walker is the only one who can get the backup wing minutes. This is his chance to show what he can do.
Obi Toppin will be asked to score more. Jalen Smith will too. T.J. McConnell will be asked to create even more than he does now. Everyone has to do a little more with one of the best players on the team out for the year.
We wish Mathurin a speedy recovery. This definitely stinks for him because I know he'd rather be out there with his teammates.