Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle expects Andrew Nembhard to be the primary creator and guard the opposition’s best scorer every night as the team's starting point guard for a season. That is way too much for one player, and this could greatly backfire.
"One of our luxuries, superpowers, I guess, was that Andrew Nembhard could start as a two guard, play off the ball, be a primary ball-handler as a secondary ball-handler, and guard the best perimeter player. So now, he'll be starting, he'll be the primary playmaker, and probably still have the responsibility of guarding the best player... so much will be on him," Carlisle said on "The Zach Lowe Show."
With Tyrese Haliburton out for the season with an Achilles injury, the Pacers will slide Nembhard over to the point guard role full-time. In theory, this could work as he is a natural point guard and has stepped up numerous times when the team has needed him to in the past. However, the expectation was that his defensive responsibilities were going to be a little different now that he is taking on a much more important role on the offensive side of the ball.
It now seems like that will not be the case.
As he takes on an expanded role, it is fair to assume that Nembhard will struggle a bit defensively to preserve his energy offensively. At least early on. With him seemingly keeping the same defensive role next season, this could prove to be a disaster for the Canadian native and the team because of how important he is going to be to their success.
The Pacers need to lighten Andrew Nembhard's defensive role
Nembhard is Indiana's best perimeter player and has been for a while. His taking on a bigger role does not change that, but it would be wise for the Pacers to look to other players to help him out defensively.
The main player to keep an eye on is Bennedict Mathurin, who is expected to be Indiana's starting shooting guard alongside Nembhard in the backcourt.
Mathurin is not a great defender, and he certainly is not on Nembhard's level. However, a lot of this can be fixed. The Arizona alum possesses good size at 6-foot-5, and he has looked more comfortable on defense each year. Arguably Mathurin's biggest problem on defense is his inconsistency, though this should get ironed out with a bigger role.
Recently, Carlisle directly named Mathurin as a player who will be tasked with guarding the ball more this season in an effort to take some of the load off of Nembhard. While he is far from a lockdown defender, Mathurin should be able to improve and showcase his value, which should help both him and the team in the long run.
The Pacers are not in an ideal situation for this upcoming season, but they can still surprise some people and make noise in a wide-open Eastern Conference. In order for them to do so, though, the team will need Nembhard to step up in a major way. There are reasons to believe he will, but given how much is going to be on his plate, things could turn ugly.