Change is coming for Bennedict Mathurin in Year 2 (Patreon)

And what can be learned from the passes he made and didn't make

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper 

It's October 26 and Bennedict Mathurin is seeking additional instruction from his coach following a timeout. Reading lips is tricky, but the general message is clear enough: slip the screen and drive, if open.

At the time, that interaction was notable for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that Mathurin approached Rick Carlisle rather than the other way around. Accordingly, there was something to be learned by the way in which he very clearly wanted to learn. There was also a lot of strategy at play. This was one of the first instances of the Pacers experimenting with a four-guard lineup, replacing Jalen Smith and Buddy Hield during the timeout with Chris Duarte and Andrew Nembhard. In effect, that meant Mathurin was functioning as the four-man. Meanwhile, keep in mind that the Bulls were playing an aggressive drop against Tyrese Haliburton, oftentimes requiring help from the low-man to tag the rolling screener.

Foreseeing all of this, Carlisle set the stage for Mathurin to be like the steel marble in a wooden maze game, tilting the playing surface so as to further leverage his ability to get rolling downhill. As was discussed on the sideline, with Mathurin initially stationed at the elbow like a big, he slips to the corner out of the empty ball screen. Then, when his defender pulls over to help, he attacks the closeout, as he so often does, playing out of triple threat and adjusting his body to finish at the rim.

In putting words to action while also pursuing what action to take, it was an early glimpse of how to optimize his tendencies that has since taken on different meaning now eight months later. Generally speaking, Mathurin's go-to move is the jab-and-go, throwing his hip and shoulder out to the right to reposition his defender before attacking to his left. He isn't robotic, if his defender doesn't bite on the foot fake, he counters with a misleading shimmy, rocking the weight of his body from his left leg to his right foot. Nevertheless, he's very much wired to catch-and-drive. That's why, even with plenty of space to shoot, he can be seen automatically defaulting to that jab-and-go, long before his defender arrives on the scene.

If that continues, he's going to get more of a cushion on the perimeter. After all, he shot 31 percent on catch-and-shoot jump shots as a rookie, which ranked 146 among the 151 players to notch at least 180 attempts. Furthermore, with only 11.5 percent of his shots coming as pull-up twos, he also isn't a frequent -- nor particularly effective -- mid-range shooter. There's reason to play him to drive and sell-out for help. That hasn't happened consistently quite yet. According to Second Spectrum, Mathurin drew the fourth-highest rate of short closeouts on the team last season, trailing T.J. McConnell (who rarely shoots), Chris Duarte (who shot poorly), and Andrew Nembhard (who needs a beat to shoot), but there was an inflection point at Summer League that speaks to what changes could be coming, unless he makes some changes to his game.

It's July 10 and the Pacers are up big over the Orlando Magic at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. As was the case all those months ago against Chicago, Nembhard swings the ball for Mathurin to attack from the same spot on the floor. On this possession, however, he isn't playing as the four-man, which means he isn't beating a bigger player closing out to him. Instead, his like-sized defender funnels him toward the basket, where he has a tendency to be predetermined in his determination, too often looking for his own shot.

And, therein lies the rub. Per Synergy, Mathurin attacks left on 58 percent of his drives that end in usage. As was previously laid out, he turns his weak hand into a strength as a scorer by jab-stepping to his right and driving left. Likewise, he also loves to rip the ball baseline and drive to his left. And yet, he rarely passes, let alone … with his left. In fact, there were 142 players who averaged at least five drives per game last season. Among them, Mathurin ranked 139 in pass percentage (18.1 percent), with only Joel Embiid (14.2 percent), Kelly Oubre Jr. (12.7 percent), and Jaren Jackson Jr. (9.8 percent) holding onto the ball more often. In total, he attempted 214 passes that could be categorized as kick-outs or skip passes. Of those, only 72 were thrown to the right side of the floor and none (yes, zero) were delivered with his left hand.

Again, there's reason to load up on his drives -- especially when he's driving to his left. As such, after watching all of those passes, as well as some passes that he didn't make, here's what can be learned about how his game needs to progress from this point forward.

He's a more "willing" passer from the right side of the floor

When evaluating Mathurin's ability to process kick-out avenues, it's important to decipher whether his low pass rate can be attributed to feel and is somewhat voluntary, as a result of trying to score no matter what, or reflects his need to still build out a particular skill-set. Put simply, the fact that he needs to pass more is obvious. Understanding the why is critical to figuring out how to elucidate ability. In that regard, the right side of the floor offers a slightly different perspective. When he attacks along the right baseline, there are examples of him making right-handed, jump passes to the opposite corner or wing.

Rather than steamrolling to the rim, this suggests that he can continue the advantage and read the weak-side zone under the "right" circumstances.

But, he isn't very accurate

That said, a recurrent theme regardless of which hand he uses is how often the pass receiver has to read or adjust to catch the ball. Plus, the more air that gets put under the ball, the more time the defense has to recover, as can be seen here when LaMelo Ball meets Nesmith on the catch.

If there was a passing metric that could measure the accuracy of shooting pocket delivery, as far as hitting the shooter in their hands where they start their shot, it would be interesting to know how effective Mathurin would be in relation to the rest of the league among guards and wings.

Still, those types of passes -- while perhaps imperfect -- don't even exist when he attacks baseline to his left

Look back at that possession from Summer League. With Kendall Brown in stride to make the 45-cut from the wing to the basket, the potential is there for him to suck-in the defense, effectively acting like a cut assist for Ben Sheppard.

The only problem is, Benn never actually passed to Ben. Rather than keeping his eyes up and jumping to throw a left-handed pass, as he did with his right from the opposite side of the floor, he only has eyes for his handle and the rim, which results in an attempt to beat the help.

That isn't just a one-off, either. It's a decisive moment, even in a game that had long been decided, from what had been a developing trend during the regular season, wherein he either tries to outmuscle, barrel over, or squirt through the defender rotating to him at the basket.

Turns out, there are only two examples of him making a pass to the opposite side of the floor when his drive begins from the left corner and both plays have something in common. If he can step around the help and get back middle, he'll push the ball out to the perimeter with his right hand as a last resort. Of course, another shared similarity is that neither results in a direct scoring opportunity. With the ball being lofted out over the top of the defense, the hang-time pass once again allows the defense to catch up running the shooters off the three-point line.

Plus, consider the change in context that has the potential to occur next season. Just look at this possession with Jalen Smith and Isaiah Jackson dotting the weak-side. Rather than continuing along the baseline, see how Mathurin drives into the crowd and tries to force up the shot? It might not be quite this exaggerated, but with two bigs on the floor, be it Toppin-Turner, Walker-Turner, or some combination of Walker with either Smith or Jackson, Mathurin is going to run into more size at the rim, than what might be the case when he would occasionally moonlight as the four-man or when opponents would downsize to match their smaller attack with Nesmith more typically at power fauxward.

Obi Toppin deserves credit for transforming himself into a quicker-trigger three-point shooter, and Bruce Brown is quirky in that he is considerably more effective shooting from the right corner than the left: however, if Mathurin struggles to keep the ball moving with his off-hand, then the expectation should probably be that opponents are going to clamp down on his drives  -- especially if the difference ends up going from Nembhard (38.1 percent), Hield (41.7 percent), and Nesmith (35.0 percent) as catch-and-shoot options to Toppin (32.9 percent), Brown (36.0 percent), and Mathurin himself (31.3 percent).

And yet, he might have a valid reason for why he isn't making those passes

When the search is expanded out to other areas of the floor, he still rarely delivers a pass with his left. One of the few scenarios when that doesn't apply is when the Pacers are running weave and his only responsibility is to toss the ball to a teammate as he crosses in front during the interchange without being pressured.

Otherwise, if he's playing at speed, he has to gather and deliver the pass with both hands. Also, notice how far Jordan Nwora has to slide in order to step into the catch.

That gets magnified in the half-court. when the ball isn't out in front of him and he has to rely more on protective dribbles. Here, he dislodges Scottie Barnes with his patented jab step out and to the right, but when he puts the ball on the floor with his left and attempts to transition into the live-dribble pass there's an obvious hitch in what should ideally be one fluid motion.

Aside from a happy accident wherein he lost his handle and the ball just happened to roll over to Andrew Nembhard in the corner, there aren't any other examples of Mathurin delivering a skip pass or kick-out with his left hand while still in motion.

That's why he typically aborts his dribble

When he decides to throw the ball to the weak-side out of ball-screens or hand-offs after attacking to his left, he typically only does so after gathering his dribble around the elbow and scanning the perimeter for open targets. Then, once he's stared down his intended stop-release, he either lobs the ball overhead with both hands or throws a baseball pass with his right. But again, his teammates are adjusting to meet the pass in their hands and not because they are being passed open.

For frame of reference, look at the difference when Nembhard is attacking downhill with his weak hand, which is arguably his strength. In addition to maintaining his dribble, notice how he throws each of these lefty, cross-court darts directly into the shooting pocket with velocity. The reason his teammates aren't shooting isn't because they don't have a shot; it's because someone else has a better shot. The defense isn't catching up; the ball is staying ahead of the defense.

To be fair, Mathurin isn't a primary ball-handler, and if he's being tasked with initiating offense against a set defense next season that would arguably be a sign that something has gone very wrong, but what that comparison goes to show is that what happened during Summer League, when he forced up a shot after driving to his left, might be skill-based as well as related to his overall score-first mentality and ability to process the next link in the chain as a passer.

In that regard, he still has to find his feel

To that point, this possession is a summary of his current read of the floor. With the action set-up for him to zoom out of the corner into a hand-off with a screen in the middle, he once again positioned to attack moving to his left. As he breaks the arc of the three-point line, the defense sinks to the nail, with T.J. McConnell's defender preparing to jump-switch onto the ball. In turn, he advances the ball to McConnell. That's an improvement from earlier in the season, when he would try to power through dig downs like a turnstile, but look at the opposite side of the floor. The lowest defender on the weak-side is tagging Myles Turner. That means Jordan Nwora is open on the perimeter, but Mathurin is being crowded and only sees the action in front of him. As a result, what could've been a lefty skip pass, if he could access that skill and read defenders on the back-side of actions without picking up his dribble, ends up being an offensive reset.

Now, while keeping all of this mind, go back to the start of July. As was the case with the above pass to McConnell, Mathurin made some extra passes during Summer League action. He also showed some improved nuance to his drives, changing angles as well as speed; however, for a player who is geared to catch-and-drive and prefers to attack to his left while rarely making live-dribble passes with that hand, this feels like it could be a peek into what Year 2 might have in store as far as potentially being cornered in tighter quarters next season.

"It’s different going into the second year because there’s more film (on you), knowing what to expect,” Tyrese Haliburton said of the time it took him to settle in and adapt as a sophomore, while speaking with reporters at the beginning of last season. “Now you’re going into the year and feel like you have enough experience under your belt, but really you don’t have enough.”

Summer League isn't all meaningful, but there's plenty of supporting evidence from his rookie year that suggests Mathurin isn't going to make that pass. And yet, to rephrase with emphasis, Summer League isn't all meaningful, and that's exactly why he needed to try to make that pass. Based on the supporting evidence from his rookie year, the process, if he managed to process the kick-out avenue, might not have been fluid and there also might not have been enough oomf on the pass to avoid a turnover or lead directly to an open shot, but at least he would've made the right play, optimizing the opportunity to address where he needs to improve instead of ramrodding his already existing strengths.

At present, it's the beginning of August, eight months removed from the possession against the Bulls that took on new meaning at Summer League. Whether Mathurin can develop feel over time remains to be seen, as does the functional progression of his passing while reconciling how often he drives left with the current limitations of his weak-hand, but perhaps what initially stood out most about that possession is still the most relevant now. With training camp more than a month away, remember that he wanted to learn, seeking additional instruction from his coach, and his coach, in turn, provided a road map for how to navigate the evolving landscape.

It's only Year 2, but change is coming, both for Bennedict Mathurin and (hopefully) from him.