On Bennedict Mathurin & navigating the in between (Patreon)

The sophomore guard is starting to find his feel -- at least, for now

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper 

When the Pacers were in Las Vegas for the In-Season Tournament, Bennedict Mathurin received a pass from Tyrese Haliburton at the wing during the Semifinals against the Milwaukee Bucks that demonstrated the uncomfortable in-between that he's found himself in to start the season. Upon catching the ball, he didn't immediately put his head down, forging ahead with a predetermined will to get to the rim no matter what, but he also didn't take the in-flow shot that came to him, instead, bypassing the pocket of breathing room to keep the ball moving.

In attempting to make the "right" play while still being overly wired to catch-and-drive, his development track as a sophomore has at times been similar to moving away from home, when the exhilaration of a fresh start can also be coupled with the odd feeling of not belonging anywhere. He isn't the same rookie, who so often only saw obstacles exclusively as scoring opportunities, but he hasn't fully or consistently immersed himself in the offense as far as what reads to make and when, either. Again, it's uncomfortable, being in the in between.

On Monday night, however, he played arguably the most complete game of his career, scoring 30 points to go with eight assists. At one point, in contrast to that deflected pass against the Bucks, in which he threw the ball directly into the path of the peeling defender after getting stopped, he even zipped a left-handed dime around the ear of his defender, eliciting celebratory congrats from Tyrese Haliburton for doing as Tyrese Haliburton would've done.

Remember, last season, Mathurin 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. Granted, in feeding the slip out of the flare screen, Mathurin didn't locate the opposite side of the floor, but he gathered the ball in one fluid motion with his off-hand, whereas last season he exhibited a bit of a hitch when transitioning from a live-dribble.

That said, as noteworthy as it was for him to flash the visual awareness and passing chops to attack the switch from the Pistons without actually attacking the switch, what he did at the beginning of the fourth quarter quietly stood out as more of an inflection point.

On four-straight possessions, the Pacers ran the same play (which was broken down in full in the  October mailbag). The first time, when Bennedict Mathurin ran across the Iverson-like staggered screens, he passed the ball to Aaron Nesmith slipping to the corner out of the empty ball screen.

On the next possession, when the Pistons switched to cover up the slip from Nesmith, Mathurin reversed the ball back to the middle of the floor into a spread ball screen for T.J. McConnell; however, with James Wiseman defending in deep drop, the Pacers countered with Isaiah Jackson screening away for Mathurin so as to pin the tag in what they refer to as "smash" action or veer.

When Killian Hayes didn't get pinned, Mathurin attacked downhill to his left out of the re-screen, putting his defender on his back while attempting to shovel the ball to Jackson. Admittedly, if Mathurin had further engaged with Wiseman, he probably could've made a cleaner drop-off pass that Jackson might've been more likely to finish, but he was playing with his eyes up and tried to fake a shot -- rather than forcing up a shot -- in order to feed the screener.

That's notable, as is the fact that he was also giving direction to the screener less than a minute later, calling for a screen out of the same counter that he would intentionally reject to his preferred left before bumping his defender to clear space and draw contact on his floater against the drop.

With Nesmith already standing in the corner and Hield not flowing into the empty-side ball screen, the plan didn't go as intended on the return trip down the floor, but Mathurin kept moving, cutting from the wing on the penetration from McConnell and then bailing out to re-space around the secondary drive. Plus, when the pass got deflected, he was there to scoop up the loose ball.

On four-straight possessions, the play was run for him to catch a pass on the second-side of the floor, and on four-straight possessions, he made four different reads without shooting when he should've passed or passing when he should've shot, let alone automatically deciding that the play would end in usage for him -- although most did.

Of course, it bears pointing out that most of this was occurring with a hybrid lineup out of a set action against a relatively squishy defense, but that also might be the point. When playing with the bench, this play was run four times in a row with him as the orchestrator, finding his feel out of empty ball screens as opposed to reversing the ball to the team's All-Star, who also happens to be an MVP candidate. In that way, as turned out to be the case when said All-Star started being trapped, maybe these types of inflection points, in which Mathurin navigates the in between, standing out while still belonging, will turn out to be a turning point not only in how he complements the team's MVP candidate but also in how he avoids no longer being caught between the past and the future of his development.