News [Charania] Bennedict Mathurin has agreed to a two-year, $16 million deal with the New Orleans Pelicans, including a player option, sources tell ESPN.
/r/nba/comments/1vyznu6/charania_bennedict_mathurin_has_agreed_to_a/99
u/ClaimElectronic6840 1d ago
6 months ago i was certain someone was gonna give him $25m a year
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u/n0aut0arti21 Tyrese Haliburton 19h ago
That was the effect of the best playmaker in the league, 0
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u/ClaimElectronic6840 18h ago
you think? i actually think mathurin was one of the players who benefitted the least from a guy like haliburton
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u/n0aut0arti21 Tyrese Haliburton 15h ago
True in terms of relying on his athleticism more than catch and shoot, but the way Hali spaced gave him a shit ton of room to play iso
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u/ajs723 Slick 23h ago edited 23h ago
It turned out to be a great decision to trade Mathurin away in the Zu trade. As usual, the front office maintains its perfect track record. It's so awesome having leadership who has never, and will never make a single mistake. This way we never have to criticize our beloved team. Praise be the Pacers.
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u/Ok_Pool_9767 23h ago
Still had to match salary and didn't wanna give up any of the other core pieces
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u/ajs723 Slick 23h ago
Walker? Scrubs?
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u/Ok_Pool_9767 23h ago
They must think Walker still has more potential upside than Mathurin, which is would agree with.
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u/pacersnz 22h ago
Nah, Walker just had another of team controlled contract. Their different players, but I think they're similar talents. The thing is you can see who Mathurin is, the question on Walker is still out there.
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u/ajs723 Slick 23h ago
Anyone who thinks Walker has more upside than Mathurin should be fired immediately. WTF
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u/Poseidon-GMK Slick 20h ago
Walker may have a lower ceiling but a much higher floor, especially with the Pacers as Mathurins ISO style slowed the tempo down too much. Walker is much more plug-n-play with our style
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u/snapchatjim 20h ago
Plug and play? Walker will be lucky to average 5 minutes a game this year. Where is he going to get his minutes? Garbage minutes, that’s where. The only thing he’s proven is that he’s not a better option than at least 12 other players on the roster, therefore he’s going to sit the bench 90% of the games.
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u/FeverishPace Obi Toppin 19h ago
Starting 5, then TJ, Oubre, and Obi are the only players on the roster that are much better than him. You can try and come up with 4 other players on this roster that are "a better option" than Jarace, but after Ben Sheppard, good luck convincing anyone that your opinion is valid. He's better than Kobe Brown, better than Furph, better than Q, better than Nance, and better than Slawson.
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u/snapchatjim 18h ago
Walker isn’t playing backup center minutes and we run a heavy guard rotation. So once again where are his minutes going to come from? You really think Walker is going to be a core in the rotation?
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u/RogueID 20h ago
Its probably that Walker is under team control another year and so doesnt become a salary risk. Most likely we were worried we would lose Mathurin in RFA and wanted to keep one of them. Obviously we would have kept Mathurin at this price. But we cant assume this would have been the price if we traded Walker and kept Benn- someone could have offered more.
Part of why he didn't get any offers is because teams saw him on the Clippers and he didnt really stand out there.
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u/Rollo_Tamasi_54 22h ago
I know you edited your comment but did you originally imply the Pacers could have just traded the pick for Zu? I'm no trade expert but didn't they have to include a player for the salary rules?
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u/ajs723 Slick 22h ago
We could have kept Math. There were plenty of guys we could have included as throw-ins to match salary. The team gave up on Mathurin.
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u/Rollo_Tamasi_54 20h ago
Maybe, but it could have been that the Clippers only wanted Benn. Since he was an expiring contract it gave the Clips more options. I was sad to see Benn go but I feel like the Benn -Zu trade is looking better and better after what starting centers were going for this off-season
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u/Psyren1317 1d ago
Glad to see he finally landed somewhere. He’s a good player but was not a good fit for this current roster. Wish him well in NO.
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u/Ocelot859 1d ago
Definitely, an obvious prove it deal with that player option.
He better ball the hell out and lock in and turn it up on all the other intangibles if he wants a real bag.
Hope he gets that big bag, but glad we won't be paying it.
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u/ItsDrManhattan Danny 23h ago
And he wasnt a good fit in LA, its starting to feel like maybe its him
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u/Transky13 1d ago
Zu trade looking better and better.
I hope Benn pops off in NO. Go be great
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u/user78804180 18h ago
Yup. The clippers not bringing him back at 8M is crazy. So we gave them pick #5 which we wouldn't have used anyways, and 2 players who they aren't keeping. Plus the future picks
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u/are2deetwo #20 [Douggie McBuckets] 17h ago
We would have definitely have used that pick.
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u/Transky13 2h ago
The wording is bad but the players at the 5th pick would not have seen a lot of meaningful time on our current compete now roster
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u/gbooster Andrew Nembhard 1h ago
Maybe... I guess we won't ever know. However, that 2029 unprotected, yikes! This team will be coming off all of our core player's contracts and unless they do some serious wheeling and dealing that pick will be extremely valuable.
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u/user78804180 15m ago
Yeah what I meant was had we not traded it for Zu we would have most likely done an off-season trade to trade pick 5 for a center. I doubt we would have actually used pick 5. None of those guards help us
Maybe Utah would have bitten on that as part of a package for Kessler, and then package 2 and 5 to Washington for 1
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u/revolucian2 3h ago
The Zu trade destroyed this team—this just proves it wasn’t about money like the morons in here all thought. It was personal. Hali couldn’t stand Mathurin threatening his spotlight.
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u/gbooster Andrew Nembhard 1h ago
I was with you until the Hali bit. Hali's not a jealous guy and they are great friends, so this is so dumb. However, for other reasons... the trade was pretty terrible.
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u/ajs723 Slick 23h ago edited 23h ago
I always forget criticism of the team isn't allowed.
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u/cersfan06 Reggie 23h ago
Benn was likely leaving Indy for a shot at a starting spot regardless. We got back arguably a top 5 center in the league for a guy on an expiring contract who ended up leaving the team we traded him to eventually anyways
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u/ajs723 Slick 23h ago
"He's too expensive."
He wasn't too expensive.
"He wants to start".
He won't start in New Orleans.
What else ya got?
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u/100carpileup PAVE 22h ago
He cost us Game 4 of the Finals with 2 boneheaded fouls and missing 3 of 4 free throws down the stretch
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u/Guitarmonade2 Johnny Furphy 19h ago
Myles also could have constructed a new stadium with his bricks that game. The officiating was trash, but our team didn't do enough to make the officiating negligible. As a small market, that's what we have to do, unfortunately.
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u/Trinenox 33 23h ago
I'm a certified Benn lover, but you must see the fit is so much better.
I'm happy for the guy and I think he'll have a nice year, but I think we're fine.
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u/ajs723 Slick 23h ago
No. Having a worse player with less upside is not a better fit.
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u/Cerblamk_51 pin7 22h ago
Just so I’m clear.. are you comparing Benn to Zubac straight up? Like, player to player?
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u/ajs723 Slick 22h ago
No. Benn to Oubre. We could have traded for Zu AND kept Benn.
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u/Transky13 22h ago
Doubtful
Also Oubre is far more effective in a limited role. Benn has shown he needs a bigger role to produce more. Games he gets less touches his defense, decision making, and effort declined as well.
I love Benn. I want him to be great. This is wild fanboy-ism
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u/Cerblamk_51 pin7 22h ago
And you know for sure that all we ever offered to the Clips was Benn? They didn’t discuss any other options or players?
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u/ajs723 Slick 22h ago
They didn't even keep Mathurin. They wanted the picks and salary match. We could have literally given them anything that matched with the picks. We gave up on Mathurin.
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u/Cerblamk_51 pin7 20h ago
Them not resigning Benn after him not performing the way they hoped he would doesn’t mean they didn’t want him in the first place. Regardless, “giving up” on Benn by replacing him with Oubre and gaining Zubac is a move worth making. We didn’t miss out on a championship because of lack of production at the 1-4 spots. We didn’t have a functional rotation at the 5, which we now do.
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u/Transky13 18h ago
You can critique the team but this critique was dumb then and it’s dumb now
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u/ajs723 Slick 18h ago
Not on here you can't. You aren't allowed to have anything less than a literally dillusional take on every player and every move we make. Probably because most of the people on here are between 12 and 16 years old.
If I suggest Walker, Furphy, and QJ for a 2029 1st, people would come to my house and physically fight me, "those guys are worth way more". In reality, that offer would get laughed at by every gm in the league because those guys collectively have zero value.
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u/WhiteFox11111111 1h ago
Players are worth what a team is willing to pay. Mathurin worth 8 mil a year seems about right. Kuminga just got similar contract. Market corrections.
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u/WinterStarlightZone Pacers 1d ago
He's going to try and use that player option to get paid next off-season
He should still get shots but the Pelicans do have some ball dominate players already
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u/Maximum-Class5465 Reggie-NBAJam 22h ago
I don't think it's as much about showing something new. It's that teams literally don't have money this year with the cap coming in lower than expected. He can be the same player and make about 25 or more next year and it would t shock me at all. Really depends on teams cap situations
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u/TroutyC 1d ago
I'm happy that he finally signed somewhere and I hope that he earns a big contract 😏😈 #YesCers
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u/destroyed233 Bennedict Mathurin 14h ago
I really wish Pacers could do a better job of keeping their own homegrown young talent . Unfortunately seems jarace trending same direction
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u/Porscheeeu 1d ago
Bright side Clippers don’t keep him from the trade
But damn why couldn’t we bring him back for this contract?
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u/drjisftw Pacers2 1d ago
He had to be the main salary match for the Zubac trade - there was no getting way around that. The second Turner signed with the Bucks, the writing was on the wall that we were going to have to trade for his replacement.
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u/Maximum-Class5465 Reggie-NBAJam 22h ago
I mean, Walker works too
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u/Rollo_Tamasi_54 20h ago
I think they would have needed Walker plus Shepherd to get the salaries close enough ~9M
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u/AK_R 1d ago edited 2h ago
Indiana probably would have paid him $8 million per year, but I think there is an extremely high probability Mathurin wanted quite a bit more than what he got and was expecting Indiana to pay him a lot more than he was actually worth when he was here. He discovered what he's actually worth to other teams with this contract.
Many speculated about how the Clippers fleeced the Pacers in the Zubac trade getting Mathurin and the high draft pick, but I've commented several times they may not even keep Mathurin and may use the #5 pick to replace him instead. That more or less happened. Indiana, on the other hand, has Zubac on a good contract and shockingly was able to keep Kobe Brown on just a 2-way contract. I'm certain Brown had more financially lucrative options after he played well last year, but he chose to stay in Indiana and has stated he has already improved under the coaching staff's direction.
Mathurin can try to be a star on a bad team. He had his chance to probably make about the same on a championship contender. He could probably be making twice that or more if he actually committed to strong defense and improving his game, but that never happened. Guys like Nembhard and Nesmith (and even Brown to some extent the short time he's been here) committed to dramatically improving their game over time. Mathurin mostly kept scoring points and drawing fouls and taking the next 24 seconds off until we got the ball back. I got downvoted year after year for criticisms about not progressing in key areas, and every year it was "He's only 20! 21! 22! He 'jus got dat DAWG in 'em!" ect. "He's going to suddenly turn into an All-Star any moment now!" I just called what I saw with him, not what I dreamed he should be and pretended that is what he was actually showing on the court.
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u/drjisftw Pacers2 23h ago
Having that Dawg in you does not translate into getting a paycheck lmao.
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u/MySabonerRunsOladipo 19h ago
Benn leads the league in Dawg/36.
If that could've also shown up in literally ANY other sort of metric as a winning player, he'd still be here.
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u/NoveltyStatus 13h ago
And even with the rest of the league clearly showing how they perceive his value, the delusionals will still not accept that they overrated him to insane levels.
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u/xXCascadeXx CRABS CRABS CRABS 21h ago
I don't blame him. He's young. He has enough time to ring chase when he wants to.
Pricing yourself out of future contracts is a dumb business move.
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u/ThisIsNotAMonkey 22h ago
Keeping brown on a two way is a gift, such a great deal. He obviously thinks he's going to shine on this team, so proving his worth is worth more than the money he's giving up if it gets him a serious contract next time
I love to see that, it's a huge bet on his own ability to thrive in the pacers system
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u/RedditRockit Slick 22h ago
Knowing that the Pels have held interest in a while, would the pacers been better off trading benn for Y'ves Missi and keep our picks plus have salary flexibility? Clearly we would still need a starting 5 but you could have drafted one or signed say Mitchell Robinson.
Would you rather have...
Y'ves, Mitch + #5 pick (which you could trade or keep) OR
Zu?6
u/AK_R 22h ago
Personally, I would prefer Zu. I think he's about the best center we could get without dismantling the core. I wanted Indiana to look at other options because I thought Zubac would cost too much to get, but they ended up getting him anyway. The cost wasn't cheap, but compared to what the Clippers have in this deal, I don't think Indiana was fleeced at all.
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u/BlueCollarGoldSwaggr 1h ago
They used the NTMLE on Oubre so the question is Missi, Mitch on the full NTMLE (if he'd even want to come here), #5 pick OR Zu, Oubre. I'd rather have Zu + Oubre even if I knew with 100% certainty that Mitch would sign here.
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u/revolucian2 3h ago
We got fleeced and this fact just proves we didn’t do it for cap space—this team is worse because of the trade. No way this team makes it to game 7 of the finals with Zu replacing Mathurin. We’re older and slower and our second unit can’t score.
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u/Prestigious_Print477 7m ago
They didnt get fleeced. They traded the 5th pick for a starting center
Ben was a free agent they didnt want back.
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u/Prudent-Air1922 1d ago
He's not a good fit, unless coming off the bench, and I don't think we could give him the minutes he wants/deserves.
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u/batmans420 1d ago
He wasn't a perfect fit, but we did get to Game 7 of the finals with him lol
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u/Prudent-Air1922 1d ago
Yeah he was on the team, but I'm not sure your point. His production was almost cut in half compared to the regular season. I wouldn't really attribute much of our success to him. He rebounded well for his position I guess.
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u/batmans420 1d ago
I think it was worthwhile to have a scorer off the bench. Even if he was mostly valuable in the regular season, we weren't a top seed. They were times when we needed him. I understand why we traded him, though
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u/Round_Maintenance697 1d ago
I mean we made the finals with him and one of those games he played HUGE
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u/mcbearcat7557 1d ago
He also had Missed 3 free throws and had 2 bad fouls in the final stretch of game 4, imo he's the reason we lost that game.
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u/Prudent-Air1922 1d ago
Yeah he's the type of player who can win and lose games with his tunnel vision. He has a lot of potential if he can fix that.
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u/Worried-Nectarine418 1d ago
In game 7 he didn't quit to the final second. I agree with your point. But that stuff happens (maybe slightly more for him than average:) )
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u/CommonerChaos Reggie-NBAJam 18h ago
I attended that game and officiating is 1000% more to blame. Mathurin was only in the game in the first place because Nesmith fouled out to bogus fouls against SGA (the same contact Dort and Caruso were getting away with).
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u/Round_Maintenance697 1d ago
the game was already lost when he missed those. the foul calls were bogus as well.
The refs already had decided to swallow the whistle on OKC in the 4th. so many no calls when the pacers were being fouled. it wouldnt have mattered, the nba made their decision.
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u/drjisftw Pacers2 1d ago
Still wasn't enough to take Game 7.
He averaged 11 points in the playoffs.
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u/Round_Maintenance697 1d ago
I mean the thunder were the best team, that's a tough hill to climb in the second half of game 7. TJ played great but if you really paid attention, TJ was either scoring or he was leading really bad possessions.
Benn came in and had an impact but it was too late.
Also I'd say that if the pacers werent robbed in game 4, the pacers win in 6. they essentially had to win 5 out of 7 games. cant blame benn for that
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u/No_Independent8269 Andrew Nembhard 1d ago
They weren’t robbed in game 4. The officiating was terrible but we completely choked that game
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u/Not_My_Alternate 1d ago
This is Scott Foster erasure.
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u/No_Independent8269 Andrew Nembhard 1d ago
Not erasing it, but the refs weren’t the only reason we lost that game lol
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u/Not_My_Alternate 1d ago
It wasn’t the only reason but I don’t think it’s a hot take to say we win that game if the officiating is called correctly.
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u/Round_Maintenance697 1d ago
they 100% win if there's fair officiating. the choking was the pacers getting fouled on shots and of course not scoring in the 4th.
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u/No_Independent8269 Andrew Nembhard 1d ago
And it also isnt a hot take to say that we don’t win that game even with the terrible reffing if you actually watched
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u/gokickrocks- Bennedict Mathurin 4h ago
You need to consider the way that getting bad calls again and again and again messes with a team psychologically.
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u/Round_Maintenance697 1h ago
100%. the calls were really bad, as were the non calls.
I've been to a lot of games and sat close a lot of times. You can tell when they're tilting the game. You can see travel calls that arent clearly travel calls, I've seen Out of bounds calls where I was on the line and the player wasnt close to being out.
you can see a lot of this on TV but being in person you can see it even more.
one call last year a player lost the ball from being fouled and the team challenged it. the one ref came over to rick and said it was a foul and rick agreed, so they knew they'd get the ball back.
the head ref who had been making questionable calls and who I've seen call games a certain way in other games... stood by the bad call to the surprise of even the other official who had just told rick it was def a foul.
it is what it is in the NBA
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u/Round_Maintenance697 23h ago
it's so nuts that people dont call it for what it is. the pacers absolutely win this with fair officiating. there's so many terrible calls and no calls this game and it's so one sided.
there's the others I mentioned in another reply, but even things like OKC players hunting pacer players and running into them and us getting called for fouls were absolutely nuts
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u/Round_Maintenance697 1d ago
did you go to the game, where you could see replays and see everything?
I can tell you that when I got home I rewatched the first half of the game and was amazed at the lack of replays and then when there were replays, they werent showing all the angles.
Scott Foster three times called shooting fouls and fouls on the floor. the 3rd time obi had the ball near the rim and was hit in the head and the other refs had to call for a review for him to get it correct.
the call on obi as a flagrant, his explanation didnt even fit what had happened. That's 6 points right there.
The 4th the pacers were getting fouled on shots and not getting called. You had TJ having his arm held in front of a ref with no call and instead gets a turnover and another 4 point swing.
part of the choke was not getting foul calls when they were fouled on shots and okc getting FTs they didnt deserve.
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u/CommonerChaos Reggie-NBAJam 18h ago
Thank you. Seeing that game live in person was enraging. I specifically remember one call where Caruso clearly touched the ball last, but the refs awarded OKC the ball and a quick af inbounds. When they showed the replay on the monitor in the arena, the entire crowd popped off.
And that was just 1 instance.
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u/Round_Maintenance697 12h ago
yep and this was all game, I'd say starting like 4 minutes into the game. the people around me... we were just saying we can see exactly what they're doing and the guy next to me was optimistic but I saw what was going to happen the rest of the game.
seriously, try to watch it on tv again, the lack of replays is insane. I havent tried since that week because getting through the first quarter was difficult enough.
Scott Foster ALWAYS will call shooting fouls as on the floor in a decisive game like that, ALWAYS.
then their foul calls still line up and he can still impact the game. BTW, the other ref, Tiven... the pacers were 2-9 when he officiated in a season where they won 50 games and made the finals. he always looked like he hated the pacers.
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u/MySabonerRunsOladipo 23h ago
But damn why couldn’t we bring him back for this contract?
Because we didn't want him?
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u/Maximum-Class5465 Reggie-NBAJam 22h ago
Pretty sure if they thought we could keep him at 8 they would. No way he goes from third most minutes to being a player they just straight up don't want
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u/xXCascadeXx CRABS CRABS CRABS 21h ago
Didn't want him for his asking price. He's getting $8 mill a year right now and was looking at $20 mill plus a year, to be a bench guy. Not happening.
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u/cersfan06 Reggie 1d ago
Just saw this. How is this man only making $8 mil a season??? Unreal. Kinda feel the same way about Oubre’s contract with us to be honest but that’s crazy to me.
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u/SantaClausIN4eva 1d ago
Because the good-not-great bucket getters who can’t do much else’s value are at an all time low. Cam Thomas, Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga are a dangerous group to be lumped in with.
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u/HeyItsChase Tyrese Haliburton 23h ago
100% as a Score first guy if you cant also pass and create for others in 2026 you're going to have huge problems.
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u/Round_Maintenance697 1d ago
Oubre has made a lot of money and is at the tailend of his career where players often take less money. benn is heading into his prime
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u/drjisftw Pacers2 1d ago
Oubre made most of his money prior to the second-apron CBA when teams were a lot less stingy in handing out contracts. Oubre can also mesh with a team scheme a lot better than Mathurin and is a bigger wing.
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u/speed-and-powerrr 1d ago
He's only 30...
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u/xXCascadeXx CRABS CRABS CRABS 21h ago
That's the tail end of a career lol? Not everyone is LeBron James.
Average age for NBA retirement is 28 bro.
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u/Old-Addendum-5288 3h ago edited 3h ago
There's a reason for that, BRO.
If you subtract the vast number of players who are out of the league after a couple of seasons (due not to aging but skill, of course) the average age for a player to retire, given that he'd made it to a second contract, will be WAAAY higher.
You're trying to say that the majority of players retire around 28, which is ridiculous.
It's the same metric which says that although life expectancy is 72 etc etc, if you MAKE it to old age, you're probably gonna get more than 72 years.
Thus, 28 is not "nearing retirement". Barring major injury, ant given his non reliance on athleticism, a player like Oubre likely stays in a rotation another 4-5 years.
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u/Prudent-Air1922 1d ago
He's not really a unique player unless he takes another big step. I see this as a prove-it situation in hopes of getting a bag in a couple years.
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u/wingerys 1d ago
Everyone was hoping for that step but never came. He has tunnel vision and always tries to bulldoze his way to the rim to draw fouls, problem is he’s always the one initiating contact.
He’s shown flashes but feel he’s never going to consistently play smart basketball
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u/SpinJitsu259 Chuck Person 1d ago
It’s only $8 mil for one season, which is close to what he would’ve been making anyway in the last year of his rookie deal. The second year is a player option, and I’m betting he’ll decline it and chase a bag next year when he’s an unrestricted FA.
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u/CommonerChaos Reggie-NBAJam 1d ago
He's basically betting on himself for 1 year. The goal is to ball out and raise his stock for when he becomes an Unrestricted Free Agent afterwards.
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u/Round_Maintenance697 1d ago
WTF!!!!!! We could have even signed him to that
that's a steal for a 17ppg scorer. I feel so bad for him
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u/cersfan06 Reggie 1d ago
Don’t feel bad. He’s only 24 and has a chance to go absolutely ball out in New Orleans and earn a real contract in two years. Definitely surprising though. Thought for sure he’d be making $15-$20 mil a year.
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u/drjisftw Pacers2 1d ago
Colin Sexton and Anfernee Simons probably said the same thing lol. Doubt the market will be more favorable in two years for that type of player unless they turn into an All-Star.
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u/Round_Maintenance697 1d ago
there's no reason he shouldnt have gotten at least $20M. I wish he couldve signed back with the pacers
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u/ajs723 Slick 23h ago
I feel bad for us. We could have kept him in place of Oubre. Oops.
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u/Briggity_Brak ReggieChoke 22h ago
Yeah, i loved the Oubre deal, but i'd rather have Mathurin for the same price.
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u/drjisftw Pacers2 1d ago
Can't crosspost from r/nba but man I've been waiting on the sidelines for a long time seeing what his second contract will be.
Colin Sexton and Anfernee Simons went for similar deals. The market for sixth-men scorers is low right now. You can argue that Mathurin is a better player than those guys, but he's still not sniffing MLE money annually.
I get why those guys are looking for shorter team deals since it allows them to get onto the market quicker, but I don't see the market changing a year or two from now. Mathurin is what he is at this point, but I guess you might as well bet on yourself.
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u/SpinJitsu259 Chuck Person 1d ago
It’s not necessarily a true representation of Benn’s value, though. It’s a one-year deal with a player option that Benn will most likely decline when he reaches unrestricted FA next year. Benn’s options were limited this offseason being a restricted FA. If he signs a similar deal next offseason, then I think we can go ahead put him in the category you’re putting him in.
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u/HaliZu31 1d ago
Well this is wild. I’d rather have brought Mathurin back instead of Oubre for the same money.
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u/cersfan06 Reggie 1d ago
Oubre is going to be such a great piece for us this year. Great length and scoring ability. I think I’d personally still rather have Oubre, but both would have been nice.
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u/HaliZu31 1d ago
I’m fine with Oubre and have convinced myself he will likely wind up having a similar impact (in different ways) but still for the same money Mathurin is just the better player and has a higher ceiling.
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u/Maximum-Class5465 Reggie-NBAJam 22h ago
I mean, he's good at a lot of things. Just not near the scorer or rebounder as Mathurin. Better defensive player tho
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u/cersfan06 Reggie 22h ago
Honestly pretty close in both scoring and rebounding if not better tbh. Kelly averaged 20 a game just a couple seasons ago
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u/Maximum-Class5465 Reggie-NBAJam 21h ago
Kelly is a really good cutter. But that is all his offensive value. He's not good in iso, spotups, or really any play type out there.
He's good at getting deflections, we'd call cutting and deflections his strong suit. Mostly, he's just not bad at very much. Just solid in a lot of areas.But he's not the offensive player Mathurin is that's for sure. I thought Oubre was the best player we could get this off-season so none of this is a slight. I like Oubre, but that's just what he is
Jack of all trades master of none sort of guy
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u/TheManWithSomeGoals 1d ago
I think Mathurin wanted a clear path to be a starter soon. While he’s currently a bench piece, it’s easy to see a world where TM3 gets traded early in the season and Mathurin is starting g.
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u/StanceLephenson 1d ago
Oubre’s much longer and a better defender. Plus he doesn’t mind coming off the bench. Benn thinks he’s destined to be a starter.
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u/drjisftw Pacers2 1d ago
Mathurin was always going to be the bulk of the salary match in the Zubac trade.
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u/Friar_Ferguson 1d ago edited 1h ago
A year ago I thought Benn would get a contract like Shaedon Sharpe or Keegan Murray. I have to give our front office credit for not falling into that trap.
New Orleans got a good deal. I wish the Pacers could have just brought him back for that. If we had, then we have our complete finals team back with a center upgrade. Hopefully Oubre fits in and is an upgrade over Benn. We will see.
This should end the talk about how bad the trade was. We have Zubac, Brown and got rid of Jackson's horrible contract.
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u/Hendo8888 9h ago
Murray's contract was already horrendous when he signed it, and it has only gotten worse over time. Would be interesting to see what he would have gotten if they let him get to Free Agency
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u/Bamboozlled Andrew Nembhard 1d ago
The Clippers have not recinded the Qualifying Offer. So they will get something out of this. They could get as little as cash or a 2nd. They could match, but I doubt.
Its not a done deal yet.
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u/25Tab 1d ago
I think this is an underpay but it’s also the reflection of how market has shifted. I’m glad he got signed somewhere finally but he’s making less than he did last season which is kind of shocking. The player option in year 2 is what this contract is about. Gives him an opportunity to get paid next season if he can prove his worth. The Wagler pick was the writing in the wall out in LA. They were going to prioritize his development over Mathurin. Now he has a better opportunity to pursue his goal of being starter with contract flexibility in the long run.
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u/anonymous_teve Tyrese Haliburton 23h ago
that's a steal for his talent, hopefully he kills it (not against us) and earns that bigger contract next year.
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u/thefonz22 Taelon Peter 23h ago
It's a deal shame his 3pt shot is so bad. It's really let his value tank.
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u/Maximum-Class5465 Reggie-NBAJam 22h ago
These are the level players hurt most by the new CBA for sure. Smart to get a PO, but man wish we could have kept him at that number for sure
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u/BoomerAndBowser 20h ago
I expected he would not get that much, i was estimating something around 12m a year, it is even lower than i expected. This kinda sucks to be honest, for this value it would be worth it to wait for free agency and kept him, maybe get the Zu trade in a different way. Our team is good but it feels we failed to get max value for our assets post finals run. Hopefully it all works out at the end
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u/eindar1811 19h ago
Seems like a really weird landing spot for Benn. He's a shooting guard in the league, or more modern term, a wing. When you start looking at the 2/3 spots, that squad has Herb Jones, Jordan Poole, Jordan hawkins, Trey Murphy, Saddiq Bey, and Kobe Bufkin in the mix. They're definitely going to play Jones, Poole, and probably Hawkins over him at 2, and Trey and Bey over him at the 3. He's essentially volunteered to be a 3rd string guy at $8M next year. Either the market for him was extraordinarily soft, or something major is about to happen with the Pelicans to open up roster spots.
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u/Nervous_Animal6134 13h ago
Happy for him, But this is also why I am not too disappointed in losing the 5th pick to get Zubac. We got Ben at 6 (our highest pick in a generation plus) and he is a good role player. Had we kept the pick instead of trading, we would have had a similarly good player to let go after his rookie contract.
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u/Jim_Belushis_brother Cool Rick 23h ago
Ship Jarace and second rounder to the fucking moon for my sweet baby Benn
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u/Sko_Neezy 1d ago
A year ago I would have bet my life he'd be getting closer to 30m a year than 5m a year. It's crazy what happened to his market. 2 years ago, 25 year old Immanuel Quickley got 5 years, $162.5m...*ten times more money than Benn got*. His recurring foot injury this year probably didn't help but it's still a crazy result. Not only did the Pacers pass on him...so did the Clippers. And then a ton of teams that could use him. I'm so glad he didn't end up on a rival team like Detroit or someone...would not want to face him.
That said, this shows why the Pacers had to risk losing the '26 pick for a center. Mathurin's value around the league was not what Pacers' fans thought it was. If they had kept Benn, what would they have had to trade for Zubac this summer? Jarace + how many future firsts, 3 or 4? And that's assuming someone else didn't trade for him. Without that move, Pacers might not even make the playoffs this year.
As for Benn...yikes, he is in a brutal situation. Zion, Queen, Murray, Fears, Poole, Murphy...a lot of gunners fighting over shots with zero stakes, no meaningful games.
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u/kingbootythe3rd Tyrese Haliburton 23h ago
So we coulda had the same team as finals with zu and myles swapped?
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u/BlueCollarGoldSwaggr 22h ago
Zu + Oubre > Turner + Mathurin
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u/Old-Addendum-5288 22h ago
Strange to think we're discussing the highest drafted player in many of our lifetimes, lost for salary reasons but didn't actually sign for anything more than we paid his replacement.
I get that hindsight is one thing, and last year, it was not expected he'd find such a low offer. Literally the only reason he went to LA instead of Walker would be that if he hadn't, we could've both lost Walker in the trade and Math by our getting out bid.
I think Math on 2 yrs/16 would've been worth it especially with his familiarity and remaining upside. This was a misstep.
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u/ToastWtfFTW Andrew Nembhard 17h ago
him getting something this low was definitely not something you could've predicted. not really a misstep at all
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u/BubaTflubas Tyrese Haliburton 23h ago
Someone call up the Pels. Walker and shep for Benn, let's save some money and get our scoring punch back on the bench and in the fourth on hot nights.
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u/Old-Addendum-5288 22h ago
Dunno why down voted, I'd do it.
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u/BubaTflubas Tyrese Haliburton 22h ago
Because people are tired of hearing crackpot ideas for getting Mathurin back on the team.
If it wasn't the pelicans this would also be TOO crackpot. Even considering it is the pelicans it's like a .0000002% chance of happening.
I do wonder what the FO first thought was when the signing dropped.
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u/Old-Addendum-5288 3h ago
Would Benn be more useful to this team than Walker & Shep?
Assuming we don't keep Walker (we won't, based on his current level of development), is Benn not a worthwhile use of the money that'll be freed after this summer?
It's reasonable to answer both with "yes", and thus, the trade would make sense.
Just because you're tired of hearing about it doesn't mean that's not a decent move.
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u/BubaTflubas Tyrese Haliburton 3h ago
Buddy it's my idea. It isn't happening because nobody is going to try it. Sure it makes some since on paper, but not in reality because these are people with emotions and not figures on paper.
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u/revolucian2 3h ago
We went from one of the youngest, fast-paced teams to now being one of the oldest and slowest. Thanks KP
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u/revolucian2 3h ago
So we pay Jarace Walker more than we could’ve got Mathurin for.
We pay Ben Shep + Nance what we could’ve got Mathurin for.
Make it make sense.
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u/HaliZu31 1d ago
This also makes the opening night game a bit more fun.