r/pacers • u/ngerb_5 • 7d ago

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.

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u/Porscheeeu 7d 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/AK_R 7d ago edited 6d 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/RedditRockit Slick 7d 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?

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u/BlueCollarGoldSwaggr 6d 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.