{"id":112052,"date":"2025-09-02T01:21:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T01:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/112052\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T01:21:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T01:21:07","slug":"critical-deadline-approaching-for-key-player-bennedict-mathurin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/112052\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Deadline Approaching for Key Player Bennedict Mathurin"},"content":{"rendered":"

A key deadline is fast approaching for an important Indiana Pacers contributor.<\/p>\n

The Pacers are in for a major hangover season in 2025-26, following a 50-win run in 2024-25 that yielded the franchise’s first Finals run in a quarter century.<\/p>\n

More news: Pacers Insider Projects Bleak Season Outlook After Schedule Reveal<\/a><\/p>\n

Swingman Bennedict Mathurin, the No. 6 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft out of Arizona, has been eligible for an extension of his rookie-scale contract since the NBA officially rolled over to the new season on July 1. <\/p>\n

Although head coach Rick Carlisle toggled with putting the 6-foot-6 small forward\/shooting guard in and out of his starting lineups, by the end of the year he was a bench player, behind Carlisle’s preferred first five of All-NBA point guard Tyrese Haliburton, shooting guard Andrew Nembhard, small forward Aaron Nesmith, All-Star power forward Pascal Siakam, and 3-and-D center Myles Turner.<\/p>\n

More news: Pacers, Rick Carlisle Agree to Long-Term Contract Extension<\/a><\/p>\n

Two key pieces from that starting unit will be out of commission this coming season. Haliburton tore his Achilles tendon in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, with Indiana in the lead over the Oklahoma City Thunder. He has already been ruled out for all of 2025-26. Nembhard is slated to replace him as Indiana’s starting point guard.<\/p>\n

Indiana lost Turner in free agency, when he agreed to a lucrative four-year, $108.9 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks. Re-signed backups Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman, plus trade acquisition Jay Huff and maybe even reserve center Tony Bradley, will be competing for likely three center spots on Carlisle’s standard roster.<\/p>\n

Mathurin, meanwhile, is in line for a promotion. Carlisle has already indicated that the 23-year-old will serve as the team’s new starting shooting guard. Across 72 healthy regular season contests last year, Mathurin averaged 16.1 points on .458\/.340\/.831 shooting splits, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists a night.<\/p>\n

Indiana has until Oct. 20 to work out a deal with Mathurin, otherwise he will become a restricted free agent next summer. <\/p>\n

His minutes were slashed from 29.8 to 17.5 during the playoffs due in part to defensive issues, and his output was reduced accordingly. He’ll be gunning for big money this season if he can’t reach an agreement with the notoriously frugal Indiana before the aforementioned deadline. <\/p>\n

A robust offensive season could yield a massive payday, but it remains to be seen just how much the Pacers will be willing to spend.<\/p>\n

For more news and notes on the Indiana Pacers, visit Indiana Pacers on SI<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A key deadline is fast approaching for an important Indiana Pacers contributor. The Pacers are in for a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-112052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112052\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}