‘Major steps’: How a meeting with Rick Carlisle snapped Bennedict Mathurin out of a slump

INDIANAPOLIS -- Bennedict Mathurin was told repeatedly by the Pacers' coaching staff that this year would be different than his rookie season. The adjustment has hit harder than expected.

Mathurin's rookie season was one of the most prolific in Pacers history. He was Indiana's first first-team All-Rookie pick since Rik Smits in 1989, and Clark Kellogg and Chuck Person were the only Pacers rookies who scored more points than Mathurin's 1,302. But the Pacers kept wind in Mathurin's sails by bringing him off the bench as a sixth man for most of the year.

Mathurin got plenty of minutes, averaging 28.5 per game, and plenty of work with the first unit, but when he was working with the second team, he was usually the only player the Pacers had on the floor averaging double figures. Mathurin averaged 16.7 points per game to finish second in the NBA among rookies behind Rookie of the Year Paolo Banchero. Mathurin was being defended by second-unit players he could dominate and he was guarding second-unit players he could handle. The situation helped him shine and build on his already considerable confidence.

But this offseason as the Pacers were grooming him to enter the starting lineup, they made it clear that it would be a major adjustment -- tougher defensive assignments, tougher defenders assigned to him, and learning to work in a non-stop offense orchestrated by point guard Tyrese Haliburton, who wants to reward everyone. Mathurin would be expected to produce on both ends and in all areas, and judged not just on how he scored the ball.

The adjustment was clearly taking a toll on Mathurin and he struggled throughout the Pacers' first seven games of the year. However in Wednesday's 134-118 win over the Jazz at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, he produced the all-around game Pacers coach Rick Carlisle has been waiting to see. Mathurin not only scored a season-high 22 points on 9 of 18 shooting and 4 of 7 from 3-point range, he also grabbed nine rebounds, five on offense, dished out four assists and grabbed two steals. He posted a team-best plus-minus of +18 in a team-high 38 minutes.

"I thought this was probably Benn's best game in two years," Carlisle said. "People want to see him shoot a bunch of shots and score a bunch of points, but that isn't necessarily what wins. What wins is being a part of a system, doing your job within a system, taking the right shots within a system, running to the corner when your job is to run to the corner and making simple plays. I thought tonight he took some major steps."

There are reasons why people -- namely Pacers fans and anyone with a professional or financial stake in the organization -- want Mathurin to take a lot of shots and score a lot of points. If there's any thing the Pacers appear to need to make a leap back into the upper tiers of the Eastern Conference, it's a perennial second All-Star-caliber player they can pair with Haliburton. Mathurin provides more hope at the moment than anyone else on the roster to become such a player, and points tend to be the first thing people notice when they're judging All-Stars.

As the No. 6 pick in the 2022 draft, Mathurin was the Pacers' first top 10 pick since Paul George in 2010 and their highest pick since they took Rik Smits No. 2 in 1988. It was imperative that the Pacers nail that pick by landing a player who could change the trajectory of the franchise. After last season it appeared that they had certainly picked the right man.

But after the season's first seven games it was clear to Carlisle and everyone else that Mathurin was struggling. He scored in double figures in each of the season's first three games, but then failed to hit 10 points in any of his next three, scoring a combined 21 points in three games on 9 of 25 shooting. Through six games he was averaging 11.2 points per game, shooting just 39.3% from the floor and 5 of 20 (25.0%) from 3-point range and he wasn't making up for the shooting struggles on defense or the glass.

So after the Pacers loss Saturday, Carlisle said he had a meeting with Mathurin to get across to him what the Pacers need from him, especially in the areas that don't involve scoring.

"I sat down with him yesterday for about 40 minutes," Carlisle said in his pre-game press conference Monday. "Showed him a lot of things, a lot of ways to impact the game that have nothing to do with having the ball in his hands or taking a shot. ... He's a great kid. He's worked extremely hard this year, particularly at the defensive end. Things have changed a little offensively because of being a starter and playing with better players and playing against better players and having to guard better players. Last year it was just he would go in a game and the way we were set up a lot of our possessions went through him. This year things are a little bit different. The thing I said to him is, 'I've got to show you ways to impact the game.'"

Mathurin said the discussion resonated in part because Carlisle made clear to him that his goals are attainable.

"He told me pretty much just to be myself," Mathurin said after Wednesday's game. "Obviously, it's not going to be easy, but I gotta fight through it. I gotta keep playing hard. The big thing for me is defense. I'm trying to get my defense on the same level of my offense. That's the main goal for us. I feel like that's the best way possible to help my team win."

Mathurin has said in the past that he wants to be one of the best two-way players in the NBA, often noting that Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were considered exceptional defenders. At 6-6, 210 pounds he has a similar build to those Hall of Famers. New teammate Bruce Brown, acquired because of his defense, said he thinks Mathurin has all the physical tools necessary to be one of the best wing defenders in the league. However Mathurin has struggled on that end both on and off the ball and said he knows he has a lot of work to do to become the defender he needs to be.

"It's just knowing who I guard," Mathurin said. "I'm trying to guard the best player on the other team. I gotta have extra film on who I'm guarding since I'm starting now. The main thing is just taking every matchup personal."

Carlisle liked how Mathurin responded in Monday's 152-111 win over the Spurs and he was even more impressed on Wednesday. Mathurin's primary assignment was rookie Keyonte George, who he helped hold to seven points on 3 of 9 shooting, and he also helped on Ochai Agbaji, who scored just three on 1 of 3 shooting. Mathurin had two steals with one of those coming because he got back on defense and shut down a Jazz attempt at a fast-break bucket.

He rebounded on both ends, and the four assists were evidence of how he's making more of a point to make plays for others.

"He's making the right play pretty much the majority of the time coming off pick-and-rolls," Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith said. "That doesn't mean always getting to the basket, it means spraying out for open 3s or hitting the roller and he's doing that at a high level."

Sometimes the simple play was still taking shots, and Mathurin provided several reminders of how explosive he is off the dribble, how deft he is at navigating traffic around the rim and how extensive his layup package is. And he showed he still had range with the four 3-pointers including a step-back 3 he nailed just before the end of the first quarter.

It was one game and it was against an undermanned Jazz team, but it was exactly the sort of response Carlisle was looking for. He's not getting ahead of himself on Mathurin's long-term prospects, just thinking of what it takes to keep him on the floor.

"He earned the 38 minutes," Carlisle said. "He earned it. And that's how it's gotta be."

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Jazz: Bennedict Mathurin takes 'major steps' after struggles