If you listen to any All-Time NBA great with championships speak, the "others" will come up sooner or later. The others are impactful role players who step up when the lights shine bright.
The others make or break series in the playoffs. Kobe and Shaq were always going to show up, that's a given, but Derek Fisher and Robert Horry drilling collasall shots shifted series.
The Indiana Pacers are a team loaded with others. Tyrese Haliburton and Pasacal Siakam are their leaders, but the supporting cast makes them go. Neither Siakam nor Haliburton are Kobe and Shaq-level players, so it's even more permeant that players like Aaron Nesmith, Myles Turner, Bennedict Mathurin, and the pesky streaky-shooting Andrew Nembhard show up.
Nembhard was drafted as a combo playmaker but quickly made his bread and butter on the other side of the court. He's one of the most stout one-on-onedefenders, and the Pacers need him to rise in playoff performance to make another deep postseason run.
Andrew Nembhard’s picking up the best every night 😤 pic.twitter.com/e7IJe1rUnY
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) April 3, 2025
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Andrew Nembhard brings the clamps
Teams would rather not go at Nembhard in isolation. He defends isos less frequently than his guard teammates because he does more than hold his own. Nembhard only allows 0.76 PPP in his limited iso attempts, per NBA.com. The best scorers in the league are well above 1.00 PPP in insolation play types; Nebmhard is holding it down.
He's a playmaker on that end, blowing up sets and turning defense to offense. Nembhard still thrives as a secondary playmaker. He takes pressure off Haliburton and Siakam, creating plays for himself and others when his number is dialed up. Nemhard's 3-point shooting has dipped a bit, but that weapon was a key piece that led the Pacers by the Knicks last year.
It wasn't just the Knicks series — Nembhard was a Human Torch from 3 overall in the playoffs. He shot 48 percent on nearly four attempts. The Knicks felt the brunt of the burn when Nembhard buried 53 percent of his triples over the seven-game series.
That production will be needed again in a more boisterous Eastern Conference. The Pacers caught some injury luck last season, but now the Cavaliers are revamped and loaded, New York has Karl-Anthony Towns (they can't beat good teams, though), and the Boston Celtics are still an inevitable force.
With Haliburton revived as one of the premier point guards in our league and Siakam casting as a proven champ, it's on the others in Indiana to chip in like they've done all year.
Mathurin needs to be that ignitable engine, Turner needs to stretch defenses out to the Colt's arena, Nesmith has to be steady, and Andrew Nembhard needs to catch his flame from a year ago. The gritty bulldog defense and playmaking reads will be there, but that extra oomph from Nembhard will go a long way.