The Whiteboard: Bennedict Mathurin could give the Pacers another gear

The Indiana Pacers broke through last season — winning 47 games for the first time since 2018-19 and advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2012-13. They did it behind the brilliance of Tyrese Haliburton and a deep and balanced supporting cast but they also did it largely without second-year guard Bennedict Mathurin, who suffered a torn labrum and missed the last 19 games of the regular season and all of the playoffs.

Mathurin was a strong contributor in his rookie season and continued that before the injury in year two, averaging 14.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists, on a 56.2 true shooting percentage. He'll be back in the lineup this year and likely continue to come off the bench — while Buddy Hield is gone, the emergence of Andrew Nembhard last year during the playoffs was too good to ignore.

But Mathurin could give the Pacers' second-unit offense a huge boost and give them another shot-creating dimension they really lacked against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.

Bennedict Mathurin has the tools for a breakout season

Besides his strong base stats, Mathurin has demonstrated an impressive ability to create opportunities for himself with the ball in his hands. He ranked in the 92nd percentile in scoring efficiency in isolations last season, across 59 opportunities in 58 games. He drew fouls on isolations at very a high rate — roughly the same as Luka Doncic and Jalen Brunson. Mathurin is also a strong finisher and has shown a lot of growth as a pull-up shooter.

There is still a lot of room for growth with the ball in his hands. He's not a great passer and tends to get tunnel vision but, again, he's such an efficient scorer that keeping the ball once he's collapsed the defense is over the high-percentage play.

The Pacers offense had no problems in the halfcourt during the regular season, ranking in second in points per possession after a made shot by the opponents. But that slipped significantly in the playoffs against tougher defenses and their average in the latter two rounds (1.10 PPP) would have ranked 15th during the regular season. Their mark just against the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals would have ranked 24th.

Tyrese Haliburton was bottled up to some degree by the Knicks and Celtics and Pascal Siakam had to take on a fair bit of extra creation responsibility. It wasn't a complete disaster but having another offensive threat who is both comfortable playing off the ball and attacking with the ball in his hands once the defense has been shifted in the ball is swung their way, could be a huge difference.

As Caitlin Cooper pointed out, Mathurin was one of the few players on the Pacers who regularly drew extra defenders:

"And, here's the thing: whereas the Pacers as a team didn't often see help defenders present on drives (remember, they ranked 23rd in this category as a percentage last season), the same did not apply to Mathurin, whose strong will led to him seeing help on 86.7 percent of his drives -- which marked the highest frequency of anyone on the team."

He's not exactly excelling in the kick part of the drive-and-kick game but that's an obvious area for growth and one that could really help the Pacers level up this season.

The Knicks and 76ers made some big offseason moves to improve the roster and people are, understandably, high on the Celtics and Cavs because of continuity. But the Pacers can't be overlooked. They caught some lucky breaks in the playoffs last season but weren't playing over their heads and there are several reasons, Mathuring among them, they could be even better this year with largely the same roster.

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NBA news roundup:

• The vibes are off the charts. At least that's the word out of the Lakers camp. Feel free to remain skeptical until you see them actually playing against real competition but it's definitely a change from the past few years.

• Training camp injuries are piling up. Trey Murphy III of the Pelicans is the latest to go down, and will reportedly miss at least three weeks and the start of the regular season with a hamstring strain. Murphy averaged 14.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game last season, shooting 38.0 percent from beyond the arc, and would presumably be in line for a much larger role if Brandon Ingram is eventually traded.

• Rajon Rondo is making a move toward coaching — working as a "guest coach" under Doc Rivers with the Milwaukee Bucks.

Quick Hitter: Nuggets depth is a big question mark

The Nuggets started their preseason with a loss to the Boston Celtics in Abu Dhabi but got some solid contributions from their supporting cast. But it also demonstrated how fragile things may be once the regular season starts.

Denver lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope from their starting lineup this offseason and appear to be hoping Christian Braun is ready to take his place. They then signed Dario Saric and Russell Westbrook to fill out the bench, hoping that last year's rookies — Julian Strawther and Hunter Tyson were ready to step up as well. Peyton Watson will be in the mix as well but that group — Saric, Westbrook, Watson, Strawther and Tyson look like a shaky bench unit, and that's assuming Jamal Murray stays healthy and that Braun is indeed able to hold his own with the starters.

Westbrook had an extremely Westbrook debut — attempting 10 shots in 18 minutes, adding 8 assists and shooting 3-of-10. He did some positive things but the Nuggets were only plus-4 while he was on the court, much of it against Boston's bench. The Nuggets may need him to be much more of a scoring threat than he was last season with the Clippers and that looked like an extremely risky proposition over the past few years. That is to say, Westbrook averaging 20 shots per 36 minutes could be both essential and an ongoing issue.

Some rapid development from their young players could change things and they still have one of the best starting groups in the league even with Braun in place of KCP. But a Westbrook-led second unit might be something like the seventh- or eighth-best bench unit in the Western Conference and that could be a big shortcoming across a long regular season.