The Indiana Pacers are hoping for a year of growth from its players. They didn’t really sign anyone from free agency who will change their roster in any meaningful way. James Wiseman is the only guy who they brought in that wasn’t on last year’s team and he might not even be in the rotation.
That means that they are hanging their hopes on the team being able to be better with another year of chemistry and work in the offseason. We know what some of the guys need to work on already. WE know Tyrese Haliburton has to be better on defense and Andrew Nembhard needs to be a more consistent catch-and-shoot three-point shooter.
Aaron Nesmith didn’t start the season as a starter for the Pacers. He came off the bench while Buddy Hield and Bennedict Mathurin started at the two and the three spots. After a few weeks, it was clear that Nesmith added more value as a starter than he did off the bench. So what does he need to do to be better?
Nesmith showed this year that he is able to be a strong defender. Pound-for-pound, he’s the best defender on the roster. He would often take the toughest defensive assignment in a given matchup. Whether that was defending Giannis or LeBron James, he did a pretty good job.
During the regular season, Nesmith was a knockdown three-point shooter. He shot almost 42% from deep. The issue was that he fell off in a massive way after the All-Star break. Pre-All-Star break, he shot a blistering 45% from beyond the arc. After the break, he shot just under 34%.
The playoffs were a bad offensive showing for him too. On 4.6 attempts per game, he shot just 27.8% from three. Quite frankly, that’s not good enough. Of course, he was running around defensively all playoffs defending the best player on the other team, so that tired him out. Even so, he has to be better when it matters the most.
That’s the biggest thing that he needs to improve on. If he does, he can become a true threat on both ends of the court and really bump up the ceiling of what this Indiana team can do.
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Publish date : 2024-07-10 17:07:31
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