Mark Montieth: Reclaiming his role

As the saying goes, the best ability is availability. It goes that way because it’s true. Whatever the line of work, from athletics to zoology, talent is a nonfactor if you aren’t performing. And if you aren’t performing, people can forget fast.

Bennedict Mathurin learned that the hard way last May when he had to sit and watch his Pacers teammates break through to the Eastern Conference finals before being swept by Boston. Surely, he could have helped, maybe even enough to nudge them into the NBA Finals.

They were still competitive without him, losing Game 1 in overtime and Games 3 and 4 by three points each.

It was a painful experience for him but also a recipe for a fresh perspective, because there’s another old saying that’s undeniably true: You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone. Having to sit and watch from the bench, feeling he was no longer part of the team, made him want to become part of the group that much more. Realizing they could win without him was a slap in the face, and it stung.

“It was really hard not being able to put on the uniform, and seeing my teammates have a lot of fun and competing,” Mathurin says. “It was also great to be able to see the team through a different lens and see how great of a team we have. Me not being able to play and seeing what I could have brought to the team, it was hard to watch.”

Also: “But it was good because it … humbled me a little bit.”

It’s a universal lesson. Life will pass you by in a flash if you step back too far or for too long. There’s always someone ready to take your place.

The clichéd example of that from the sports world is Wally Pipp, the New York Yankees first baseman who, according to legend, took a day off in 1925 because of a headache. He was replaced by Lou Gehrig, who had played the previous day and proceeded to run his streak of consecutive appearances to 2,130 games, a record that lasted until 1995.

Closer to home, Colts center Ryan Kelly sat out Sunday’s victory over Pittsburgh with a neck injury. His replacement, rookie Tanor Bortolini, filled in and balled out, playing a key role in an effective rushing attack. Immediately, Colts fans on social media speculated about Bortolini taking over the position next season, if not sooner.

It happens in all professions, particularly in the music world. Pete Best, the Beatles’ drummer in their pre-fab stage of development, had to miss a few gigs in Hamburg, Germany, with an illness. Another drummer, Ringo Starr, was playing for a different British band in the city. He agreed to filled in and immediately caught the collective ear of John, Paul and George. Best was suddenly expendable and soon replaced. He was making a living baking bread while the Beatles all became wealthy from their place atop the pop music charts.

Mathurin’s future isn’t as grim as those of Pipp, Kelly and Best. He’s a 22-year-old former lottery pick who has played two NBA seasons and shown immense promise. He earned first-team all-rookie honors and scored 30 or more points in five of the 59 games he played last season before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury at Dallas on March 5.

The challenging truth is, however, he began last season as a starter while Aaron Nesmith and Andrew Nembhard came off the bench. He finished it in street clothes while Nesmith and Nembhard were productive starters.

He enters this season as a giant X-factor, with a range of possibilities awaiting him. He’s the Pacers’ best argument for improvement, given all he’s capable of doing offensively. But he’s also at risk of getting lost in their mix of young, cohesive talent if he doesn’t improve defensively.

He also faces a dilemma. He’s at his best when playing starter’s minutes. Most players are, of course, but the difference for Mathurin is dramatic. In the 14 games of his career that he’s played 30-39 minutes, he has performed at an all-star level, averaging 23.4 points while hitting 54% of his field goal attempts, including 45% of his 3-pointers. His accuracy declines swiftly in sync with his minutes.

He’s also significantly better at home than on the road, averaging 4.2 more points with better shooting percentages in Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Unfortunately for him, the Pacers will play half of their 82 games on the road again this season.

Coach Rick Carlisle won’t just hand over a heavy workload to Mathurin to get the most out of him. He says earning minutes is a vital part of the culture he is trying to establish. He also says he has 11 players good enough to deserve meaningful minutes in every game but won’t use that many. No coach does. Tyrese Haliburton and Pascal Siakam were the only Pacers to average more than 30 minutes last season and likely will be the only ones to do so again.

The curious thing about Mathurin’s two NBA seasons is that, while he’s a consistent and occasionally explosive offensive force, he hasn’t contributed to winning as much as one would think. The “win shares” stat in the NBA attempts to measure a player’s overall effectiveness by encompassing all aspects of the game. Mathurin ranked 14th in that category among the Pacers last season.

That’s mostly because of his tendency to dominate the ball on offense and not show the same concern for his defense.

Last December, with the Pacers off to a 7-5 start, Carlisle made a dedicated effort to improve the defense. One of his strategies was to remove Mathurin from the starting lineup, and he got marginal improvement. Acquiring Pascal Siakam in a trade in January brought further improvement, as did the emergence of Nembhard and Nesmith. The Pacers were the 18th-rated defensive team between the all-star break and the playoffs according to Carlisle, which was nothing to brag about but a vast improvement over their 28th-place ranking in December.

Clearly, Mathurin’s path to the playing time that brings out his best can be located at the defensive end of the court.

“Ben has great ability,” Carlise said. “He has an indomitable will to score. What he needs to do this year is adjust his game to how we played at the end of the season and the playoffs, which is to play fast, to run, to make quick decisions, to keep the ball moving and to take his defensive ability to another level.”

Mathurin is aware of all this. He said he has worked on his individual defense since he was cleared to engage in full workouts about six weeks ago. If he fulfills Carlisle’s prescription for improved playing time, he’ll present a dilemma of his own. Nembhard and Nesmith are accustomed to significant roles, as is another wing player, Ben Sheppard, who is coming off a solid rookie season. Something will have to give.

Haliburton, for one, expects Mathurin to regain a grip on a major role.

“Knowing how competitive he is, [sitting out] lights a fire under a guy who’s one of the most hard-headed motivated people I know,” he said. “I’m excited to have him back. Him not playing allowed him to come out of his shell a little bit.”

That has been expressed in a surprising way. Incongruent with his stone-faced basketball demeanor, Mathurin apparently has become the Pacers’ chief chef. When he couldn’t play a role on the court, he found one in the kitchen. All part of his desire to bring “good vibes and joy” to the team.

Haliburton assigns stats of his own to Mathurin’s baking efforts. He awarded a score of 8 (out of 10) to a recent banana bread contribution. Mathurin also has offered up cakes, cupcakes and pie.

“He makes a little bit of everything,” Haliburton said. “He does it all.”

Mathurin shrugs it off.

“When I put my mind to doing something, I can do it and do it very well,” he said.

He’ll need to apply that mindset to the ingredients of his basketball game as well. It’s what will make him irreplaceable.•

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Montieth, an Indianapolis native, is a longtime newspaper reporter and freelance writer. He is the author of three books: “Passion Play: Coach Gene Keady and the Purdue Boilermakers,” “Reborn: The Pacers and the Return of Pro Basketball to Indianapolis,” and “Extra Innings: My Life in Baseball,” with former Indianapolis Indians President Max Schumacher.