What Pacers Must Consider In Extensions For Bennedict Mathurin Or Aaron Nesmith

INDIANAPOLIS – While the Indiana Pacers free agency period has slowed significantly – all they have done since their July 24 two-way agreement with Taelon Peter is sign Jalen Slawson to an Exhibit 10 deal – they still have two contract negotiations to consider before the season starts. Guard Bennedict Mathurin as well as wing Aaron Nesmith are both eligible for a contract extension this offseason, and they both have drastically different considerations guiding financial dialogue with the team.

Mathurin is eligible for a rookie-scale extension until October 20. Nesmith, meanwhile, could sign a veteran extension this offseason, and his agreement has the same deadline. Once the regular season arrives, both players won’t be able to sign any new deals until next summer. There is a time restriction.

Both Nesmith and Mathurin are talented and relatively young. In theory, that’s the type of player a team would want to keep – but things are never that simple. The Pacers are currently under the luxury tax and project to be about $20-26 shy of that threshold next season, then $70-79 below it in 2027-28 – the year Nesmith’s extension would kick in. A lot can change for a team’s roster and salary outlook, so those numbers may not end up being relevant. But that flexibility is a part of the story when it comes to the Pacers extension negotiations with both players – and the salary chatter for both projects to be different.

“Yeah, we’ll look at all those kinds of things… They both had good years,” Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard said when asked about extensions for both players in July. “Those guys, in my opinion, still have levels to move up. And that’s what I like about this team. We’re not this team that’s like ‘Okay, that’s what they are. They didn’t make it. Let’s go in a different direction’. What I feel like is important is you keep this base of players and you look to use draft picks or other ways to go get another player that we feel like fits us. Because one thing that is very clear now is we have a culture. Our players developed this incredible culture. And I will not bring an over-talented guy that doesn’t feel like he fits the culture. We’d rather have guys like that that can grow into our culture. And so that’s our job now.”

What the Pacers and Bennedict Mathurin will consider in extension talks

Mathurin could sign a five-year extension that begins in 2026-27 and is worth up to his maximum salary. At 25% of the salary cap, Mathurin’s top extension is a five-year, $240 million agreement – it could start at 30% of the cap, but that’s exceedingly unlikely. Mathurin isn’t going to sign a max deal, but any legal contract that fits within those salary and length parameters is permitted.

He’s averaged 15.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in his three seasons with the Pacers and is a terrific face-up scorer. The Canadian guard will be the starter at shooting guard this season, and that will give him plenty of chances to produce and show again why he was a high draft pick.

The questions regarding Mathurin and his future in Indiana relate to fit. Mathurin is great in isolation situations, perhaps the best on the blue and gold. But the team wants to lead the league in passes and play with pace. That hasn’t quite blended with Mathurin’s strengths during his career.

“He saw a path to being a great player in the NBA that’s probably a little dated now… the game has just changed a lot,” Carlisle said about Mathurin on the Basketball She Wrote podcast this summer. “Our job as coaches is to meld guys like him that aren’t necessarily seamless fits into a style that is effective for the rest of the guys and bring both forces hopefully closer together as time goes on.”

That makes Mathurin’s value tough to determine with the Pacers. He’s effective, but his play style comes with questions. And he’ll be a starter with more opportunities this season, but that might not be the case two seasons from now once star guard Tyrese Haliburton returns from injury.

Both Indiana and Mathurin may want to stay together. The Pacers could try to pay Mathurin before a potential leap, and Mathurin would get paid his first bigger contract. But if Mathurin believes he will improve this season, accepting an extension based on his past play wouldn’t make sense. With such a big opportunity sitting in front of the young guard, playing out the season might be the right move for both parties.

If the 2022 sixth-overall pick pops and shows improvement – both with his own skills or his fit within the Pacers style – then the Pacers could simply negotiate a new contract with Mathurin next summer. He will likely be a restricted free agent, meaning the Pacers could match a contract Mathurin were to sign with another team. That eliminates a ton of risk for the blue and gold.

If Mathurin doesn’t have a monster season, then he could still negotiate a new deal with Indiana. Even then, though, the team and player would have a more complete picture of Mathurin’s value. Locking in an extension now isn’t valueless, but it might make more sense for both parties to wait with the crutch of restricted free agency looming.

It’s a tricky situation because Mathurin’s role could change so much from last season to the coming one, then again a year from today. And an extension now would make him harder to trade thanks to the poison pill provision. That makes it a complicated time for contract negotiations, and there are too many factors to predict a new deal.

Why talks between the Pacers and Aaron Nesmith are more simple

Nesmith, meanwhile, has a more straightforward contract outlook this summer. He isn’t eligible to sign an extension until October 1, so he has about three weeks to agree to a new deal. His extension value is based on the NBA’s average salary, which isn’t easy to calculate – but the maximum possible added deal for Nesmith would be a three-year agreement totalling about $63 million.

It’s a fascinating situation. Nesmith has two years left on his current contract and doesn’t need to be in a rush to tack on years or dollars to his deal. He won’t be a free agent until 2027 and is still just 25 years old.

But guaranteeing himself more than $60 million is still significant. It’s easy to say he could make more than about $20 million per year a few seasons from now – the salary cap projects to keep increasing, and Nesmith is a talented player. Yet others in his range of skills at the time they signed recent agreements, including Herb Jones and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, inked multi-year contracts worth just over $20 million per season.

So perhaps that is roughly Nesmith’s value, and he could lock it in now by signing an extension. Perhaps such a deal could be available to him next summer, too, when more market clarity is available. But waiting always has drawbacks, and Nesmith has a few to consider.

What if he gets injured next season? He’d be putting his contractual future heavily into the 2026-27 campaign in that case. And what if he doesn’t look quite as good playing a full season without Haliburton? What would that do to his value?

There are plenty of reasons for Nesmith to take or not take the maximum extension the Pacers can offer him in less than two weeks. The rising value of the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception, a salary cap exception that helps over the cap teams sign free agents, gives Nesmith a decent floor to work with when it comes to his future salary. There are good arguments to make in either direction when it comes to Nesmith and agreeing to a new deal this offseason, but talks should be simple. Indiana should be happy to have Nesmith for three additional seasons at $63 million in total, and they shouldn’t be afraid to offer the highest amount they can.

That would bring his current agreement to five years and $85 million in total, a great price for a talented young wing. Nesmith has averaged 11.3 points and 3.8 rebounds per game for the blue and gold while making over 40% of his three-point shots and being an excellent defensive player.

So, the situations for Nesmith and Mathurin could not be more different. Next month, extension talks will become an even more pressing topic for the Pacers.