NBA Summer League: Ex-Wildcat Bennedict Mathurin feeling right at home with Indiana Pacers

LAS VEGAS — There’s a few connections for Bennedict Mathurin on the Indiana Pacers Summer League team.

For starters, Pacers guard and ex-Wildcat Gabe York played for former Arizona head coach Sean Miller. Then there’s guard Andrew Nembhard, who played for current UA head coach Tommy Lloyd at Gonzaga when he was Mark Few’s top assistant.

But Mathurin is feeling right at home with Indiana sharpshooter Chris Duarte. The common denominator? Both are the last two Pac-12 Player of the Year winners and were drafted in the first round by Pacers in the previous two classes.

Mathurin, who became the first Arizona guard drafted inside the top 10 since Jason Terry in 1999, was drafted No. 6 overall by the Pacers just a few weeks ago, but the Montreal native wasted no time establishing an on-court connection with Duarte as if they were longtime teammates.

With just over six minutes left in the third quarter of Mathurin’s debut with the Pacers on Friday at Thomas and Mack Center, Duarte took an outlet pass and had an easy look for a fast-break lay-up, but opted to lob a pass off the backboard for a Mathurin dunk.

“I saw him behind me and he asked for it straight up, and that’s exactly what I did,” Duarte said.

Mathurin ended the Pacers’ 96-84 win over the Charlotte Hornets with a game-high 23 points on 9-for-16 shooting from the field, to go with four rebounds, a steal and a turnover in 20 minutes.

“Having him by my side all the time, I feel like we’re able to click right away and tell each other things straight-forward without hurting each other’s feelings, and that’s a great thing for me as well,” Mathurin said of Duarte.

Duarte remembers the two games Oregon beat Arizona during his last season with the Ducks during the pandemic-influenced 2020-21 season, which was Mathurin’s freshman season at the UA.

“We beat him both times,” Duarte said with a smirk. “He’s 0-2 against me. … I hit a buzzer-beater and beat him twice. He remembers that.”

Duarte added Mathurin “was inconsistent” when they faced off in college. Mathurin scored a combined 15 points on 4-for-18 shooting from the field.

“Now, his jump shot — he’s got more confidence in himself and he’s just grown a lot. His game, he just took that next step,” Duarte said.

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Mathurin cited his lone season under Lloyd’s up-tempo brand of basketball “really helped” him adapt to the pace of NBA play.

“It helped me with spacing and being more comfortable when the ball is in my hands basically,” Mathurin said. “There’s a reason I went back for another year. I’m just more comfortable.”

Pacers Summer League head coach Ronald Nored said Mathurin performed similarly to his sophomore season at Arizona — and looked like the prospect they were enamored with during the pre-draft process.

“I don’t watch a ton of college basketball, but I know the coaches he played for are really good coaches,” Nored said.

Added Nored: “The things we saw out there today, it’s what we saw in college and what we’ve seen in practice all week. The ability to make shots, get shots off, make the right reads, get downhill from time to time — those are all things we’ve seen. … He’s just a focused guy. He cares about winning, and he’s willing to do the things that matter to winning on both ends of the floor.

“He’s still learning the NBA game and he’s going to continue to get better. We all love his start mainly because he played the right way, not just because shots were falling.”

Nored compared Mathurin to former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade.

“To me, just being around the league, and I’m not saying he’s him or going to be him, but with the physique, he looks like Dwyane Wade to me just with his body,” he said. “They may have different games, but his body, physicality and ability to use that to his strengths, it reminds me of when Dwyane Wade used to kick my butt on the other sideline.”

For Mathurin, who’s set to earn nearly $30 million over the next four years, he doesn’t take this stage of his life for granted.

“Just wanted to play hard and have fun. I stepped on the court like it was my last time,” Mathurin said. “I’m just having fun. … You never know when’s the last time you’re going to step on the court. I’m blessed to wake up and play basketball. I just go on the court and give my max.”

How does Mathurin build on his performance heading into the Pacers’ contest against the Sacramento Kings on Sunday?

“The main focus for me is defense,” Mathurin said.

“I just want to be a two-way player and show the NBA what I’m about. I just want to go out there and have fun and win. … If you know me, you know I’m a winner. I just want to win. We won the game and now we’re on to the next game.”