Bennedict Mathurin is getting a fresh start in New Orleans, and with it comes the kind of role Indiana never really had room to hand him.
The former sixth overall pick in the 2022 draft, who was sent to the LA Clippers as part of the Ivica Zubac trade, has signed with the New Orleans Pelicans on a two year/16 million dollar deal. His camp had already pushed the Clippers to rescind his eight-million-dollar qualifying offer, which would have kept him as a restricted free agent.
For the Pelicans, this is a straightforward bet on talent. Mathurin was still good enough to go high in the draft four years ago, and he put up more than 17 points per game last season.
New Orleans hasn’t exactly transformed its outlook with this move, but it is the club’s first meaningful offseason addition after re-signing Deandre Jordan and taking SMU product Jaron Pierre Jr. with the 58th pick. The bigger picture around the roster still points toward a rough year and, likely, one of the league’s worst records.
Still, the fit makes sense in a very specific way. Mathurin has always looked more like a player who wants the ball in his hands than one who thrives as a pure sidekick, and the Pelicans can give him that freedom. That was never really the Pacers’ plan.
When Indiana drafted Mathurin, the idea was simple: let him score off Tyrese Haliburton’s playmaking, keep him active without the ball, and make him a useful complementary piece. What actually showed up was a bench spark who mostly impacted games by putting the ball in the basket. During the Pacers’ 2024-25 run to the Finals, he was the only player besides Haliburton and Pascal Siakam who could consistently create his own shot when the team needed it.
That scoring pop is exactly what New Orleans is buying. The Pelicans will give Mathurin more chances to shoot, attack, and handle than he ever got in Indiana.
On a team headed into the lottery, that kind of usage can become the whole job description. He could end up in the sort of role Rudy Gay once filled for the Memphis Grizzlies and Sacramento Kings: a heavy-minutes scorer who soaks up possessions and can put up 20 a night.
That’s also where the tension sits. Indiana needed him to fit into a low-usage ecosystem, even with its stars. New Orleans is willing to let him be more of himself, even if the overall team impact doesn’t necessarily match the counting stats.
The Pacers, for their part, are still missing what Mathurin gave them on the wing: scoring and self-creation. But the larger truth is that he was never going to become the exact complementary player Indiana originally imagined.
The Pelicans are offering him the opportunity he seems to want. Whether he or the Pacers were right about his development will start to come into focus this season.
In Other News...
Tyrese Haliburton Gave Pacers Fans Another Reason To Love Him
Over two weeks after storms knocked out power for thousands in Gary, the recovery effort still has a long way to go, and help has started to arrive from familiar faces with Indiana ties. Tyrese Haliburton and food influencer Keith Lee announced a joint donation of nearly $30,000 to support relief efforts in the area, a boost aimed at residents still dealing with the fallout from the outages.
Lee began the drive with a $15,000 pledge, and Haliburton matched it with another $15,000, giving the effort some real momentum. For Pacers fans, it is another reminder that Haliburtons connection to the state runs beyond what he does on the court, and in a moment when Gary families are still waiting for normalcy, that kind of support carries extra weight. [Read more 🡒]
Pacers Are Changing One Key Thing To Help Tyrese Haliburton
When Tyrese Haliburton returns from injury, the Pacers want his workload to look a little different than it did before. Indiana is leaning harder into a paint-first approach, one built around getting downhill, living at the rim and easing some of the creation pressure off its point guard. The move is already showing up in personnel choices, with Kelly Oubre Jr. brought in to add another slashing threat, while Jalen Slawson was re-signed as part of the reshaped group.
Obi Toppin is expected to have a bigger hand in making that style work, giving Indiana another athlete who can pressure the rim and keep defenses from loading up on Haliburton. It is a subtle but important shift for a team that knows how much its offense changes when Haliburton is healthy, and the Pacers are clearly trying to make sure he has more support once he is back in the lineup. The question now is how quickly all of those pieces can settle into place. [Read more 🡒]
Quenton Jackson Still Has A Real Chance To Matter For Indiana
Quenton Jackson has become one of those offseason-style roster curiosities who can still end up meaning something in the middle of a hard year. Indiana picked him up after he was cut elsewhere, and the Pacers have spent enough time dealing with lineup churn that a player who can bend to different roles carries real appeal. Jackson has already shown enough versatility and feel to stay in the conversation, which matters for a team always looking for useful minutes from the bottom of the rotation.
What makes the situation more interesting is how he fits alongside Indianas other guards. There is only so much room, and Jackson is still trying to turn developmental promise into an actual lane on the floor. The Pacers also brought in Jalen Slawson after he was cut, so the competition for those back-end opportunities is very real, but Jacksons ability to adapt keeps him from being easy to dismiss. [Read more 🡒]