Andrew Nembhard breaks streak with breakout

On the significance of the Pacers investing in internal development 

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

Merci beaucoup, amirite? While preparing to play for the Canadian National Team at the Paris Olympics, Andrew Nembhard reached agreement on a three-year, $59 million extension with the Indiana Pacers that will take him through the 2027-28 season, his agents -- who are also Pascal Siakam's agents -- told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Beyond the contract terms, which don't kick in until 2025 and mean that the Pacers will have the 24-year-old guard under team control for the next four years, the deal is a significant win for the front office when considering the deeper meaning of retaining a core player.

After all, here's the past decade of draft history, along with the outcomes of their rookie deals:

2015 - Myles Turner (signed four-year, $72 million extension); Joe Young (team option declined)

2016 - Georges Niang (waived)

2017 - TJ Leaf (traded with future second-round draft pick); Ike Anigbogu (waived); Edmond Sumner (signed three-year, $6.4 million deal after being converted from two-way deal to standard contract)

2018 - Aaron Holiday (traded with pick No. 31 to move up for Isaiah Jackson at No. 22 in 2021 Draft); Alize Johnson (signed one-year, Exhibit 10 deal with Raptors)

2019 - Goga Bitadze (waived)

2020 - Cassius Stanley (pulled qualifying offer)

2021 - Chris Duarte (traded for two second-round draft picks); Isaiah Jackson (TBD)

2022 - Andrew Nembhard (signed three-year, $59 million extension); Bennedict Mathurin (TBD)

That means, without knowing what's to come for Isaiah Jackson, Bennedict Mathurin, Jarace Walker, Ben Sheppard, Oscar Tshiebwe, Johnny Furphy, Tristen Newton, or Enrique Freeman, Nembhard is the first Pacers draft pick to sign an extension since Myles Turner, with Edmond Sumner being the the only other player who has signed a second standard contract over that span. As such, in addition to breaking out during the playoffs, as a rare example of the coexistence of winning and development, Nembhard has also now broken a significant streak of striking out at or before the completion of rookie deals.

From a basketball standpoint, Nembhard, who pilots the pick-and-roll with both guile and moxie, moseying to his spots with an air of grit while using subtle tricks to improve the efficiency of his movement, isn't a bona fide star -- yet, but he was Indiana's clear third-best player throughout the postseason, drilling game-winners and averaging 9.1 potential assists while progressing to shoot 54.2 percent on pull-up twos and 50 percent on catch-and-shoot threes. Plus, he's easy in his malleability, which should only breed confidence in how he pairs with Tyrese Haliburton moving forward.

If an opponent face-guards and/or top-locks Haliburton, Nembhard can run offense while also defending at the point-of-attack. In fact, the Pacers scored more points per chance with Nembhard as the pick-and-roll ball-handler during the playoffs (1.047) than with either Haliburton (0.988) or T.J. McConnell (0.983). Of course, it bears pointing out that, with the exception of Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals, when he averaged 28 points and 15.5 potential assists as the primary ball-handler in place of Haliburton, Nembhard was more often drawing the weaker defensive assignment, be it Damian Lillard or Jalen Brunson, throughout most of the run. And yet, that's also sort of the point: He stepped up both in the absence of and in support of the team's already existing star in Haliburton. Put simply, this isn't the purgatory of the Turner-Sabonis tandem, in which there were obvious areas where they would infringe on each other with both needing to play the five.

Generally speaking, it's easier to play multiple point guards at once, especially in a Rick Carlisle offense, than it is to find elbow room for two centers, while also attempting to guard without a rangy power forward. By comparison, the Pacers won the minutes with any two of Haliburton, Nembhard, and McConnell on the floor (+7.39), including during the playoffs (+6.26). As such, if Nembhard continues to blossom, then figuring out how to divvy up the ball between him and Haliburton will be a tremendous "problem" for the team to have ahead of the Canadian guard's next potential payday now long down the road in 2028. Remember, the reason why the Kings were losing the minutes with Haliburton and De'Aaron Fox on the floor (-5.4) wasn't because they were both point guards; it was because of how unwieldly that roster was and the fact that they couldn't manufacture stops, surrendering 118.5 points per 100 possessions -- which would've been the equivalent of the league's worst defense that season.

Admittedly, the Pacers don't exactly have a robust defense at present either, but Nembhard is more often part of the solution, not the problem -- as he's shown he can assist Haliburton on defense as well as offense. Overall, for a team that largely stayed the same, Nembhard's young, rising talent and his decision to opt for guaranteed security while potentially getting a jump-start on taking another leap while in France, gives the Pacers a chance to be different, investing in what might still come from his breakout while likewise breaking the streak of bidding adieu.