13+13, 23+6! Annual salary of 2 million yuan but an offense and defense are integrated. You are the strongest second round pick in this year s finals

Among the NBA active players, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about the second round pick is Jokic. He was selected by the Nuggets with the 11th pick in the second round in 2014. After entering the league, Jokic has gradually become one of the best players in the league. He has won MVP many times in the past few years and won the championship and FMVP in 2023. Therefore, he is also recognized as the most powerful star in active service. Therefore, it can be said that Jokic's rise once again proves that the draft pick cannot represent everything.

In addition to Jokic, Brunson is also the second round pick who can rank first in the league. He was selected by the Mavericks at the first pick in the second round in 2018. After that, he gradually proved that his strength is far more than that. Especially after joining the Knicks, Brunson has been selected into the All-Star and the Best Team many times with his personal strength. This year's playoffs, he led the Knicks to reach the division finals again after 25 years.

And in the Pacers who eliminated Brunson himself in the Eastern Conference Finals, there is also a second-round pick that exceeded people's expectations, that is their starting guard Andrew Nembhard. In 2022, Nembukhad was selected by the Pacers in the first pick in the second round. In his last season of college, he averaged 11.8 points and 5.8 assists per game. Although he is good at strength, because he is not outstanding in physical fitness and age, there are still many scouts who are not optimistic about his NBA career. However, the Pacers are willing to choose him in the first pick in the second round, which means that at least they believe in Nembukhad.

Entering the first season of the league, Nembhard entered the Pacers' core rotation. Moreover, under Carlisle's tactical system, he is not a single-function role player positioning. Even if he is on the court with Halliburton, the Pacers often exercise his ability to handle balls on the court. In this case, Nembhard also repaid the Pacers' coaching staff's trust in him with his outstanding performance. In the rookie season, he averaged 9.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 1.2 three-pointers. On the defensive end, he used his agile footsteps and excellent defensive judgment and aggressiveness to become one of the best leaders in the team. In the second season of his career, Nembhard's playing time was still stable. This year he also successfully helped the Pacers return to the playoffs, and on a larger stage, he also ushered in an explosion. In the 2024 playoffs, Nembhard averaged 14.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 1.7 three-pointers per game, and his shooting percentages in the three events were as high as 56%, 48.3%, and 76.9%, respectively. In addition to the three-pointer that has become significantly accurate in the playoffs, his breakthrough, passing and defense have also brought more surprises to fans.

Finally, with the help of Nembhard, the Pacers successfully reached the division final. Although they failed to go further in the end, this outbreak has already gained more trust from the team. So during the offseason, the Pacers signed a three-year, 58.65 million early contract renewal contract with Nembhard, which will officially take effect from the 2026-2027 season. After the new season begins, he has firmly started, and his playing time and tactical status have also been improved.

Nembhard averaged 10 points, 3.3 rebounds, 5 assists and 1.2 steals per game. He was also elected as the defensive player of the month once, but since his three-point shooting percentage in the regular season was only 29.1%, this inevitably made many fans worried whether his shooting in the playoffs last year was a flash in the pan. However, even though Nembhard's performance in the regular season is not perfect, considering that his annual salary is still only 2.01 million, his performance is still far beyond his value.

And what is even more surprising is that in the playoffs, Nembhard started another mode. In the first round against the Bucks, he scored 15+ in 4 games, and the best performing G4 scored 20 points with a shooting percentage of 57.1%. However, it is expected that the Pacers defeated the Bucks in the first round, and the second round against the Cavaliers was the real test, and most fans were not optimistic about the Pacers in this round of the series.

However, the Pacers were "disappointed" this time. Not only did they not lose to the Eastern Conference No. 1 Cavaliers who won 64 wins in the regular season, they instead advanced in just 5 games. Nembhard played a very critical performance in this round of the series. When he needed to lead the defense on the defensive end, he also made some achievements on the offensive end. G1 scored 23 points, 6 assists, G2 scored 13 points, 7 rebounds and 13 assists. As soon as he got up, the Pacers took a 2-0 lead, and then they successfully accepted the series.

returned to the stage of the Eastern Conference Finals again. At this time, no one dared to underestimate the Pacers. This time, they won the victory against the Knicks in the playoffs last year. In the end, they eliminated the Knicks 4-2 and successfully advanced to the finals. In this round of the series, Nembhard's offense was not as eye-catching as before. Only G1 scored 15 points in 6 games, and G3 and G4 combined shots of only 3 of 18 shots.

Fortunately, Nembhard still has defense as the basic floor. His defense against Brunson, who averaged nearly 30 points per game in this round of series, is a textbook-level. In 6 games, Nembhard defended Brunson for 19 minutes and 35 seconds and 95 rounds. During this period, Brunson only made 34 shots in total, and only scored 33 points with a shooting percentage of 38%. In addition, while he gave 5 assists, he also caused 6 mistakes by Nembhard.

After reaching the finals, the Pacers once again became the unpopular side. After all, they faced the Thunder with 68 wins in the regular season, and the latter's defense can be said to be at a historical level.. After the G1 in the series started, the Thunder did show their outstanding defense again. After the game, they forced the Pacers to make 18 mistakes after halftime, but the Pacers also proved that their defense was not vegetarian. With frequent mistakes, their active return to defense did not allow the Thunder to take away the game in one wave, so they were only 12 points behind after halftime.

In the second half, the Pacers reduced their mistakes, but the pace of the game was still firmly controlled by the Thunder, so they were still 15 points behind when there were less than 10 minutes left in the final quarter. However, after Nembhad carried Caruso and scored 2+1, the Pacers officially sounded the horn of counterattack. After that, Turner, Nemhad and others scored points. At the critical moment, Nembhad stood up again. With only about 2 minutes left, he used a three-pointer to close the gap to only 3 points. Later, Siakam made a tip-in to help the team catch up to 1 point. Then Nembhad successfully defended Alexander alone and gave the team a chance to win. Finally, we saw Halliburton kill the game again.

Nembhard didn't feel good in the whole game, but he ushered in a recovery at the most critical moment. He scored 8 points in the last quarter and helped the team regain the suspense of the game. So far, Nembhard in the playoffs has averaged 12.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game. If the Pacers want to continue their victory, the team needs him to continue to play the strongest second-round pick in the series.