Once challenged King James! Now he was squeezed out of position by the old Celtic general. Should the Pacers trade him?

Time went back to 2022. After Mathering was selected by the Pacers in the sixth pick in the first round, he once said: "Many people say that James is very strong, I want to see how strong he is." This sentence also aroused heated discussions among fans at the time, but Mathering did show his newborn calf and not afraid of tigers. He averaged 16.7 points per game and was selected as the first team of the Best Rookie.

When everyone thought that Mathering would become the cornerstone of the Pacers, Halliburton's growth and Siakam's strong joining later, Mathering's status in the team continued to decline. After Carlisle joined the team, he reused Nesmith, who had been ignored in the Celtics before, which also caused Mathering to fall from the previous core rotation to a role that could only be an ordinary rotation. In this season's playoffs, Nesmith's stealing scene also made Mathering's current position in the team very embarrassing. Considering that the Pacers' forward line is not short of manpower, if Mathering wants to realize his talent, the Pacers are indeed not a place to stay for a long time.

In the Eastern Conference Final G1 of the Pacers and the Knicks, although everyone remembered Halliburton's three-pointer from the tie, if Nesmith had not made unreasonable three-pointers in the last moment of the last quarter, there would have been no final reversal of the Pacers. After the whole game, Nesmith made 8 of 9 three-pointers and scored 30 points, while Mathering only scored 9 points in this game, which was slightly bleak. So far in the playoffs, Nesmith is the fourth scorer in the team after Halliburton, Siakam and Turner. He averaged 16 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 30.4 minutes of playing time, and his three shooting percentages were as high as 53.9%, 53.8% and 89.5% respectively. In contrast, although Mathering, although the data is also efficient, he scored 10.7 points and 2.3 rebounds in 17.6 minutes of playing time, he has never improved his weaknesses in shooting in recent years (the three-point shooting percentage of this season's playoffs is only 27.3%), and he is also the kind of finishing player who needs to hold the ball. In the current situation where the Pacers are trying to hit the current situation, they will not give him too many opportunities to practice.

In this playoffs, Nessmith showed a more outstanding ability than Mathering. As mentioned earlier, because the Pacers are now trying to hit the current situation, they will definitely be more willing to leave behind the competitive Nessmith, and will not give Mathering too many opportunities. No matter where the Pacers can go this season, they really need to find a way to deal with it. If they can exchange him for a pretty good inside rotation player, then the Pacers may be potential competitors in the Eastern Conference Finals or even the Finals in the next few years.

As for Mathering, considering that he is only 22 years old and has proved his scoring ability, if he can go to a mid- and lower-level team that lacks a forward line, he will definitely be able to average 20+ points in the future. For him, he may be more willing to go to a team that can give him a chance to display his talents rather than accepting his continued decline in his status.