The Indiana Pacers have made yet another roster move. According to Tony East of Forbes, the Pacers will give Garrison Mathews a standard deal after his second 10-day pact expired on Wednesday night.
“The Pacers are signing Garrison Mathews to a standard contract today, a league source tells me,” East tweeted earlier today.
Veteran Sharpshooting Wing Impresses Pacers Enough To Earn Contract, And What It Means Going Forward
Mathews struggled during his first 10-day stint with the Pacers, which he signed on November 20. But the Pacers decided to give another trial run, and the 29-year-old improved his efficiency. Overall, Mathews scored a season-high 15 points against Cleveland and averaged 4.8 points in 14 minutes over nine appearances.
Mathews is an elite shooter off the catch with excellent range and has a super quick release. Mathews is strictly a three-point shooter, with 85% of his attempts coming from beyond the arc, and a pretty good one at that, as he knocks down 1.5 treys a game at a 38% clip for his career. However, he has struggled this season with one triple at 32.1%.
Defensively, Mathews will definitely compete. But his lack of quickness and size limits his versatility.
Matthews saw between 15 and 20 minutes in five of his last six games, including one start. Expect that trend to continue with the Pacers so thin on the wing. The Pacers head to Philadelphia for a game against the 76ers on Friday, then return home for a pair of games.
Ben Sheppard is slated to be out for another week with a grade 1 calf strain, though Aaron Nesmith could be close to returning after missing the last month due to his left knee injury. Both players are expected to return before Christmas, but likely not until next weekend. Meanwhile, rookie Kam Jones could be in the mix to make his debut in the coming days.
What does Mathews’ Signing mean?
So, that leaves Mathews or Ethan Thompson, who is on a two-way deal, for Rick Carlisle to choose at small forward. After opening with the first unit on December 5 against Chicago, Mathews came off the bench against Sacramento as Thompson earned his first career start. Thompson has played well the last two games and should start agains the 76ers. Therefore, Mathews projects to remain part of the Pacers’ second unit as the ninth or 10th man.
The inking of Mathews for the rest of the season and the release of Jeremiah Robinson-Earl are Indiana’s 15th and 16th transactions since the start of the regular season. Matthew’s deal is for the pro-rated veteran minimum and nonguaranteed.
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
Robinson-Earl, who Dallas waived at the end of training camp, joined the Pacers on a pair of 10-day contracts before ultimately earning a remainder of the season contract. The 25-year-old big appeared in 17 games, including three starts, though he totaled three minutes over his last three games, registering two DNP’s in the previous two outings.
Robinson-Earl struggled on both ends of the floor. But, he did do a good job on the glass, grabbing 10+ rebounds three times. He finished his tenure with the Pacers, averaging 4.6 points and 5.2 rebounds (1.9 offensive) while compiling shooting splits of 34.9/24.2/92.9.
Waiving Robinson-Earl adds a dead-money cap hit of $589,306, meaning that the total dead money on the books is a little over $2 million. Still, the Pacers are over $4 million below the tax line and $12.2 million from being hard-capped at the first apron. With Mathews’ contract being nonguaranteed, the Pacers maintain their flexibility. However, the Pacers are highly unlikely to go over the tax threshold unless they find a trade that will net them the “center of the future.”
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