How Andrew Nembhard fits in lineups with various Indiana Pacers teammates

Part of what made rookie guard Andrew Nembhard have such a successful season for the Indiana Pacers was that he could fill a number of roles for the team.

Some nights, the 23-year old was a point guard. He started at the one many times, but on some occasions he backed up All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton. Other nights, Nembhard filled in as an off ball guard or on the wing, which usually meant his defense was more important than his offense.

He developed quickly as a creator in the NBA and defended opposing team's best players, which made him valuable for the blue and gold. He finished one vote away from being named to an NBA All-Rookie Team despite being a second-round pick. Nembhard has a bright future.

"Indiana was the best place for me. Gave me a great opportunity," Nembhard said after the season.

Part of Nembhard's next steps will be about his own skill growth. His off ball defense and play finishing are vital skills to monitor going forward. But the Pacers can help the young guard grow, too, by placing him in lineups that put him in a position to succeed.

Looking at lineup data and seeing which players the ball handler paired well with is a good place to start. It was a useful exercise for Tyrese Haliburton, rookie guard Bennedict Mathurin, and veteran center Myles Turner.

Nembhard's best two partners shared a trait with the guard himself — they can defend on the perimeter. The Pacers struggled with that this past season, but the team did well when Nembhard and another member of the blue and gold could limit paint penetration.

That's why lineups with Nembhard as well as Oshae Brissett or T.J. McConnell did well. Both players, when paired with the young guard, were a part of units that held opponents to a defensive rating that was near 112. That's a solid figure, especially for an Indiana team that ranked 26th in defense this past season.

Brissett and Nembhard are both solid connecting pieces on offense. They are low-mistake players who frequently make good decisions with the ball. That means the Pacers stay out of transition defense and rarely waste possessions. In tandem, those factors contributed to a +0.3 net rating with both players on the hardwood.

McConnell and Nembhard are somewhat duplicative on offense, and that limited the team's ceiling on that end of the floor. They still had a fine-enough -1.0 net rating with the two point guards out there, though, and the team's defense was solid. The young point guard wants to improve his catch-and-shoot abilities this offseason, and his fit with McConnell would be better if that were to happen.

The rest of Nembhard's best fits were simply with his most talented teammates. Tyrese Haliburton, Buddy Hield, and Myles Turner all had substandard net ratings when paired with the rookie guard, but they often overlapped as starters. Those groups did not defend well yet scored capably.

If anything, the lesson shouldn't be that Nembhard doesn't fit with those players. He is malleable. It's that those lineups need another defender with size to truly gel on both ends of the court.

Nembhard's worst partners in terms of net rating were almost all a part of lineups that struggled mightily on the offensive end of the court. Indiana failed to crack a 110 offensive rating throughout the 2022-23 season during Nembhard's minutes with Isaiah Jackson, Jalen Smith, Chris Duarte, and Jordan Nwora.

Nwora is surprising on that list. He was efficient and effective for the blue and gold this past season. But the other three all were not weapons from beyond the arc and lacked consistency on the offensive end. It makes sense that a young, developing player like Nembhard, who was naturally inconsistent with his lack of experience, may not have thrived all the time with those three.

If Smith's shot from 2021-22 returns, or Jackson's timing and vertical spacing evolve, they should be solid offensive fits with Nembhard going forward. Duarte just needs to see his shots go down again. None of those players have skill sets that appear to be poor fits with the Pacers' young point guard. The firepower just wasn't there this past season. With Nwora, more reps and time should naturally help. He and Nembhard only overlapped for 21 games.

The Gonzaga product improving as a shooter would help those pairings, too. It would give Smith and Jackson more time and room to operate near the basket, and Duarte has been at his best when he can be patient. Floor spacing helps with all of that.

Nembhard's final poor partnership is somewhat surprising in Aaron Nesmith. Both players often draw tough defensive assignments due to their perceived abilities on the less glamorous end of the court, but the blue and gold had a 120 defensive rating with both players in the game. That must be better going forward, though there is nothing about the two players that makes them appear to be a bad fit on paper.

That is a key takeaway from this exercise. Nembhard, thanks to his ability to play on and off the ball combined with his pesky defense, mostly fits into any lineup. He just needs time to develop all of his skills. If he becomes just a tick better at several aspects of his game, he will be able to enhance his teammates more in year two than he did in year one.

Nembhard is a promising young player. Pairing him with other solid defensive talents as well as shooters and slashers is a good way to maximize his talents and development going forward.