Pacers Wing Predicted to Be In The Running For Major Award This Year

The Indiana Pacers will have a no-look starting lineup next season without Tyrese Haliburton available. He will miss all of next season with a torn Achilles.

Rick Carlisle has already talked about the fact that Bennedict Mathurin will be taking a spot in the starting lineup. He will be the starting shooting guard next year.

Because of the fact that Mathurin will be in the starting lineup, he has a great chance to put up career-high numbers. In fact, he could put himself in a position to win a major award.

Pacers guard Bennedict Mathurin could be in the running for Most Improved Award next season

Mathurin put up the best scoring and rebounding numbers of his career this past season, and he could be even better than that next year. In fact, Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints believes Mathurin will be in the running for Most Improved.

The Pacers will need Mathurin's scoring ability and his rebounding. When he was in the starting lineup early in the year, he made a concerted effort t o rebound the ball well.

With Myles Turner now in Milwaukee, the Pacers will need someone to pick up the rebounding slack. Mathurin showed early in the year that he has the skills to do that.

Mathurin is going to be someone who gets a lot of opportunities to score the ball from all three levels. He is one of the few players the Pacers have who is an excellent half-court scorer.

The Pacers need Bennedict Mathurin to improve in some areas of his game

With Mathurin permanently in the starting lineup, he has to show some improvement if he's going to win Most Improved. He has to make decisions quickly on offense and play better defense.

Those are things that Carlisle has been working on with him all offseason and each of the last two years. The Pacers need him to up his game if they are going to get back to the playoffs without Haliburton.

This past season, Mathurin averaged 16.1 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 1.9 assists per game. He shot 45.8 percent from the field and 34 percent from beyond the 3-point arc.