Aaron Nesmith of the Indiana Pacers reacts during the second half of Monday’s NBA basketball In-Season Tournament matchup with the Boston Celtics.
Without a doubt, Tyrese Haliburton was the star of the show for the Pacers on Monday night. In the last two minutes, he ignited a game-winning 9-0 run that helped the team defeat the Celtics 122-112. It was upsetting that Boston was eliminated from the in-season competition, but it was also noteworthy who eliminated them.
At Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Monday night, Aaron Nesmith, a former Celtics wing, was possibly the second-most useful player behind Haliburton.
Nesmith was 5-of-7 from the field in the fourth quarter, scoring 11 of his 14 points to help secure the game and thwart a Celtics comeback. In addition to playing tenacious defense on the Celtics’ wings for the majority of his thirty minutes, he shot sixty percent from the floor during the game.
After the victory, Nesmith told Bally Sports, “We all really looked forward to this game, especially with how we performed in Boston earlier this year.” “We saw this game as more than just an in-season competition; it was also a small game of retaliation.”
Nesmith’s performance was just one more instance of how the wing was thriving in his new Indiana home.
Since becoming president of basketball operations, Brad Stevens has made big plays in a number of moves, but giving away Nesmith when his stock was at such a low point might still hurt the executive a little after Monday night.
Nesmith was shipped to Indiana as a component of the deal that brought Malcolm Brogdon to the team last summer.
Despite the fact that the transaction’s main trade asset was a 2023 first-round pick, Nesmith has felt underappreciated ever since. He even went so far as to make a few negative media tweets about his play prior to the deal last month.
Nesmith stated last month, “I saw the (critical) tweet as soon as the trade happened and I saved it immediately.” “I take things personally, which is something that helps me become a better person. I’m motivated by it to work out at night, therefore I’m sure I thought about the tweet constantly.
Recently, the No. 14 overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft has made a strong impression, demonstrating that he was more than just a throw-in for Brogdon. Daniel Theis, a 2023 first-round pick and contract filler, was also included in the transaction.
As part of a blockbuster trade for Jrue Holiday, the Celtics traded Brogdon after just one season, but Nesmith appears to be a key cost-controlled asset for the Pacers going forward. In October, he committed to a three-year, $33 million contract with Indiana.
This season, he is setting career-highs in every category, averaging 11 points per game and shooting 46 percent from three-point range.
Nesmith has been given more opportunities in his new home than he was given in his first two uneven years in Boston, but at the young age of 24, the best is probably still to come.
In retrospect, Nesmith would have been a desirable depth player to have around Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum for the future, maybe even more beneficial to the team than Brogdon was the previous season, with the new CBA tightening the spending caps for tax teams.
With Stevens placing a large wager on more experienced, seasoned players like Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis this offseason, Boston is under more pressure than ever.
Following a 15-5 start to the season that ranked East-best, nobody is contesting their decisions. For a single evening, Nesmith endeavored to elicit a tinge of remorse from Stevens for placing his bet on the here and now rather than the future.
Leave a Reply