Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith will miss Saturday’s home game against the Raptors with a left knee sprain, but that diagnosis tracks with coach Rick Carlisle’s expression of relief Thursday that Nesmith and the Pacers may have “dodged a bullet” with regard to the injury.
Nesmith suffered the injury in the third quarter of Thursday’s loss to the Suns in Phoenix when he was trying to stop a drive by Phoenix guard Devin Booker. Nesmith’s right foot landed on teammate Jeremiah Robinson-Earl’s left foot and when Robinson-Earl tried to move it away, Nesmith’s foot went with him. His left leg bent awkwardly to the ground and he fell to the floor writhing in pain, rolling out of bounds and then having to be helped off into the locker room. However, he was able to walk out of Phoenix’s Mortgage Matchup Center — albeit with a hobbled gate and an ice pack on his knee. Carlisle said the Pacers believed Nesmith had avoided a “very serious” injury, by which he presumably meant a ligament tear that would’ve likely ended his season.
Still, Nesmith’s injury is added to the already large pile that has decimated the Pacers roster during a 1-11 start that matches the 1988-89 team for the worst in franchise history. The Pacers have seven players already ruled out against the Raptors and the other six — guards Tyrese Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin, Quenton Jackson and Kam Jones and forwards Obi Toppin and Johnny Furphy — have all missed several games already. Haliburton is out for the season with an Achilles tendon tear suffered in Game 7 of the NBA Finals and Toppin is out until at least Feb. 1 with a stress fracture in his right foot.
With those six out and point guards Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell also missing time before returning over the past week, Nesmith had to help All-Star forward Pascal Siakam carry the scoring load and shot at much higher volume than he has at any point in his career. He’s averaging a career-high 15.5 points per game, second only to Siakam’s 24.3 per game among Pacers players who have appeared in at least five games. He’s also averaging a career high 13.8 field goal attempts per game, 5.0 more than in any previous season in his career.
Nesmith’s efficiency figures are down significantly with the higher volume. Last year, he made 50.7% of his field goals and 43.1% of his 3-pointers and this year he’s at 36.7% and 37.3% respectively. However, he’s still been the Pacers’ best 3-point shooter in terms of both percentage and volume. His 31 3-pointers are by far the most on the team with forward Jarace Walker second at 18. Siakam at 33.3% is the next best 3-point shooter in terms of percentage among players with at least six games played.
With Nesmith, Mathurin, Furphy and Toppin out, the Pacers’ options at the wing spots 2-4 are effectively limited to Siakam, third-year players Jarace Walker and Ben Sheppard, 10-day contract hardship additions Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Cody Martin and two-way contract guard Taelon Peter. The Pacers could use two point guards at once at the 1-2 and could shift center Jay Huff to power forward to take some minutes, but their options are quite limited.
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