Wesley Matthews
Slash Line (with Pacers): .386/.369/.854
Season Averages (with Pacers): 10.9 PPG, 2.8 RPG, 2.4 APG, 0.9 SPG, 0.2 BPG, 2.1 3PM
Don’t remember Wesley Matthews in a New York Knicks uniform? Most basketball fans in two or three years will not. He played just two games after arriving from the Mavericks, averaging seven points between them.
The Knicks waived Matthews after the trade deadline, which let him join the Indiana Pacers, who had just lost Victor Oladipo to a torn quadriceps, for the stretch run.
The Pacers showed no hesitation with Matthews. He started all 23 games after the move, adding an outside shooting presence to a team that needed more than Myles Turner and Bojan Bogdanovic.
10.9 points per game did not make up for Oladipo’s absence, and shooting below 40 percent in 31.5 minutes will not help, either, but it became enough to keep Indiana afloat.
Matthews was also ice cold in the postseason. His 8.5 points on 30 percent shooting contributed to the Pacers’ oust in four games to the Boston Celtics and ended this late-year run on a down note.
Free agency is the Marquette guard’s next destination. An expensive, four-year deal is probably not in play this time, but someone can use him as a veteran scorer. Maybe the Knicks seek a reunion if they add the long rumored superstars to their roster.