In Praise of Aaron Nesmith
I love Aaron Nesmith. The past two years in Indiana, he has shown why the Celtics drafted him with the 14th overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, and his improvement is one of the key reasons the Indiana Pacers are a) fun to watch, and b) are starting to be taken seriously.
Nesmith didn't get very much run in Boston, playing less than 700 minutes in both of his two seasons in Boston. He also played for two coaches in two seasons. His second coach, Ime Udoka, often pulled him after he had made a single mistake, which in absolutely impossible way to develop a player. That was made abundantly clear when he was sent to Indiana in the trade for Malcolm Brogdon and immediately went from averaging 3.8 points per game in 2021-2022 to 10.1 points per game last season.
Aside from that limited run, he had no training camp entering his rookie season. Training camp was abbreviated to begin with, and he had been sidelined by an injury to boot. It was Brad Stevens' last as coach – the brutal campaign where Kemba Walker played every other game, and Jaylen Brown missed the playoffs.
Then in his second season, he had a new coach, who also didn't give him much of a chance. While Stevens only played him 14.5 minutes per game as a rookie, Udoka dropped that paltry number down to 11.0 in season two, a figure that ranked 14th on the team behind Enes Freedom, and only one rank above Jabari Parker, who was barely clinging to his career at that point. Nesmith could have very easily settled in to the same career path as players like Romeo Langford, Semi Ojeleye, and Javonte Green – players who were similarly given little chance to shine by the C's, and moved off the roster the second something better came along. All three of those guys are now out of the league (to say nothing of Carsen Edwards or Tremont Waters), whereas Nesmith is thriving.
Luckily for him, the C's traded him while he still had value, and the Pacers saw that value. Nesmith has started 2/3 of his games in a Pacers uniform, and with good reason. Last night, he was on fire, hitting his six of his first seven shots on the way to a 15-point first half. He would finish with a team-high 26 points, to go with 12 rebounds, seven assists, 1 block, and zero turnovers. It was incredible performance, and one that was incredibly fun to watch, given his level of hustle, intensity, and fearlessness.
Celtics fans saw that level of hustle, intensity, and fearlessness in his brief time in Boston, but it was often uncontrolled, barely caged, and it led to a lot of mistakes that a team with championship aspirations was unwilling to tolerate. Nesmith compounded that over-aggressiveness with poor shot making, which didn't help either. Though again, Udoka would often pull him after a single missed shot, which always struck me as harsh and short-sighted, and the numbers bear that out. His three-point shooting in his year under Udoka sticks out like a sore thumb – .370, .270, .366, and .463. The .270 was with Udoka, and as I said recently, the more time goes by, the more I believe the C's dodged a bullet by getting out of the Ime Udoka business.
That .463 three-point percentage is suddenly one of the best in the NBA. Second best in the entire NBA, to be precise, behind only Grayson Allen. Both players will probably see their percentages drop somewhat over the course of the season, as they are both hitting a historic percentage of threes, but who knows? There has been an explosion of offense this year. And perhaps that explosion can somewhat explain Nesmith's improved shooting percentages, but the improvement is so vast that it doesn't explain it all. It's not just his three-point shooting that has improved nearly/more than 100 percentage points, but also his two-point shooting percentage, his eFG%, and his TS%. That he has improved his shooting so much while taking slightly more shots per game is exactly the efficiency Indiana has needed to become a historic offense. Pair that with his tenacious and eager defense – as we have seen countless time, he is happy to take on the assignment of guarding star players, even those taller than him – and Nesmith and his $5.6M salary is one of the best bargains in the Association.
The shooting percentage improvements have only led to an improvement from 10.1 points per game to 12.4, and that won't be flashy enough to get Aaron Nesmith serious consideration for Most Improved Player, especially since the media has more or less already decided that Tyrese Maxey is the winner. That's OK. What's important is that Nesmith has made real strides, and earned himself a second contract that will ensure he have a solid NBA career. It's validation of his original draft selection, and he's played well enough to give you pause over whether he should have been traded in the first place (the answer is yes, because otherwise the C's don't get Jrue Holiday, but it's interesting to consider).
Aaron Nesmith is my guy, and easily one of my favorite non-Celtics. And while I hate that he puts it on the C's every time they play, I love watching him, and couldn't be more thrilled for him.