Benedict Mathurin had a disappointing year overall, and a very rough time on the Clippers. Prior to the Clippers getting #5 pick from Indy, I would have expected them to keep Mathurin at almost any cost just to not lose out on an asset acquired for Zubac. But now that they struck it rich in the lottery, they may avoid the sunk cost fallacy. He is notoriously inconsistent, but could he fit as our starting 2 for something around $20 million in a sign-and-trade?
I don't think Mathurin is a good fit for what we need.
He is like a young Jaylen Brown with blinkers on in the offensive end of the floor. He doesn't pass. He doesn't connect the play. He doesn't handle the ball all that well. He has a career 1:1 AST:TOV ratio. This detracts from his offensive value and often has him having less impact on the offensive end than you would expect with someone with his scoring numbers.
Mathurin can defend & rebound the SG position well enough but he gets asked to play SF often due to his lack of passing / connectivity skills. He is a below average defender at the SF position. This combined with his mixed offensive game often makes him a net negative overall at SF.
Mathurin was unable to beat out Nembhard in Indiana at SG because of his limited ball-handling and passing ability. Mathurin was a much better scorer and a better shooter. Nembhard has improved his defense in recent years to become a well above average defender which Mathurin is still not despite his physical tools. Basically, Nembhard was the glue guy who did all the little things that make teams win. Mathurin was the guy who did little of the glue guy tasks prefering the guady scoring. The team won more with Nembhard.
I think we need a glue guy in that backcourt to help the Jays out. Or at least someone who is closer to neutral in glue guy tasks (Dosunmu) rather than a net negative in glue guy tasks (Mathurin). A connectivity player more than a scorer.
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On another note, Mathurin reminds me of Mikael Pietrus. Not the talent but the similar lack of connectivity skills that held Pietrus back throughout his career. Orlando signed Pietrus to be their defensive stopper on the wing. They needed someone with true size and athleticism at SG to matchup against the superior talents at that position in the league. It was a match made in heaven.
However, Pietrus couldn't hold down the position. The reason was because he was a black hole on offense. He didn't facilitate the offense enough for a SG and his superiority defensively didn't make up for the lack of offensive facilitation. In the end, Courtney Lee beat him out for playing time. Lee wasn't as talented as a defender (lacked strenght size to defend big SGs, or any SFs) but Lee did the little things in terms of ball movement. Redick beat out Pietrus as well. Not as much defense but more offense. Both those guys did the connectivity part. In the end, Pietrus became more of a backup SF rather than the starting SG they thought they were acquiring. Then he became a journeyman spending some time here in BOS where he took up a similar role.
Mathurin is in danger of falling down a similar path. His lack of offensive connectivity makes it hard for teams to play him at guard and he isn't big enough to be effective at SF defensively. So he is a bit of a tweener in terms of skill-set / physical talent. He needs to improve his passing, ball-handling and team offense to fix his career. I am not confident he will.
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Mathurin is the type of player I would be happy to take a gamble on at a low price but I wouldn't bet heavily on him. The reason being his lack of progress in his 4yr career thus far. I am rooting for him but I am not confident in him.
And with BOS in their present position, I would rather go after more of a sure-thing rather than a higher risk higher upside guy like Mathurin.
