r/pacers • u/Randy__Snutz Quinn Buckner • Feb 14 '26
UPVOTE PARTY HE’S A FLAMETHROWER
Aaron Nesmith Appreciation Thread
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u/AceBlueJay Feb 14 '26
Probably my 2nd favorite current Pacer. Aaron's a dawg who always comes up big when we need him 😤🔥
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26
let me put on my deducing hat... If he's second, you are in camp Quenton.
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u/AceBlueJay Feb 14 '26
Thats funny 😂 I also love Quinton, honestly I like everyone on the team lol 😅
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u/Guadeloupeee Feb 14 '26
He made that haliburton ball drop possible
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u/LeatherRecord2142 Feb 14 '26
His 4th Q in that game was still one of the lost legendary performances ever. It was superhuman.
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u/kickerofelves86 Feb 14 '26
I'll never forget it. Watching that game it was like "man it sucks he's having this great performance in garbage time" even with the crazy comebacks the previous rounds it seemed out of reach until it wasn't
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u/LeatherRecord2142 Feb 14 '26
That team was literally never out of a game. It was edge-of-seat basketball at its finest, even down 10+ in the 4th. I’ll never forget either.
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
I dunno, opposing announcers mention it every game we play against them. "Pacers behind 12 but flamethrower out on the floor."
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u/Sko_Neezy Feb 14 '26
Love the guy, and he’s a fascinating player
Can’t create much for himself but adds a lot to the pace and hustle of the team, and of course adds the quick release shooting we need/Hali loves to play with.
Takes tough assignments(Giannis??)and eats up priceless defensive minutes.
Can foul at a frustrating rate and is injured often enough to wonder if Crash can afford to keep crashing.
I expect ramifications for him if we end up with pick 2-4.
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
I think if we get that pick he has 2-3 more years as a solid starter, at which point he may cede the reigns to his protege. And he can lay back and McConnell as Pacers go deep in yet another playoff, working to his goal of coaching... Or maybe he finds an offer of captaining Miami or Charlotte interesting... try and do what Harden and Paul could not.
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u/Pseudonova Feb 14 '26
All time heater in that Game 1 comeback. It was like he was throwing golf balls into the ocean.
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26
that's actually exactly how he described it. wasn't keeping track of anything but the score and exactly what was needed...
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
I'm gonna upvote-party that moment like its 1999, till its 2099...
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u/Difficult-Living-69 Feb 14 '26
I can’t believe how many games we won, the way won them. Nesmith helped ignite the propane torch and honestly was actually dropping bombs. But it’s probably an nba jam reference.
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u/SLUMPREME Feb 14 '26
When I hoop with the guys on Sundays,. Whenever someone catches heat I always quote this haha such a historical moment
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u/AddUp1 Feb 14 '26
Just got my gold out Nesmith jersey today! What he did in the ECF at the garden was legendary. I will tell me kids that the spirit of Reggie miller spawned in him that night. Like truly, prime Steph curry shit holy shit I am reliving it all now…
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u/NoveltyStatus Feb 14 '26
A number of fans on here have undersold his ability every offseason lol. Hopefully now that they don’t think it’s a competition for minutes with their guy they can just appreciate what Nesmith brings.
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26
Come on, they will latch onto whoever gets drafted. Be it in 1-4 or 10-19.
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u/revolucian2 Feb 14 '26
Nesmith is the most glazed Pacer on this sub, give me a break.
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u/thrwawayr99 Feb 15 '26
Absolutely not, he just came off the best 3 point shooting playoffs in nba history and people on here were calling him ass cause he had a bad start to the season while missing like 8 rotation players around him.
He’s not great off the bounce, might never be. But he’s somehow underrated as a shooter on here even after last year
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u/No-Primary-2875 Feb 14 '26
The put-back was chef’s kiss
Donovan didn’t look defeated, just beaten-down & exhausted. That’s when I knew the series was ours.
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u/DealComprehensive427 Feb 14 '26
That was insane but his moment for me was the raining 3s to help beat the knicks. That certified him as a shooter. I think he earned his respect across the league in those playoffs which as the nba goes, helps the whistle go his way in the future whether it’s driving the lane or playing solid D.
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u/BigBungholio Feb 14 '26
Literally the greatest 3pt shooting performance by any player ever across the entire playoffs. While also playing elite defense. Insane.
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u/rumb3lly Feb 14 '26
This is the craziest part abt it for me too. Ray Allen, Steph, Reggie, Klay,.. Yea none of them has ever done it. Nesmith the BEST to ever to it
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26
Literally, he could not get a foul called against him on any drive before this season.
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26
Moment when the gravity shifted, as they say, from peak Donovan to peak Nesmith. The players have a lot in common, just one happens to be a couple years younger and more meaningful playoff experience.
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u/Bacorn31 Feb 14 '26
If he were a Laker, he’d be thought of the same way Reaves is. He’s just so damn good.
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26
no question. and the Lakers were willing to take him off our books. But who wants to play alongside Luka?
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26
I mean, it was constant debate up to a week ago whether Mathurin is better. That's what a bass player does. Make the unit harmonize.
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u/revolucian2 Feb 14 '26
Oh there is no debate who’s better. Make no mistake, the Pacers FO did not trade Mathurin because he was worse. They just refused to pay him what he was worth, which is much more than Nesmith. The glazing of Nesmith is just to make the lemmings feel good about our club being owned by the cheapest ass owners in the league.
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u/thrwawayr99 Feb 15 '26
Say “ I dont care about defending” without saying it.
Benn is a better scorer. He was also an abysmal defender with minimal ability to playmake and a career assist to turnover ratio below 1. Below 1! That’s significantly worse than jarace, who is a turnover hazard. And he’s a good enough scorer to paper over a lot of that! Genuinely fun as hell to watch on offense. But “better scorer” is not the same as “better player”, especially when your team already has an offensive cheat code in Hali, who btw requires help defensively that benn is beyond incapable of providing.
This wasn’t the FO cheaping out, it was recognizing benn probably isn’t worth what he thinks he is worth at all, and absolutely isn’t worth it to this specific team because the fit is terrible. If he wanted to take 6th man money, I’d have loved to keep him, because I really like him and he’s fun as hell to watch, but the pacers made the right call to not give him starter money and managed to get a starting caliber center in return.
For benn to be a winning caliber starter at his current level of defense and playmaking (below 1, ffs), he would have to be a SGA level scorer. He isn’t an SGA level scorer, and I don’t think there’s much evidence that’s likely to happen. His stans overrate him to a wild degree, like you’re doing here
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u/ClaimElectronic6840 Feb 15 '26
Gun to your head… nesmith, nembhard, mathurin… I know why the front office did what they did
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u/Sharp-River-706 Feb 14 '26 edited Feb 14 '26
He got a little tired at the end of the last Knicks game... I mean, not as tired as the wilting Knicks...
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u/Randy__Snutz Feb 14 '26
Sad that Benn left, but, on reflection, Nesmith basically forced our hand. Nesmith developed to such a degree that he became what we’d always hoped for in Benn, and Aaron did it on the highest level.
I hate to dog on another guy to build another dude up. The salary cap and team roles just force the comparison