Garrison Mathews with the Hawks last season (Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images)
Garrison Mathews walked out of Gainbridge Fieldhouse after the Indiana Pacers’ win over the Bulls on Nov. 29, unsure if he would even be back in the building the next day. His 10-day hardship contract was expiring, and after a stretch in which he had scored just nine total points and hit only two of his 13 3-point attempts, he didn’t know if he had shown enough to earn a second look.
“I was a little surprised, to be honest with you, because I did not play well the first 10 days,” Mathews said. “But eventually my shot will fall, and as long as I can hold my own on defense and try to get stops — that’s the thing that keeps me off the floor — eventually my shot will catch up.”
The Pacers ultimately decided to give him that opportunity. When Indiana announced a second hardship exception on Monday, it was used to bring Mathews back for another 10 days. Hours later, he rewarded them with his best performance of the season, scoring 15 points on perfect shooting from beyond the arc while attacking downhill and earning trips to the free-throw line.
“This is what we felt was coming,” Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said. “The work he did the previous 10–12 days to get conditioning, to get rhythm, for all that to bear fruit, we thought bringing him back was the right thing. He did a lot of good things tonight.”
Carlisle believed Mathews’ skill set — even in a shooting slump — always gave him a chance to contribute.
“He’s an NBA player with an NBA skill,” Carlisle said. “He has gravity. The stats will take care of themselves.”
Thrown Into Chaos
For Mathews, the first days in Indiana were overwhelming. He had never entered a season without a contract, never gone weeks without regular reps, and never been asked to pick up a system midstream while a roster battled injuries and instability. This was a foreign process for him, and the adjustment curve was steep.
“This is my first time ever doing that,” Mathews said. “I was sitting at the house for probably a month in between camp and when the Pacers called. You try to stay in shape as best you can, but everybody’s gone playing, so it’s hard getting those five-on-five reps in. It takes a minute to get into it.”
Waiting at home with no team structure made the transition even more difficult. He tried to keep himself ready, but without teammates, scrimmages, or routine practice environments, his rhythm eroded.
“You sit at home for a month waiting around,” he said. “You can’t play 5-on-5. Nobody’s there. So it takes a little to get back into it.”
Indiana’s injuries forced them to sign five in-season additions — Mathews, Mac McClung, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Cody Martin, and Monte Morris — with each player dropped into Carlisle’s system on the fly. Teammates recognized how hard that can be, especially for a shooter whose role depends on rhythm.
“It’s a tough job, you know?” Pascal Siakam said. “You come into a team and you come in a game, the first play they run for you is to shoot. It’s a hard thing. He’s one of the best shooters out there. It’s just a matter of feeling it go in, having confidence, feeling the rhythm of everything.”
Adjusting to a Defense-First Identity
The Pacers’ recent success has stemmed from dramatic defensive improvement. For a player trying to carve out a rotation role, that meant proving he could defend — not just shoot. Mathews knew that, and he approached his second 10-day with defense as his first priority.
“They’re trying to grind out games by getting stops,” Mathews said. “I think over the last five games we’ve been top five in defense or however many. For me, that’s been the knock on me, and that’s something I’ve really tried to focus on.”
Learning Indiana’s defensive system required navigating new terminology, new roles, and new responsibilities. The biggest challenge wasn’t effort; it was absorbing the language and rules of a system he joined without a training camp or a preseason.
“Just getting comfortable with the new schemes,” he said. “Everybody’s got a different language and different schemes. Learning the terminology and learning the guys and gaining that trust… that goes into it.”
He also emphasized that opponents target a specific part of his defensive profile and that improving in that area is critical to extending his NBA stay.
“My biggest weakness is probably ball-screen defense,” Mathews said. “Trying to get better at those things… just trying to stick and play as hard as I can defensively is the biggest thing for me right now.”
Finding His Offensive Role on the Fly
Along with defense, Mathews had to quickly learn how to contribute offensively in Indiana’s system. With Pascal Siakam, Bennedict Mathurin, T.J. McConnell, and Andrew Nembhard responsible for most primary creation, his job was to complement them by creating space and moving without the ball.
“For me, it’s spacing and knocking down open shots,” Mathews said. “Just being able to try to help make their life easier by spacing the floor.”
He also leaned on movement techniques that have made him effective throughout his career — something he could still execute while learning new plays.
“There’s all sorts of… attacking a closeout really hard,” he said. “Coming off curls, pin-downs, slip screens, blur screens. If I don’t have it, getting downhill trying to find somebody. Being able to create disadvantages for the defense like that is important — not just being a shooter.”
Even without having a training camp, he felt he fit with Indiana’s roster because veterans understood his game immediately.
“Fortunately I’ve been in this league long enough where guys know who I am and they know I can shoot the ball,” Mathews said. “So they’re trying to find me.”
One player he found instant chemistry with was T.J. McConnell, whose ability to draw defenders makes him a natural pairing with shooters.
“It’s so much fun playing with him,” Mathews said. “The way he sees the floor… he can find a guy like me in transition or in the corners because he can get downhill whenever. It creates a problem for the defense.”
Learning From Carlisle and the Coaching Staff
Mathews also praised the Pacers’ coaching staff, noting that Carlisle’s reputation as a demanding and detailed strategist matched what he experienced firsthand.
“He’s such a smart basketball mind,” Mathews said. “He’s a tough coach and I respect that. He’s going to tell it like it is… some of the stuff he draws up, you can tell he’s a super smart basketball mind.”
He noted that assistant coach Lloyd Pierce helped him through the first days of learning Indiana’s offense, but that player development coach Johnny Carpenter became the person he worked with most closely throughout the 10-day.
“Johnny’s kind of been my guy,” Mathews said. “Trying to continue to learn the system and work on my shots and stuff like that. Johnny’s been a huge part of getting me integrated.”
A Breakthrough Performance
Mathews’ best showing came against Cleveland, where he earned trips to the line, buried three triples, and looked like the confident movement shooter Indiana hoped they were signing.
“I was fortunate enough to get some shots tonight,” he said. “We’ll see if I can stay a little consistent.”
Siakam felt the performance was simply confirmation of the player he knew Mathews to be.
“I think it was just a matter of time until he started making shots,” Siakam said. “We hope that he’s gonna keep doing that.”
A Narrow Window to Earn a Place
With NBA rules limiting hardship players to two 10-day contracts, Mathews knows his window is small. His current deal runs through Dec. 11, giving him only a handful of games to strengthen his case.
Still, he believes he is carving out a place within Indiana’s identity and rhythm.
“I think I fit well with what they’re trying to do,” he told RG. “Hopefully I can kind of progress even more.”
Regardless of how long he stays, he views the experience — the conditioning, the defensive learning curve, the rotation opportunities — as invaluable.
“It’s not easy,” he said. “But I think I fit well with what they’re trying to do.”
Whether Indiana keeps him past Dec. 11 or not, Mathews has shown resilience, adaptability, and proof that his shooting gravity still matters in the league — especially for a team desperately needing spacing.
Score extra with Bet99 Sportsbook this week — enjoy a 30% SGP on Dec 4 (TOR vs LAL), 30% NBA Parlay Boost on Dec 5 — CHA vs TOR + more, Bet $50, Get $10 on Dec 7 — BOS vs TOR + more.