Florida Basketball: Former Gator Andrew Nembhard emerging with Pacers

During his time with Florida basketball, Andrew Nembhard was a solid player who continuously focused on making it to the NBA. After two years in Gainesville and two years in Spokane, Washington, Nembhard jumped to the NBA this season.

His draft status indicates he squeaked into the league, but this month he has emerged as someone who intends to stick around.

Florida Basketball: Gators in the pros

During his two years at Florida, Nembhard was a productive player. During his freshman campaign, he averaged 8.0 points and 5.4 assists per game, which he upped to 11.2 points per game his sophomore year.

While he only had 3.0 assists per game his sophomore year, he maintained an assist-to-turnover ratio of 2.2, the best in the SEC.

After both seasons, Nembhard declared for the NBA draft but ultimately stayed in college. He transferred to Gonzaga for the 2020-2021 season and spent two years in the Pacific Northwest. In his senior year, he was on the First Team All-WCC.

Nembhard was among the last picks in the 2022 NBA draft, selected with the 31st pick of the second round by the Indiana Pacers.

However, the Pacers have trusted the former Florida basketball star, as Nembhard is fourth in the team in games played and third in games started with 56.

He has begun to flourish in March as he recently had a stretch of seven games where he reached double digits in points in six of them. This was capped off by a 25-point, 10-assist performance against the Toronto Raptors, which featured a game-icing three-pointer with under a minute to play.

Indiana isn’t having a particularly great season, but there are three games back of Chicago for the 10th and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. But as Nembhard keeps emerging, the future for Indiana should look a little brighter.