Myles Turner has been a different player this season
By TYLER SMITH (@TylerSmith_ISL)
ISL Editor
INDIANAPOLIS — Myles Turner deserves your attention. I know, I know, he’s had good stretches before in his career, only to fall back into some old patterns. And I know the “Sabonis over Turner” fans and the “stop shooting 3’s and get in the paint” crowd want to see more before making any proclamations. But even in a small sample, Myles Turner has clearly been a different player this year. Yes Mr. Doyel, I said different.
Coming into Saturday’s match-up with Philadelphia, here’s where Myles Turner stands in several different areas:
•Top 80 in the NBA in + rating while on the court (minimum 8 games). Why is this noteworthy? The Pacers are just 5-8. Lots of winning teams have multiple players on the list.
•25th in the NBA in Player Efficiency Rating, and 11th among Centers. (For those claiming he’s overpaid, a quick reminder: Turner is the 66th highest paid player in the league.
•19th in the NBA in eFG% (minimum 8 games).
•1st in the NBA in blocks- not that this one should surprise you.
In the month of November, Turner has averaged 16.3 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks while shooting 34-of-59 and a scorching 18-of-33 from behind the arc.
Here’s a breakdown of Turner’s season vs. his career numbers.
The thing that makes this even more impressive: Turner has only averaged 28.4 minutes per game thus far, and has shot a lower FT%. Once those numbers increase, so could the production.
Another fun comparison to make- Sabonis and Turner, per 36 minutes stats:
Sabonis: 18.3 points, 11.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists.
Turner: 18.0 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.0 blocks
We know how his teammates feel about him. And lately, the coaching staff has shown a lot more trust in his abilities, especially late in games. Rick Carlisle has called him “spectacular” on more than one occasion. Carlisle has also said on this team, it’s about “doing your job”, which won’t always mean going to the same players each night for scoring. That only furthers the idea that Myles Turner “could” score more points on several others teams. For the time being, Myles Turner is absolutely “doing his job”, and even if Turbonis is broken up in the future, they’re both here for now, they’re both producing, and let’s all be thankful neither has been traded for a weak offer to this point.
