We need to talk about Myles Turner

[pizza guy]

My screen name stems from the time that I was in the pizza industry, yes. It started over on Pacers Digest (I'm still there with the same name), back in 2004 when I worked at Arni's. I switched to Pizza King shortly after that, and eventually co-owned a PK with my parents and managed it. But yeah, I definitely did my time and had people calling me the pizza guy in real life, as well as online, lol.

These days I'm sadly no longer in the pizza business, but I'd probably get back in it if the right opportunity came up because I loved doing it, and I love pizza, lol.

is that why the Digest guys sometimes meet at Arni's? I went once. No one knew how to pronounce my username. It's Wiz as in Wizard followed by Op as in Operator. Wizop is an old BBS and CompuServe term. It is not a variation of What's Up.

anyway, back to pizza, we regularly stop at Pearl Street Pizza before the Pacer games we go to. good pizza. good beer list.

No, the PD gatherings have been sort of a traveling circus through the years, lol. Arni's, Pizza Kings, Perkins, I'm sure other spots as well. My former workplaces are all north of Indy about 90 miles or so, so it didn't factor into those meeting places. The screen name was definitely fitting for those gatherings, though!

[Topofthekey]

When you are like 7ft tall and are constantly being outrebounded, something is obviously wrong.

When you're constantly being boxed out by opponents from the team that's on the offense, you're obviously doing it wrong.

It really, really, really irritates the heck out of me seeing how many second chance points the Pacers sometimes give up due to how passive Myles Turner is when it comes to rebounding the ball

[Miller4ever]

He's getting better at rebounding, but he obviously needs to continue to get better. It doesn't really show in his averages, but he's improved in boxing out and securing boards. His rebound chance percentage has risen since last season, he's deferring 33% LESS rebounds to teammates according to SportsVU tracking. He's in the same league as Robin Lopez and Marcin Gortat this season, and his adjusted rebound chance rate is better than Rudy Gobert's. He's definitely below average, but he's actually serviceable on the boards this season as opposed to last season.

The team has overall gotten much worse at rebounding this season (2nd worst defensive rebounding rate in the league) and it's unfair to put it all on Myles. It's tough for anyone to seal guys like Steven Adams for long, and the whole team honestly needs to step up in securing the ball. Look at the Brooklyn game. You can't have 4 guys lounging around waiting for the one guy to grab the board every possession.

[MUpacersSIC]

I was in the potentially trade Turner camp at the beginning of the season, but now the only way I'd do that is if a team was dumb enough to trade the pick that lands you Marvin Bagley for him. Bagley has a constant motor, elite athleticism for his size, and is the ultimate modern big.

[HurricaneDij25]

And last night against the Celtics, he put a Hibbert-esque numbers with 2 point and 4 rebounds.

Couldn't have put this one any better...Yesterday against the Wolves he had one point and two rebounds. So much talent, yet so frustrating with his inconsistency.

[Pacersike]

He's just experiencing the usual sophomore slump after playing over 80 games last season. (his rookie year he got an injury break in between).

With his work ethic and his body structure, it can happen, but it will pay off in the future when he is more used to playing 80 games a season.

Nothing to worry about if we put better defenders and rebounders next to him to help him.

[Vorda]

Without Dipo we are the worst team in the league... cool...

[8305]

Without Dipo we are the worst team in the league... cool...

Looking at the roster it doesn’t seem like we should be that bad but I can’t argue with that statement.

As for Myles it will be interesting to see how he bounces back. Last night he looked like he may have been ampted up too high for the match up with Towns. First four shots weren’t that bad but they didn’t go down. Then he had a stretch where he was too aggressive and things got worse. He doesn’t have the skills to be a number yet since he isn’t very good at creating his own shot.

[cruwinas]

I'm disappointed in him. Weak fundamentals and bbiq, makes foolish mistakes, bad decisions. Domas need to start beside him as PF to fix certain problems. Sooner Nate will make changes in starting 5, better. One of two - Bogie or Thad need to give up space for Domas.
Go big, move Thad to 3, insert Domas at 4 and make specialist Bogie to terrorize opponents from the bench.

[Tofupimp]

Yikes!! What a performance against the wolves?! I would start Sabonis right away.

[evilution]

He's 21. He's still learning. He's under serious pressure to perform. It's natural that he'll have bad days. You should all relax a bit.
His rebounding isn't great, but he needs time to gain some strength - and he probably won't ever be an elite rebounder unless he puts on a ton of weight and that would make him lose the good things he has right now (agility, blocking shots, fluent jumpshot).

[Nuntius]

Yikes!! What a performance against the wolves?! I would start Sabonis right away.

I don't think that anyone can make any kind of conclusion based on yesterday's game. The game was impacted a lot in the second and third quarters by some absolutely horrible refereeing. I have never seen Myles Turner get screwed by the refs so hard. They literally called everything against him on both ends of the court.

I'm not one to blame the refs. I realize that they have a very hard job so I usually give them the benefit of the doubt. I think that the last time I blamed the refs was back in 2013. But yesterday was just awful. Absolutely dreadful. It was so bad that Myles Turner actually complained. Turner never mouths off to the refs. This was the first technical he has got in his NBA career and he has played 171 games. That's how bad yesterday's game was.

And I have no idea why that happened either. The Wolves aren't a team that gets pushed by the refs. They aren't one of the league's darlings. It was a game between two young and up and coming teams. I don't know why the refs decided to ref the game like that. Maybe they were influenced by our horrible start? I mean, I didn't watch the first quarter at all (was celebrating New Years) but when you start the game down 17-0 it's pretty much a given that your whole team has played horrible.

I just don't know, man. It's been a long while since I've seen the refs go after a Pacer player that hard.

[Vorda]

Myles can only be third option in PO team... he doesnt have enough skill to be a primary player... he can shot and protect the rim, but he can't create and rebound... Pacers will have a problem couse Sabonis and Turner are both centers, and they cant play on PF as starters... I'm afraid that there will not be place for one of them in near future, and Sabonis is more skilled player so I think we should try to replace Myles with some young PF with high potencial...

[Wizop]

my son who was an early PG critic has now turned on Myles. he hates that he shoots fade away jumpers in the post and has no power moves except on fast breaks.

I think most of our trouble is simply that other teams now know we aren't pushovers. still were I coaching I'd try more of a 1-2-2 with Turner posted to the right and Sabonis to the left. twin towers on offense. zone on defense.

[Slello17]

Yikes!! What a performance against the wolves?! I would start Sabonis right away.

I don't think that anyone can make any kind of conclusion based on yesterday's game. The game was impacted a lot in the second and third quarters by some absolutely horrible refereeing. I have never seen Myles Turner get screwed by the refs so hard. They literally called everything against him on both ends of the court.

I'm not one to blame the refs. I realize that they have a very hard job so I usually give them the benefit of the doubt. I think that the last time I blamed the refs was back in 2013. But yesterday was just awful. Absolutely dreadful. It was so bad that Myles Turner actually complained. Turner never mouths off to the refs. This was the first technical he has got in his NBA career and he has played 171 games. That's how bad yesterday's game was.

And I have no idea why that happened either. The Wolves aren't a team that gets pushed by the refs. They aren't one of the league's darlings. It was a game between two young and up and coming teams. I don't know why the refs decided to ref the game like that. Maybe they were influenced by our horrible start? I mean, I didn't watch the first quarter at all (was celebrating New Years) but when you start the game down 17-0 it's pretty much a given that your whole team has played horrible.

I just don't know, man. It's been a long while since I've seen the refs go after a Pacer player that hard.

Yeah the refeeeing was just awful. Every time we made a run to actually make it a game they would call automatic fouls on every one, every contact.
It looked like they were willingly preventing us from coming back.
And not only that but out of bounds play were also wrongly called, our players were clearly fouled on multiple plays without getting any whistles.

And like you said, I’m also not someone that usually blames the refs but this one was really weird.

[Nuntius]

still were I coaching I'd try more of a 1-2-2 with Turner posted to the right and Sabonis to the left. twin towers on offense. zone on defense.

That's a great idea. It would be interesting to try some zone defense. I've seen opposing teams try it on us but we've never given it a shot.

[Vorda]

still were I coaching I'd try more of a 1-2-2 with Turner posted to the right and Sabonis to the left. twin towers on offense. zone on defense.

That's a great idea. It would be interesting to try some zone defense. I've seen opposing teams try it on us but we've never given it a shot.

Yes, just what wee need is zone defense... no matter what every f..... team destroy us with threes... let offer them more shots...

[Topofthekey]

Unfortunately, Myles Turner's offensive game has been quite one dimensional so far, and he seems to function best as a stretch 4. For the team to thrive, he really needs to develope a reliable inside game. Yes, basketball is team game, but sometimes you really, really just need a big who you can feed the ball to and watch something happen. This is especially true when he's being matched up with some less talented bigs. In games like that, he really should be able to exploit the opponent and provide the team with a match up advantage. Which so far has not happened.

Of course, the good news is he is still really young, and you can see that he is level headed, with a passion to improve. I believe what he lacks right now is quality mentoring. The Pacers should really look into investing into Myle Turner's growth. Bring in specialists to help him, make sure the coaching staff is developing him as much as possible, etc. With the amount of talent and potential he has, it's a real waste to have him end up being a jump shooter