Scoot McGroot wrote:https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/nba/pacers/2021/02/17/pacers-myles-turner-knows-what-fans-say-hes-soft-why-its-not-true/6778009002/
Is Myles soft? Well, yes and no
Yes because I still think he's a little "soft", but no because it's got nothing to do with how many rebounds he gets
About his "softness". Actually, "soft' may not be the correct term to use. It's more of a playstyle thing
Myles just doesn't play like the traditional big man who fights for position in the post. Offensively, he's more comfortable being at the 3pt line, either shooting it or attacking the basket. Occasionally he will use his size to his advantage and post up his defender and then try to score with a post move, but that's usually when he's being guarded by a smaller player
Basically, he plays a bit like an SF, or a big guard, but he has the body of a C. He's not "soft" in the actual sense of the word, he just looks "soft" because he plays differently from what people may expect from a big
Now, about the rebounds
Myles is a decent rebounder. He's not elite, but he's certainly adequate
The reason why his rebound numbers is so low is simply because of what he does on both offense and defense
Most of the time, when he challenges shots on defense, that more often than not takes him out of position to get the subsequent rebound. Next time Myles plays, pay attention to him when he challenges a shot, you'll see that after jumping in the air trying to contest the shot, he'll sometimes no longer be in a good position to collect the rebound if the shot misses. His job is to challenge and alter the shot so that it misses, and it's his teammates' job to collect the subsequent defensive rebound. He'll probably get a lot more rebounds if he stops trying to challenge shots so aggressively, and just focus of establishing good rebounding position. But is that really what people want him to do? Stop doing what he's really good at, just so that he can grab a few more rebounds so that his rebounding numbers look better?
Offensively, as I said, he prefers to play from the perimeter. That again automatically reduces his chances of getting offensive rebounds. Bigs who play in the paint, like Domas, can sometimes be credited for 2 or 3 offensive rebounds in one single possession, simply by trying to rebound their own misses underneath the basket, especially if they kept missing and kept trying to tip it in
And besides, defensive rebounding is a team effort. The key to getting defensive rebounds isn't about having an "elite rebounder". It's about doing the little things like boxing out the opponent's players, and making it difficult for them to get the rebound, so that your own teammates can the rebound. It's funny but sometimes the player who gets credited for the defensive rebound isn't the one who actually did the most work that led to the rebound
When a shot goes up, a lot of players simply follow the ball and hope to get the rebound if it misses. That's not actually what you want most of your players to do. When a shot goes up, what you want them to do is to immediately keep track of who are the opposing players in their vicinity, and to immediately box them out, or at least stay in between them and the basket, so that your own team's rebounders can rebound the miss
As the article mentioned, this is something that Aaron is good at, he has the correct instincts. It's something that Vic was good at too
, but DPOY judges don't do much better). He needs to relax though and keep working hard in stead of screaming on twitter. If every medic would want a trophy or millions of dollar to defend lives, we would have big big problems.
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