Myles Turner 5th in Defensive Player of the Year

[Scoot McGroot]

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[Nuntius]

I really believe that Myles deserved an All-Defense nod this year. We wouldn't be the 3rd best defense without him. Not receiving any first place votes is just wrong. Embiid being ahead of him is also wrong but I do get that these votes are often popularity contests and Embiid is super popular. It sucks that works like that but what can you do?

[boomershadow]

I do get that these votes are often popularity contests and Embiid is super popular. It sucks that works like that but what can you do?

Complain about it on the internet.

[Scoot McGroot]

I do get that these votes are often popularity contests and Embiid is super popular. It sucks that works like that but what can you do?

Complain about it on the internet.

I’M ON IT!!!!

[Nuntius]

I do get that these votes are often popularity contests and Embiid is super popular. It sucks that works like that but what can you do?

Complain about it on the internet.

Good point

[Pacersike]

I really believe that Myles deserved an All-Defense nod this year. We wouldn't be the 3rd best defense without him. Not receiving any first place votes is just wrong. Embiid being ahead of him is also wrong but I do get that these votes are often popularity contests and Embiid is super popular. It sucks that works like that but what can you do?

Be patient to find out how it will motivate him to become a better defender?

NBA leader in blocks or leader in steals(PG) or leader in defensive rebounds(Embiid) or best defense as a team (Giannis) are also popular tools to vote for a very complicated matter of opinion. How does one measure it accurately knowing it also depends on what head coaches and defensive coaches order players to do?

I think we all remember how Roy Hibbert was once the face of the Pacers defense (just google rule of verticality and see which player made it popular) and later got defensively exposed by Pero Antic and other mediocre centers. Hibbert is out now and Paul George is playing great defense. Paul George was our best defender and West, Hill, Lance, Danny, were pretty good also. They got far less credit than they deserved. Burke/Vogel deserved a lot of credit too. But someone of the Pacers had to get those DPOY votes and the giant became the face of our defense, also because PG was the Pacers face offensively.

IMO Turner got what he deserved, some recognition, not much. He is still young and if he keeps improving his game, getting stronger, starts reading the game like vets do and doesn't get pushed around anymore by giants like Embiid, he will be in the conversation.
If anything the perceived lack of recognition will trigger him even more to work extremely hard to become DPOY one day and unlike Hibbert and his plodding feet, I do believe Myles has a decent shot to win it one day.

Athletic freaks like Giannis and Deandre Jordan also seem to get more love just because they play defense in a flashy kind of way.
I tend to prefer the smart defenders over the flashy ones and I think it is just so hard to measure, popularity can't be excluded.
If everybody else on your team can't defend well, 1 great defender starts to look worse too, because you defend as a team, with players and with staff. When Turner makes defensive mistakes, do we know for sure then it isn't the coach his fault? I think not.

As much as we all like to be right, it remains a guessing game when comparing 450 players. We need the popular tools to help us and there is no perfect right answer. Surround Myles with David, Danny, George and Paul and we might have the best defense in the league and Turner would get more votes while being the same defender. Everything is relative and all we can do is accept what is.

That's IMO what we should try to do