Myles Turner Deserves More Playing Time For Indiana Pacers In Second Half Of 2015-16

By Chipper Murphy

Myles Turner went largely unnoticed on draft night behind superstar prospects Jahlil Okafor and Karl Anthony-Towns before being taken with the 11th pick by the Indiana Pacers. His rookie campaign started out slow due to rookie growing pains and thumb surgery that caused him to miss 22 games, but since his return on Dec. 30, Turner has established himself as a dark horse candidate for the NBA‘s Rookie of the Year Award. Right now, Turner is 19th among all rookies in minutes per game (17.2) but with more playing time he can become one of Indiana’s greatest contributors.

Over the last eight games, Turner has played an average of 24 minutes, scoring 17.1 points, grabbing 5.6 rebounds, while blocking 1.9 shots, in the best stretch of his short career. The rookie’s success is not surprising considering his season averages of 19.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per 36 minutes. He has impressive ORtg of 114, and a PER of 20.4.

Turner is shooting 56 percent from the field on the season, but he’s not just dominating in the paint like most rookie big-men. He’s shooting an impressive 49 percent on mid-range jump shots, taking more attempts from that distance than the restricted area — where he is dominating at 75.5 percent — which shows his versatility on the offensive end. Turner was drafted with the expectation that he could be a project, but from his performance this season it appears that he doesn’t have very far to go before being a consistently productive rotation player.

As of now, the Pacers are floundering at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, sitting at just the No. 8 seed, and since they are in need of a spark they should continue to ride Turner’s extended minutes with the hope that he will progress even further.

The Pacers and Frank Vogel likely weren’t counting on Ian Mahinmi being arguably the Pacers’ best defensive player this season and an effective offensive weapon, thus taking a majority of minutes at the center position. However, Lavoy Allen (21.7 MPG) and Jordan Hill  (21.4 MPG) could both stand to give up some minutes to the promising rookie in a season in which the Pacers are likely not to make it out of the first round of the playoffs.

Share On FacebookShare StumbleUpon

You May Also Like