Even though Indiana's season ended on a sad note, the organization and the fan base should be proud of what their team was able to achieve in their 2018-2019 quest to win an NBA championship. After tragedy struck and the Pacers lost their star player Victor Oladipo, Indiana was able to hang around without surrendering too much ground, finishing the season 1 game back from the Boston Celtics. Those same Boston Celtics ended up sweeping them, a 4-0 game series that was closer than the final result might indicate, but was a sweep nevertheless. Still, a lot of positives can be taken away from the season that this group achieved. The brightest of those bright spots has been the play of center Myles Turner.

When the Pacers originally extended Myles Turner by giving him a 4 year, 72 million dollar contract, a lot of people were on the fence about this move. First of all, there was no rush to extend him since there was a full year left on his rookie deal. Secondly, while Turner was promising in his first three seasons, nothing that he had shown at that time was enough to validate the huge deal that he was given. To have potential is one thing, to turn that potential into reality is a different animal. There was a very high chance that Turner would be able to fulfill the promise and turn into a player that was worthy of that deal, but doing it a year before his contract ended was a bit mind boggling.

Not even a full year later, my opinion on that contract changed drastically. The offseason that he spent refining his game, as well as his body have done wonders for the former #11 overall pick. Turner has made major strides in his game, mainly on the defensive end of the floor. The former Longhorn has reconstructed himself on that end of the floor, transitioning from an average/slightly above average defensive player to a borderline elite one. Myles was excellent as a rim protecting presence for the Pacers team, holding the opposing players to 8% below their expected accuracy in the <6 feet area, 54.4% overall. On top of that, the center led the league in blocks per game as well as block %. The Texas University product was simply one of the finer rim protectors in the association this season, and the numbers, as well as the eye test tend to back that claim up.

When it came to guarding pick and rolls, Turner performed very well, much better than I originally expected. With a cast of strong and smart defenders behind him, Myles could comfortably show and hedge in pick and roll situations, sometimes even trapping the ball handler when the defensive plan demanded to do so. This is, and off ball defense were areas in which Turner's terrific mobility and intelligence as a basketball player were on full display.

Turner pnr defense, off ball shenanigans

Even occasionally on switches, Turner has held up relatively well. He possesses terrific mobility for a center and the improved footwork helps in that regard. With the freakish length that he sports, that makes him a passable switch defender in small doses.

Turner switches

Indiana's starting center was one of the most impactful defensive players in the league this season, ranking #8 in DPIPM amongst centers (#6 among starting centers) and #7 in DRPM. He will not garner a bunch of votes for defensive player of the year, he probably will not make an all defensive team either (though him and Embiid are very strong candidates to be on the second team). Regardless of that, the 23 year old center had a spectacular showing on that end of the floor in the 2018-2019 season. What we're seeing right now could even possibly be him just scratching the surface of the type of defender that he has the potential to become in the future, which is definitely saying something.

Myles is already one of the more established and intriguing young players in the league, but he has the chance to evolve into a much, much better player. Turner still has room to grow on the defensive end, and if he does, he will become a serious defensive player of the year candidate for years to come. Even if he remains the same player on the defensive end for the entirety of his career, that is still a great result. An area in which Myles has a ton of room to grow is on the offensive end. How much of a threat he turns into as an offensive player will determine whether he will be a good starter or an all star talent.

It is very unlikely that Myles will one day become a 20+ point per game scorer and would have no problem when it comes to shouldering the scoring load by creating shot opportunities for himself. He is not that kind of a player, and expecting him to become one requires a very optimistic mind. The center is a dependent talent on the offensive end and it's unlikely that it will change. The majority of Turner's baskets were assisted (81.8%). Despite not being a big time scorer, Turner is capable of making a big time impact on that end of the floor, and achieve so due to his intriguing three point shooting stroke.

Over the past couple of seasons, centers have gone through a bit of an evolution process. With the major boom in three pointer frequency and the desire to hunt for the most effective shots possible, the giants of the league have adapted and the majority of them have added a three point shooting element to their game. We have seen the type of player that Brook Lopez has turned himself into, transitioning from a low post savvy scorer that used skill and finesse to get by or around the defenses, into an absolute three point bomber which can bomb from 24 feet and beyond. Brook attempted 6.3 threes per game in his first year in Milwaukee, the highest mark in his career while shooting 36.5% from beyond the arc. The 36.5% that he shot does not exactly validate that many attempts from a player, but in the case of Brook, it's different. Since Lopez is a center, him shooting threes at even league average accuracy is a threat all by itself. The 36.5% that he shot is much more valuable than it seems at first due to his volume and the position that he plays. Combine that with the high volume and the offensive value of the 7 footer grows immensely. Centers have to hang on the perimeter just to not allow him to get an open three, which effectively drags the 5 men out of the paint. If a team decides to play him like a guard by putting a wing or a guard on him, then you're running into a plethora of cross matches and even more headaches for the opposing head coaches.

Turner attempted just 2.6 three pointers per game in his 4th year - a career high. You would expect that a 38.6% shooter from out there would hoist up more shots from there, but that was not the case.

The Pacers have gone 8-5 in the games in which Turner attempted at least 5 shots from behind the arc during his career.

Suggesting to turn Myles Turner into an exact replica of Brook Lopez would be a stupid way of managing such a great young talent. Turner is much more mobile and active than Brook is at this stage of his career. Lopez is not the same low post scorer that can punish mismatches and barrage his defender by an array of moves, he spends the majority of his time behind the three point line, spotting up. Myles should not be doing exactly this, he's valuable as a screener and as a roll man out of pick and roll situations. However, seeing him attempt more threes than long twos would help the offense run smoother.

Turner took 190 mid range attempts in the 16-24 feet range this season. On those attempts he shot 41%.

Some of the blame has to be thrown at Nate McMillan. The Pacers have ranked #5, #2 and #3 in mid range field goal attempts, respectively, since McMillan was chosen as the fitting person to become Indiana's new head coach. During that same period of time, they've ranked #27, #26 and #29 in three point attempts per contest. Even if you were to look at per 100 possessions, the numbers largely remain the same, maybe except or one or two minor changes in the rankings. Despite adding Doug McDermott and Tyreke Evans, without losing any three point shooting threat at all, the number of threes that the Pacers attempted per game jumped up by 1.4. It is clear that Nate is not exactly an offensive savant. The roster that is given to him is limited, but it could still be much more on that end of the floor.

Albeit the offensive 'woes', you have to give plenty of credit to Indiana's coaching staff and its players for being as good as they have been with this outdated way of playing on offense. Where this team really gets their money's worth is on the other end of the floor. Defensively, Nate and the coaching staff gets every player to buy into their defense is the key mindset, they have been able to turn Bojan Bogdanovic into a passable defensive player and Doug McDermott from a bottom 5 defender, to a bottom 15 defender in the league. McMillan and the coaching staff has without a doubt done a great job with this team, but it's clear that they don't have a group of guys that are great amazing minds, and that would get exposed when tasked to play against an elite team that sports a great defense.

As of now, Turner is a really good defender and somewhere in between a slightly net negative and a slightly net positive on the offensive end. Defensively, he is awesome and has shown the type of force he can become. Offensively, there is some work to do, but there is a clear path for Turner to improve on that end of the floor. Adding a more reliable three point shooting element to his game with increased volume would do wonders for Indiana's offense, especially if they retain Thaddeus Young, who is essentially a 'sometimes' shooter.

The path for Turner's improvement is there, now it's all about him taking that next step.