Why Myles Turner is no longer the "center" of attention

On losing a franchise fixture while searching for a potentially better long-term fix

By: Caitlin Cooper I @C2_Cooper

After advancing to the NBA Finals with the team that drafted him 11th overall in 2015, Myles Turner is no longer the "center" of attention in Indiana. According to ESPN's Shams Charania, the starting big man, who was seemingly always the subject of trade rumors while also outlasting an offer sheet to another center, has reached agreement on a four-year, $107 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks, bringing an abrupt close to his 10-year tenure with the Indiana Pacers.

It's possible the calculus changed for both sides, both in terms of dollar and cents as well as overall approach, in the wake of Tyrese Haliburton's injury.

There's no denying the impact that Haliburton has made on Turner's game. Last season, Turner led the Pacers in threes launched from the top of the key, with a total of 279 attempts, including the playoffs. When Haliburton was on the floor, Turner shot 40.5 percent on 244 attempts. When Haliburton was off the floor, he shot 22.9 percent on just 35 attempts. Likewise, it's certainly telling of Haliburton's pick-and-roll wizardry that the Pacers scored just 0.945 points per chance with Turner as the screener prior to trading for Haliburton, compared to 1.040 points per chance since Haliburton's arrival. Just as he made and took more threes from his sweet spot with Haliburton on the floor, Turner also started moving toward the basket more often once Haliburton became the team's starting point guard, as he rolled on 65.7 percent of his picks in the Haliburton-era, compared to just 55.2 percent over the period B.H. (Before Haliburton).

Notably, during the second round of the playoffs, Andrew Nembhard and Myles Turner led the league in pick-and-roll efficiency, tallying 1.333 points per direct chance, among the 18 pick-and-roll duos who were involved in at least 30 screening actions. Of course, while Nembhard certainly deserves credit for the guile he displays as a pick-and-roll creator, which he will now likely get to showcase more often as the team's soon-to-be starting point guard, it begs pointing out that part of the reason why that combination stood out to such a degree in that series was because the Cavs were deliberately cutting out Haliburton.

Even when Haliburton doesn't touch the ball, he still has a hand in opening up elbow room for his teammates to play four-on-four, especially when Nembhard is drawing the weaker defensive assignments.

In that regard, there likely would've been an adjustment period next season for the Nemhbard-Turner pairing, when Nembhard is the lead guard being guarded by top defenders while also guarding top guards (that's a lot!). Still, if the Pacers had reached agreement with Turner on the same deal that was offered by Milwaukee, then regardless of how everything meshed in the interim and the salary cap ramifications, the intention likely still would've been for him to team up with Haliburton in the long-term.

To that point, while it's obvious how Haliburton enhances Turner, it hasn't always been as clear how Turner enhances Haliburton -- at least on offense and particularly in the later rounds of the playoffs the last two seasons. During the Finals, although Turner certainly had some standout defensive possessions against Chet Holmgren, he struggled mightily to create advantages with hand-offs when the need was there to relieve OKC's pressure against Haliburton by starting the star guard away from the ball to open attacking lanes into the paint with get actions.

This should've been a foul on Lu Dort, but the reason why Lu Dort was in position to foul Haliburton was because Turner so rarely adjusts his screen with a two-foot lateral hop in order to actually stick the defender after getting off the ball.

In the regular season, with how often Haliburton rejects screens, that type of craft may not be as pivotal in terms of the teams literal ability to pivot, but it was glaring against a defense as unpredictable, handsy, and willing to load up at the blocks and elbows as that of OKC, which is to say nothing of the assist that might be needed for the star guard post-injury.

Moreover, similar to last season in the Eastern Conference Finals against the Celtics, when he too often devolved to auto-pilot post moves against Derrick White and seemed unsure of where to insert himself while being guarded by Jayson Tatum, he didn't exactly always recognize and capitalize on mismatches and switches within the flow of the offense against the Thunder, either.

Here, what was a prime opportunity for a quick swim move in front of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at the rim...

... turned into a contested, one-dribble three at the top of the key.

Granted, that's his sweet spot and Turner, per Rick Carlisle, was dealing with an illness during this series, but he underperformed his expected effective field-goal percentage from three (52.65%) by 20.5 percent against OKC (32.14), with 50 percent of his attempts being heavily contested, compared to 40.9 percent during the entirety of the playoff run. At times, that's because easier opportunities inside, which weren't necessarily easier for him, were shirked in favor of tougher relocations. Meanwhile, a lower percentage of Haliburton's touches featured a paint touch in that series with Turner on the floor (7.91 percent) than off (8.94 percent).

Over the Eastern Conference Finals and Finals combined, Turner finished with twice as many turnovers (26) as made threes (13), with the Knicks and Thunder pulling down 115 offensive rebounds when he was on the floor, compared to just 82 for the Pacers. To put those numbers into further context while adjusting for the possibility of discrepancies in makes and misses, New York and Oklahoma City combined to post higher offensive rebound rates from both two-point and three-point range when he was on the floor than what was the case for the Pacers.

• New York + Oklahoma City: 2PT OREB% - 35.75%; 3PT OREB% - 33.09%

• Indiana: 2PT OREB% - 27.78%; 3PT OREB% - 23.68

As the saying goes, more than ever, the basketball is the most important part of basketball. There was a similar trend in last season's Eastern Conference Finals, when he also finished with more turnovers (17) than made threes (7), while leading the team in total turnovers -- as a center. That said, even when his shot isn't falling, his ability to shoot allowed the team to shape-shift into different alignments than what's possible with Isaiah Jackson, who was extended a qualifying offer to become a restricted free agent, or Tony Bradley, who had his $2.9 million, non-guaranteed option picked up.

There's a difference when a guard is the player in the dunker spot, thereby opening a wider entry point on the perimeter while forcing another guard to protect the rim.

Than when a big is parked in that spot, putting a big in position to force kick-outs.

Turner's skill-set enables that type of flexibility and losing him for nothing isn't exactly ideal asset management, but the same can now also be said of what options the Pacers have moving forward. After advancing to the NBA Finals and in the wake of losing Tyrese Haliburton (likely) for the next year, Turner is no longer a franchise fixture and if (emphasis on "if") that decision was based solely on saving ownership money, well, that would be a giant bummer.

However, as was the case throughout nearly the entirety of his tenure, as trade rumors swirled and other centers usurped him at starting five or were signed to offer sheets, there was reason to think the Pacers needed to continue keeping an open mind with regard to other potential long-term fixes -- especially based on his performance in the later rounds of the playoffs the last two seasons.

It's unfortunate that an Achilles injury likely pointed to the beginning of the end for Turner in Indiana, but there's an opportunity for the Pacers to take a bigger step forward later by taking a step back now, with a change at center perhaps marking the end of a new beginning.