INDIANAPOLIS — Myles Turner showing his value as a do-it-all big in the NBA Finals isn’t a surprise.
Myles Turner doing it in an Indiana Pacers uniform is the surprise, considering how many times he’s been viewed as everybody else’s “missing piece” and constantly in trade rumors.
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Yet somehow he’s played the eighth-most games (703) for the team that drafted him — trailing only Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokić, Jaylen Brown, Devin Booker and Jayson Tatum among active players.
To put that rarity into further context, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander doesn’t fit in that category after being traded following his rookie year in Los Angeles — and even if he did, he’s played a little more than half of Turner’s games in an Oklahoma City uniform.
All of the aforementioned names have played in the NBA Finals, and now Turner, in the last year of his contract with the Pacers, adds to the list.
(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
“I’m a loyal guy,” Turner told Yahoo Sports recently. “It’s always kind of been my calling card, I wanted to finish what I started. Of course, it is flattering for teams to see your value, want you to be part of your system. But I wanted to do it where I was drafted.”
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He’s been with the Pacers long enough to play with former mainstay Paul George and Monta Ellis on those squads from a decade ago. A few years later, he was on the teams that featured Domantas Sabonis and Victor Oladipo, when Oladipo looked like the next great shooting guard.
He’s played under Frank Vogel, Nate McMillan, Nate Bjorkgren and, now, Rick Carlisle.
“He’s extremely loyal. He has a great ability to focus on what’s important,” Carlisle said Tuesday. “Over the years, I think all players that are really good players, at some time or another, likely have their name involved in trade rumors. Whether it’s leaked by another team, whether it’s somebody that just is throwing stuff on the wall, creating content, whatever it is.”
It was the pairing with Sabonis that highlighted the Pacers’ need to get rid of one big man, just like the Sacramento Kings had one point guard too many — thus creating a natural trade partner in the 2021-22 season. By then Turner had already had his name linked to any and everybody.
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“It was a lot of things. You know, my first initial emotions was, you feel a little rejected,” Turner said to Yahoo Sports. “You feel like your value doesn’t hold the same weight you thought it did, but then you start to learn it’s just part of a business.”
But the Pacers chose Turner over Sabonis and acquired Tyrese Haliburton in a deal with the Kings. Even though Turner was injured at the time — he missed the second half of that season with a stress reaction in his foot — the deal shifted Turner back to center and gave him a true point guard.
It was impossible to predict, though, that the Pacers, who won just five games after that trade deadline, would be laying the groundwork for a conference finals run two years later and a trip to the Finals this year.
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“[It took] a lot of patience,” Turner said. “I wouldn’t call it waiting my turn, but just staying down. Just doing things the right way and letting the rest take care of itself.
“So I think when the trade happened, it was that final piece that allowed me to step into my natural position.”
Perhaps because only so much NBA bandwidth is attributed to the Pacers, it’s easy to forget Turner represents everything teams want in today’s bigs.
Can you stretch the floor? Check, he’s a 40% 3-point shooter on nearly six attempts a game. Can you defend in space and at the rim? Check, check, he’s led the league in blocks twice and is averaging two per game this year. Are you also strong enough to finish at the rim? Check, check, check.
The numbers may look modest to some — 15 points, 5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in this playoff run — but everyone can see his value.
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“We constantly are sending each other clips of how we can be better in pick-and-roll, how I can help him, how he can help me, whatever the case is,” Haliburton said. “We get along really well. I think that that has given us a lot of success.”
Haliburton laughed, thinking about Richaun Holmes being the first big he played with in Sacramento.
“I always thought in my career I was going to be best with a guy who plays above the rim and a pick-and-roll threat,” said Haliburton, who estimates he’s thrown maybe “three alley-oops” since he’s played with Turner. “Now having experience playing with Myles so long, I feel like he unlocks a lot of what I do.
“It’s been an interesting dynamic to play alongside him. Myles is not going to catch a ton of lobs. … It’s different. Our league is different. He’s a pop guy more times than not. When he does roll, he does open things up for me, as well. It’s been a lot of fun.”
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Even this series is different with the Oklahoma City Thunder playing a lot of one-big lineups, pitting Turner against Chet Holmgren or Isaiah Hartenstein. He’s solid enough that he can’t be moved around in the paint.
His step-back, off-the-glass 3-pointer in Game 1 was critical in the Pacers completing an improbable comeback, and perhaps they’ll need more. But Turner is careful about wanting to do too much.
“Continue to be myself, do the things that got me here,” he told Yahoo Sports. “There’s no need, once you get to the Finals stage, don’t switch things. You keep doing all the little things that make you effective in the first place.”
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To Carlisle’s credit, he wanted no part of the talk about Turner going anywhere as a free agent, and it seems like the Pacers will be aggressive in trying to keep him this summer.
“I haven’t heard his name in rumors lately,” Carlisle said, somewhat annoyed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Unless you’re talking about free agency, we’re not going to get into any of that. There’s a fine, so I’m going to avoid that.”
Carlisle has preached the Finals being 19 days long, so Turner won’t admit to too much looking ahead to free agency, either.
“I’m looking forward to the next days in front of me. And once I get there, I’ll be there,” Turner said. “It’s idle time between games, so you can’t look to the future too much.”
