Myles Turner
Indiana Pacers

Player Facts

Height: 6'11"
Weight: 250lbs.

Wingspan: 7'4"

Date of Birth:
Mar. 24, 1996
College Experience: Texas (1 year)

Selections

All Star: 0
All-NBA: 0
All-Defensive: 0

Player Grades

Speed/Explosiveness: 6
Physical Strength: 7
Positional Size: 10
Positional Wingspan: 10
Paint Scoring: 8
Midrange Scoring: 7
Three-Point Scoring: 6
Dribbling: 4
Passing: 3
Perimeter Defense: 6
Interior Defense: 10
Rebounding: 6

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JUMP TO SECTION

> Intro

> Screening for His Teammates

> Diving to the Tin

> Popping After the Screen

> High Motor in the Open Court

> Mid-Post Abilities

> Protecting the Basket

> Unique Defensive Talents

> Containing Multiple Players + Supplementary Defense

> Mediocre Rebounding

> Questionable Shot Selection

> Ineptitude as a Facilitator

> Beacon Bacon

>Link to Player Contract & Salary Info

*All short clips courtesy of Smart Highlights & NF (YouTube)

*All statistical data courtesy of NBA Advanced Stats

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STRENGTHS

Intro

Myles Turner is one of the NBA's premier rim protectors. He exhibits good effort and a strong grasp of where to be positioned for maximum effectiveness defensively. Turner has the physical tools to boot, standing at 6'11" with a 7'4" wingspan.

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Screening for His Teammates

His role on the offensive end is quite simplistic. Still, Myles is very comfortable and productive within his carved-out niche offensively. He is a good screen setter and has the versatility to roll or pop, with a preference towards the latter (77th percentile on spot-up shots in 2021-2022).

He doesn't need to be fed the ball in screen-and-roll scenarios to provide positive value. Turner's fundamentally sound screens at his size are already enough to slow opposing guards and establish open room for the ball-handler. A specific thing that he does well here is nimbly pivoting to flip the pick, rescreening defenders that go under.

Over his career, Myles has created an exorbitant amount of high-quality looks for players like Victor Oladipo and T.J. Warren thanks to his screening. His 216 2018-2019 screen assists bested bigs such as Karl-Anthony Towns, Clint Capela and Blake Griffin.

Diving to the Tin

As the scoring option within the pick-and-roll, Myles is solid as a roller and above average as a popping big man. When diving down the lane for a lob or pocket pass, Turner likes to demonstrably put out his hands in a catch-ready position. He does a good job of making himself a big target for the ball-handler to locate.

Turner is also an athletic, high-flying big with long arms which makes him a great lob finisher. Moreover, he is comfortable working in the midrange area on short rolls, often throwing in a pump fake before completing his roll. All in all, Myles is a talented roller and it is something he should work to do more of in place of some popping.

His interior finishing is squarely above average. He can use power finishes over the top of the help defense. Conversely, Myles' skill level as a big is quite high, displaying soft touch on some less conventional finishes. He finished 66.7% of his restricted area attempts in 2018-2019 and 64.9% in 2019-2020. His 2019-2020 clip was superior to other bigs Zion Williamson and Domantas Sabonis.

Popping After the Screen

Myles floats into space effectively after setting the screen. He could pop into the midrange or beyond the arc, comfortable hitting jumpers in either zone. In fact, he almost exclusively takes threes off the catch as opposed to unassisted ones.

As his career has progressed, he has replaced long twos with more threes to stretch out the defense and provide ample floor spacing. Myles shoots a high-arching ball and is quite the dynamic shooter for a five-man. In 2018-2019, he shot 38.8% from three-point range on the whole.

High Motor in the Open Court

Turner runs the floor hard as a big in transition. He displays great effort in the open court and looks to create man-advantage situations by beating the other bigs down the court. Furthermore, he excels when trailing the play via pull-up jumpers. Overall, Myles has good speed and maneuverability for a 6'11" frontcourt player.

Mid-Post Abilities

Turner can play out of the post even though it isn't a core element of his game. His bread-and-butter here is a high release point face-up jumper. He also shows flashes of the other post moves in his arsenal, including running hooks and up-and-unders.

Protecting the Basket

Myles has outstanding timing as the devastating help defender he is. He led the league in blocks per game at 2.7 in 2018-2019, holding opponents to 8% below their normal field goal percentage within six feet of the hoop.

He followed that season up by causing players he defended to shoot an insane 10.9% below their typical shooting clip in that same area in 2019-2020. Myles somehow outdid himself once again during his 2020-2021 season. That year, he held players to 13.1% below their normal average within six feet of the bucket.

Turner has become increasingly wise and more disciplined as a rim protector. He has limited his personal fouls sizably after his first couple of NBA seasons. He knows how to position his body and go straight up to provide foul-free resistance. As a rangy player, he recovers well and can sharply rotate after quick penetration.

Unique Defensive Talents

His ability to get his body in front of the oncoming slasher then urgently recovered to his man is elite. This is hugely beneficial to the defensive unit as it decreases the damage of blow-bys. This is not the only way that Myles erases his teammates' defensive miscues, but it may be his most impressive one. He contested the tenth-most two-point shots in 2019-2020 despite playing 62 games.

Containing Multiple Players + Supplementary Defense

Turner contains the pick-and-roll as well as any other big in the Association. As the drop man, he employs that 7'4" wingspan to shrink the pocket passing lane or break up lobs, sliding his feet effectively as well. Finally, his magnificent rim protection skills are put to use as he pounces over to whichever player commits to the shot.

The former Texas Longhorn is also a solid post defender, with deceptive strength and nice defensive footwork. Outside of the game's brawniest centers like Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid, Myles can capably check talented post players.

Additionally, he defends well enough on the perimeter in the instances that he gets pulled away from the paint. He gets low, keeps his arms extended, and moves his feet well. To round out his defensive profile, Myles is a superb communicator here in addition to being the defensive anchor for his squad.

WEAKNESSES

Mediocre Rebounding

Turner is a disappointing rebounder given his size and bounce. The primary explanations for this are an occasional reluctance towards physicality on the defensive end, and a perimeter-heavy play style on the offensive end.

His 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 rebound averages of 6.6 and 6.5 respectively are subpar for a player who soaks up major minutes at power forward and center. Improved core and leg strength would also help shore up this problem.

Questionable Shot Selection

His shot distribution could be sharpened up substantially with more of an emphasis on punishing mismatches. In particular, he takes several threes compared to interior shots despite being 6'11" and 250 pounds. The Texas product can lack ferocity rolling to the basket.

To compound the issue, he is not a consistently good enough long-range shooter to warrant this imbalanced shot selection. In 2019-2020, he attempted four threes per contest but hit on 34.4% of them which is below league average. 33.5% was the figure in 2020-2021.

Turner's reluctance to bang with bigs on the interior also serves to limit his free throw attempts. As one of if not the biggest player on the court at all times, Myles should be seeking out contact more frequently. At the stripe, he is a decent shooter which makes this weakness even more frustrating.

Ineptitude as a Facilitator

Myles is a poor passer even for a big man. While it may not be fair to expect the notable passing prowess of fellow bigs like Jusuf Nurkic or Nikola Vucevic, Turner could still be much better. Between 2015-2016 and 2019-2020, he only recorded one season in which his assists per game was higher than his turnovers per game. The lack of vision is worsened by a loose handle.

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In the 2015 NBA Draft Combine, Myles was measured to have a towering 9’4” standing reach which was the second highest mark recorded in that draft class