In the last 8 games, the Indiana Pacers are averaging almost two more blocks per game than their season average, and Myles Turner is the big reason why.
Before the Myles Turner Revolution, the Indiana Pacers were averaging 4.7 blocks a game, but that number has risen to 6.6 during the last eight games. During that time, the Pacers have had two games with 10 blocks, once against the Sacramento Kings and the other against the Denver Nuggets. Having 10 blocks in a game is the team’s season high — and it happened twice in just over a week days.
Myles Turner’s 7’4″ wingspan helps out as he’s averaging 2.9 over that span (1.5 on the season), but there is more to it than just that.
What has helped fuel this surge in blocks is that Turner hasn’t been the primary rim defender during this time. That duty falls to Jordan Hill or Ian Mahinmi, especially since Turner has been most often playing power forward since entering the starting lineup. That has allowed him to play help defense and wipe away opponents’ shot attempts. He’s can defend the rim too, but the rise in blocks is partially a product of starting two players that can play center.
In two of his blocks in the Denver game, Jordan Hill was playing center and checking the opponent’s biggest player. This allowed Myles to float and come as a help defender even as Jordan Hill had been drawn away from the basket cover Nikola Jokic.
Turner does a good job on timing his rotation to the point when the shooter is all but committed to taking the shot. If he was the center on either of these plays he would have been drawn out way too far to offer any back-up rim protection.
In both plays Jokic does an excellent job getting the ball to his teammate, but in both plays Turner bails on covering Kenneth Faried (who is shooting better this year but is a career sub-40% shooter from midrange) and saves the Pacers from giving up a basket.
In that first block things are a bit helter-skelter, but in his fourth and final block of the game, you see how a rotation is suppose to work as Paul George rotates over to Faried to prevent a drop off.
In both plays Indiana’s guards are burned and Jordan Hill has to respect Jokic’s midrange shooting ability, but Turner’s help defense in the paint saves the Pacers from giving up points.
In the game, we also saw Jordan Hill doing a similar clean-up job for Turner on help defense when it is needed. In effect, they’ve had each others backs when defending the rim. Indiana had 10 blocks against the Nuggets, all of which were recovered by the Pacers, erasing 20 points off the board.
Though having the two bigs out there protecting the paint certainly makes their job easier, Myles Turner has also shown he can patrol the rim well all by himself.
Turner showed that when he stopped LeBron James from getting a dunk in the game on Monday against the Cavaliers. He was playing center at that point in the game, and LeBron probably looked at a lone rook in lane like a fish in a barrel.
Not so much though.
It is hard to say if this trend of more blocks for the Pacers will continue, but so far it looks like the Indiana front court is learning how to play together when it comes to swatting away shots.
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It is also important to understand that block shots don’t always equal better defense.
On the season, Indiana has a 99.4 defensive rating, but in the last 8 games that is up to 103.1. The good news is in the last three games where Myles Turner has been a starter that’s dropped down to 98. On top of that the Pacers offensive rating in the last 3 games is at 104.
If the Pacers can keep up both sides of the ball as they have since Myles has become a starter, then things will be fine, and the Pacers will start winning more games. Both the 8- game and 3-game sample sizes are a bit small to make sweeping judgements, but it is worth monitoring to see how the addition to Myles Turner to the starting line up effect both offensive and defensive rating in the long run.
Next: Indiana Pacers Bounce Back In Power Rankings
Myles Turner is only 19-years old and still very much a rookie. But the way things have looked in the past few games, he has a very high ceiling on both ends of the floor.