The Roller Coaster Ride That is Myles Turner

In the Indiana Pacers loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, we saw just how good Myles Turner can be, but also were reminded that he’s still a 19-year old rookie.

LeBron James is still amazing, lest anyone forget. Watching him break past Lavoy Allen and into a mostly open lane is a fearful sight for Indiana Pacers fans, much less the players on the court.

However, Myles Turner decided to risk posterization and went up to contest what was suppose to be a LeBron James dunk.

And he blocked King James and had the first iconic moment of his young career.

Blocking that shot shouldn’t be dismissed as just getting in the way. LeBron has the strength to finish off that dunk if Turner had just put his hand up. Much like Roy Hibbert’s block on Carmelo Anthony in the playoffs a few years ago, that sort of block requires following through to make sure the ‘slam’ part of the slam dunk doesn’t put the ball in. Turner did just that, forcing the ball against the glass and away from the basket for the biggest block of his career.

He knew as the play developed what might happen according to the Indy Star’s Candance Buckner.

"“I just knew that he was going to be attacking the basket and it’s my role on this team to contest those shots whether they end on the right end of SportsCenter or the wrong end of SportsCenter,” Turner said. “That was a surreal moment for me. It was a great moment and it’s something I can add to the scrapbook.”"

However, there was soon a play that he would rather forget as at the end or regulation he left Monta Ellis out to dry by not setting a pick to free up the guard for a decent last second shot.

"“Yeah, it was just a mental lapse, mental error,” Turner said. “I want to say we went over it in shootaround but we have a lot of plays. That’s on me. I got to remember those types of things.”The two plays, in less than an hour, produced Turner’s greatest highlight and the lowest moment of his young career.After the game, Vogel took the blame for Turner’s mistake. Vogel said in future games that he will make sure that Turner, a 19-year-old, understands exactly what his assignment is on plays in the final minute.“He apologized to the team and everybody jumped all over him to basically shut up,” Vogel said of Turner. “He played a great game. It’s a learning process. We’re not even there without him playing the way he played.”"

Those two moments and two quotes tell us a little about Myles Turner as he doesn’t seem to worry about what could go wrong, but can take ownership of it when it does. Both are small things, but that’s what you want to see from any rookie. It hasn’t just been after a loss where Turner has shown maturity as a player.

Against the Denver Nuggets, he was 3 of 11 and didn’t break into double-digits for the first time in eight games. So what did the rookie do? He went back to the practice court to work on his shot.

He didn’t leave until at least 2:21 in the morning.

That’s what you want to see from any player, much less a rookie.

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• 2 positives, 3 negatives from first week of Indiana Pacers basketball
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People complained how long it took Frank Vogel to start Turner, but they seem to forget he missed two months of the season and was looking winded in games as recently as two weeks ago when he was coming off the bench. It really doesn’t matter now as Vogel has said he’s going to give Turner a fair shot at keeping the starting position. I’m pretty sure he’ll be keeping it after the way he’s played in the last few games.

In his first 18 games of the season (both before and after his injury) he averaged 5.7 points and 3.4 rebounds a game while averaging 13.6 minutes a game. Not bad for a rookie, but not exactly a compelling anyone to throw him in the starting lineup. That’s the sort of player he was up until January 15th.

That’s when things started to change.

Myles Turner Stats in January 2016 | PointAfter

Since then he’s averaged 15.9 points on 53.9% shooting and 6.6 rebounds a game while playing around 29 minutes a game now. He appears to be an excellent shooter with a 52.7% average so far this season, but he’s been a very different player in a lot of ways since January 15th. He’s only started in 4 games, but something appeared to “click” around the middle of January. Since then Turner has looked like he belongs in the starting lineup more often than not.

Next: Breaking Down How Myles Turner and the Indiana Pacers Are Now Blocking So Many Shots

Frank Vogel said in an interview after Turner’s first start that “This is going to be a really good lineup for us long-term, but early on it’s going to be a roller coaster,” and so far it has been. If Turner can learn from all the ups and downs, the ride will begin to smooth out sooner rather than later.