Myles Turner Reportedly Loses Starting Spot to Lavoy Allen

Myles Turner is out and Lavoy Allen is in, as the Indiana Pacers try to hang on to playoff hopes that have taken a huge hit in the past week.

After the Indiana Pacers embarrassed themselves while getting blown out by the Orlando Magic on Thursday, Frank Vogel said he would make some changes. And now he reportedly has, opting to remove rookie Myles Turner from the starting lineup in exchange for Lavoy Allen, according to Candace Buckner of the Indianapolis Star.

There is certainly some logic to the switch.

Myles Turner has shown great promise in terms of shot-making and protecting the rim. But the 6’11” big man shot a wretched 40.6% in March while averaging just 9.5 points in those 15 games. Compared to January (57.3% and 11.2 points) and February (51.0% and 13.4 points), the fall off has been dire.

But while makes and misses are important, worse has been his inability to defend small lineups. Vogel was forced to play Solomon Hill at the four down the stretch in several games since the All-Star break after watching quicker, more savvy opposing players routinely lose and beat Turner outside of the paint. Never was this worse than in games against the Hornets, as Marvin Williams went off, but it was even on display from the likes of Chandler Parsons in an Indiana win over the Mavericks that required Solo to step in late and seal the game.

Lavoy Allen, meanwhile, has earned all his minutes all season long. He has a team-high net rating while on the court, with the Pacers outscoring the opposition by 6.2 points per 100 possessions when he plays. This is twice as good as Paul George’s on-court number of 3.1 points per 100.

Turner is a -1.5 on the year, meaning Indiana gets outscored while he plays, and a dreadful -3.5 in March. So while it’s been great that the rookie moved into the starting lineup and got so much experience this season even though he missed six weeks with a broken thumb, he is clearly not helping the team win of late. And with the squad’s playoff hopes now getting less rosy, there is really no more rope to give Turner when he is not producing.

Vogel also reportedly, again via Buckner, now has Solomon Hill squarely in the backup 4 slot in the rotation. This has also been earned and there is an easy statistical case that he deserves to be playing as many minutes as possible.

In fact, his numbers over the past month are so much better than everyone else on the team that it was truly head scratching to see him log just 2 minutes as the Pacers were getting run out of their own building by the Magic.

Solo posted — by far, albeit in fewer minutes — the best net rating on the team in March. The Pacers outscored opponents by 9.0 points per 100 possessions, and this was often the product of the team closing well late when he joined the four starters other than Turner.

The defense was particularly impressive at 93.7 points allowed per 100, and he was the only player in the rotation to have good offensive, defensive, and net ratings in the month (signified in green on the chart above).

Ultimately, it’s hard to make a statistical case against giving Lavoy and Solo more minutes. The team has been playing better with them on the floor than it has performed when most of those ahead of them in the rotation take the court.

Lastly, this change is expected to leave Jordan Hill out of the rotation for the time being.

Oddly — or perhaps not — the chart above shows that he was helping the offense but killing the defense. With just 263 minutes, quirks can arise in the figures, so it isn’t fair to saddle him with all the blame. But it is interesting that he had a team-best 104.4 offensive rating in March to go along with a team-worst 108.1 defensive rating.