The Myles Turner-Domantas Sabonis pairing is starting to work
The season started with the idea of a Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis pairing looking like a complete failure. A -17.5 net rating through Nov. 4th certainly gave that impression. It was just 38 minutes together, but they were getting outscored by 14 points and the team was shooting around 40 percent with them from the floor together.
But now? They’re outscoring their opponents and the team is shooting over 50 percent from deep even if they only make 43 percent on the interior. Now they share a positive 9.5 net rating together.
When the duo shares the court they’ve played a significantly faster pace than the team average, which is somewhat surprising considering the bulk that comes with a two-center lineup.
It helps that they’ve worked well with shooters around them are hitting their 3-pointers, a key part of making the duo work. The top five lineups with Sabonis and Turner are shooting 50 percent from deep on 13 of 26 shooting.
They’ve played 11 games since that Nov. 4 marker and made it work. That’s what the Pacers needed to see unless they were ready to ship one out sometime soon. There is plenty of season left for us to gather more evidence that the pairing can work, but November proved that with shooters around them, this town is big enough for both of them.