Now for something completely different: Myles Turner calls for an isolation play

Myles Turner showed a new level of confidence on Monday night when he waved off several of his Indiana Pacers teammates for a last-second basket.

Confidence is what Myles Turner needed in his game for some time now, but the Indiana Pacers center showed us that is no longer is lacking on Monday night.

Turner wasn’t deferring to anyone, he planned on taking the final shot.

At the end of the first half, Turner called for — nay, demanded — the ball while the Golden State Warriors’ Kevon Looney covered him as the clock ticked down. Myles then waved off both Darren Collison and Bojan Bogdanovic and called his own number on an isolation play.

Myles didn’t want to take a 3-pointer, either. He proceeded to wait for his path to the lane to clear before giving Looney a head fake on the way to the rim for a thunderous dunk.

Confidence, baby, confidence.

Sure, the Warriors were up by a large margin, but there’s something to be said about how Turner took charge of the situation.

In the past, you would put money on Turner looking for someone to pass the ball to in that situation. Instead, demanded the ball because he knew Looney couldn’t stop him. Myles analyzed the situation and took the initiative. It’s exactly what you want from one of your team’s best and soon to be highest paid players.

More than ever, Myles Turner must be aggressive

Even though Victor Oladipo was facilitating more than dictating this year, there were times, even after Turner’s in-season jump, that Turner was left out of the action.

Since the first time Oladipo went down, Turner’s aggression on offense slowly increased. He passes the ball fewer times a game than in the past and takes more shots. His field goal attempts took a dip this month (remember, he got his nose broken and hurt his shoulder), but as an overall trend, Turner takes control more often.

Even when he doesn’t get up as many shots, more and more of them are coming from 3-point range. Turner isn’t immediately looking to pass the ball in those situations as he did in the past.

Indiana is 18-7 in games where Turner takes 10 or more shots and 12-7 when he takes fewer than 10. It’s not the perfect way to illustrate why Turner needs to be more aggressive, but for what it is worth, the Indiana Pacers do when more games when he takes more shots.

Turner isn’t a playmaker, like most bigs, but he is a play finisher. With Oladipo out and the starting lineup in need of offense, Myles needs to keep shooting the ball when it gets in his hands.