3 goals for Myles Turner in his 2019-20 Indiana Pacers campaign
By Ryan Eggers
Increasing three-point shooting volume
Ever since his rookie year, the expectation that Turner could become a stretch big have been high. Larry Bird himself said that “he’s probably the best shooter on the team” before Turner had even logged a minute of NBA action.
By and large, his first year was a major disappointment on that front, as Turner shot 14 threes total on the season, sinking only three. His next season was the first where he was regularly getting perimeter shots, and he clocked in at 34.8% from deep. Not great, but promising.
He’s continued to improve in both volume and efficiency in his past two years, but only marginally. His percentage has improved to 35.7% and 38.8% in subsequent years, but he’s still taking just a tad over two three-pointers a game.
Realistically speaking, just this sequence in itself should be happening no less than five or six times game:
Turner scored the second-most points in the NBA off of pick-and-pop situations, and his efficiency didn’t hurt for it: he logs 1.03 points per possession on those plays. So why isn’t he getting more threes? You can chalk some of it up to Nate McMillan‘s coaching, but often Turner just doesn’t make the extra step back to turn a long two into a three:
All Turner has to do here is take two steps back, get into athletic position, and he’s got a wide open three instead of a wide open two. Being able to turn more of these plays into deep threats won’t just shoot up his scoring totals because of math — it’ll stretch the floor on defense. If the opposing team’s big man is worried about the perimeter all night, Sabonis is going to have a field day down low.
The next step for Turner to become an elite big man rests in becoming an elite stretch big on offense. He has the tools in place, he just needs to make a conscious effort to get behind the line more.