Indiana Pacers were right to not trade Myles Turner at NBA trade deadline

The Indiana Pacers have gone two consecutive years without making a splash at the NBA trade deadline, instead opting for roster cohesion from the season’s start to its finish. As a result, Myles Turner is still on the squad.

There’s often no action at the deadline that will win over the favor of each and every fan. Whether you make a move or not, your actions or non-actions will be scrutinized and fans will be asking “what if” for some time.

This season, the Pacers were rumored to be thinking about moving Turner.

According to Michael Scotto in a column that released just after the trade deadline, the Pacers discussed the potential of moving Turner at the deadline with teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and are expected to continue having those conversations throughout the summer.

It’s important to note that “having conversations” does not equate to a team assuredly moving on from a player, as this story has been spun on the web.

The Pacers doing due diligence on gathering intel on what a player could return them in a prospective trade isn’t a signal that they’ll be moved. It may simply be crossing their Ts and dotting their Is.

Turner certainly may still be moved, whether at the draft or throughout the summer, depending on how the league’s calendar shakes out once the NBA decides how it will proceed.

Regardless, I believe it was good that they kept Turner.

The spacing and defense Myles Turner provides made him too good for Indiana Pacers to trade

Today, scoring and high-powered offense are valued at a much higher level than lockdown defense. Though James Harden has improved his defense tremendously over the years, seasons ago he made a name for himself in the league with an extremely porous defense but lethal offensive skill set.

Scoring is easy to see, and the direct impact it has on winning games is clear. A buzzer-beater dagger is usually more exciting and invigorating than a forced turnover to win a game.

Defense, though it is not an extremely marketable trait when it comes to highlight reels and selling basketball to casual sports fans, can be far more important than a high-powered offense. Defense is harder — you need to display an extreme level of awareness to fire on all cylinders on the defensive end — and takes more energy, especially for frontcourt players.

Players like Myles Turner are often tasked with playing cleanup duty. When a player blows his assignment on the perimeter, frontcourt players are the ones to rotate over and defend the play.

Turner displays a high level of awareness on the defensive end and knows exactly when to rotate over to help his teammates and when to back off to avoid fouling.

Domantas Sabonis is improving every game it seems, but one of the biggest areas he struggles with is defending without fouling. Had the Pacers traded Turner, it would have launched Sabonis into a role as a defensive anchor he can not yet fill.

With only five team fouls per quarter before the opposing team is sent into the bonus, it’s important for frontcourt players to find a way to impose their will defensively without running up a foul tab. Sabonis averages 3.1 per game and has gotten himself into early foul trouble in games or quarters plenty of times this year.

Not only does it put a player in disadvantageous situations to carry a high number of fouls — oppositional players are aware of foul counts and how aggressively you are willing to play — but it forces your entire team to guard on eggshells when in the bonus which can lead to timid defense and a momentum swing to the other team.

Of forward/centers that play at least 25 minutes per game and have started at least 40 games this year, Sabonis is in the 25th percentile in fouls per game and Turner is in the 50th. Though he has taken steps back in his offensive game this year, Turner helps to anchor the defensive end for the Pacers.

Within six feet of the rim, Turner boasts defensive stats that sit atop the league’s leaderboards. Of players that see five attempts from opponents or more per game in that range, Turner forces the sixth-best percentage differential (-10.8 percent), notably better than Nerlens Noel, Steven Adams, Deandre Ayton, and Joel Embiid. He rivals that of Kristaps Porzingis (-11.7 percent) and Rudy Gobert (-12.3 percent).

Defense is hard to measure because sometimes a player’s will is so imposing that it’s not accurately logged in stats like this. Athletes like Turner are often so imposing that they prevent opponents from even thinking about shooting these shots, opting to kick it out for more difficult looks.

When he’s locked in on the defensive end, it pushes victory. In Pacers wins, Turner averages a block more than he does in losses. The team’s defensive rating is 107.86 when Turner is on the floor, it shoots up to 111.32 when Turner is off.

The Pacers have prided themselves on their defense. In a league that shoots plenty of threes (Pacers are 30th in attempted threes) and opts for a fast-paced style of offense (Pacers are 23rd in pace), Indiana opts for a measured shot profile that prioritizes defense (seventh overall in defensive rating).

To get rid of the very foundation of that identity in Turner would be to pull out the foundation from under the house and expect it to stand.

The Indiana Pacers were right to not trade Myles Turner at the 2020 NBA trade deadline

While it may be so that Turner is traded eventually, a mid-season trade this year would only have caused schematic issues for the Pacers and forced Sabonis to take on a defensive role that he was not yet ready for. It would have reduced their defensive proficiency to nothing and left them completely unready for the playoffs.