Indiana Pacers: 3 reasons to not trade Myles Turner this offseason
By Josh Wilson
Keeping Myles Turner is the epitome of how the Pacers carry themselves
Myles Turner is the longest-tenured Pacers player, the lone player leftover from the Paul George era. Turner was drafted by the team in 2015 and saw regular minutes right out of the gate in his NBA career.
The Pacers generally do not make trades if they don’t have to, especially with already established players. Several of the team’s biggest trades in recent memory came on draft day, moving prospects who had yet to see a single second of playing time in the NBA for veteran players.
The Pacers very rarely move players, and strive to be something other than a transient organization.
For many reasons, that’s admirable. It’s difficult to create a consistent culture that is compelling to the players within the organization if the roster is a revolving door each and every year.
It hardly does a coach good to barely know who his players are at the start of each season, and it’s even more jarring when roster changes happen partway through the year.
Keeping Turner around is a display of the very principles the Pacers have relied on over the years. Treat your players right, and it will repay you in one way or another. Create a winning culture, and don’t jump on each fleeting opportunity just because you feel as though you have to.
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The patience does help build culture and give players a more comfortable and secure setting in which they can simply get out and play basketball. That’s useful.
Moving Turner would be the antithesis of that. Having been with the team since he was drafted, now in his fifth season, the team would not only be literally saying goodbye to Turner, but they’d be metaphorically saying goodbye to an era and goodbye to a principle.
At the end of the day, yes, it’s a business, and the Pacers need to do what they need to do to win. But given the low price point for centers in the NBA trade market anyway, it just does not feel typical for the Pacers to go against their organizational compass here and look for a quick buck while they can with Turner.