Myles Turner Vs. Domantas Sabonis: Who is more vital to the Indiana Pacers?
By Sam Black
What about his season as a whole? What is his long-term value?
2020-21 Season Performance Score: 4/5
Despite what the weirdos on Facebook and Twitter tell you, Myles Turner hasn’t sucked this year. Anybody who is having a Defensive Player of the Year type of year should give you a 3/5 at least.
The only thing holding him back is the offensive stuff due to, again, context. Turner has been an absolute menace defensively all year long, and when he actually gets touches on offense, he has impressed.
His LEBRON this season has been a solid 1.48, but we’ve seen how great his defensive LEBRON was, so this “low” number doesn’t matter to me. For reference, Ben Simmons is around that range as well. His RAPTOR also paints him as a positive player on the floor at +2.5, which is top-15 at the center spot. Again, these solid numbers are still being brought down by his underutilized offense.
If we ever see a Myles Turner who puts up eight attempts from deep per game (I can dream!), we’d see one of the more impactful players at his position.
Long Term Value Score: 4/5
The NBA is not going to miraculously go back to being a post-up dominant league. Like this article, the NBA has turned to heavily favoring statistics. That being said, the most valuable skills in the modern NBA for bigs are now rimming protection to stop the easiest shots in basketball, and spacing so your teammates have room to go get those easy buckets.
As we’ve seen, Myles Turner is historic levels at rim protection and competent from behind the line, when you add the incredible defensive versatility he also has at just 25 years old, Myles is the perfect option at center for the next era of hoops created by the great Stephen Curry.
You just don’t get bigs at this age that are this talented at skills that matter very often, and the Pacers would heavily regret throwing that away via trade. Unless he gets injured massively, Myles Turner should be playing in Indy for life.
Final Score for Myles Turner: 14 Points
After a strong performance by Myles Turner, let’s see what the offensive hub Domantas Sabonis can do to compete with his Indiana Pacers teammate.