Is Myles Turner done with the Indiana Pacers?

Indiana Pacers’ seven-year center, Myles Turner played just twenty-two minutes in Monday’s loss to the Boston Celtics. He struggled to shoot the ball well, and other schematic factors on Boston’s end lead to this outcome.

Myles and others close to him took to social media and posted some cryptic messages which could reflect his mindset going forward and future with the Pacers.

At the end of regulation, Duane Washington Jr. played more minutes (23) than Myles Turner tonight (22) for the Indiana Pacers. As did Oshae Brissett (29) and several others.

Last night Myles Turner shot 2/7 from the field and missed all four of his three-point attempts. He finished the game with 6 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 blocks.

In his last five games with the Indiana Pacers, he is averaging 9.0 pts, 6.0 rebs, and 3.4 blocks over the past 5 games, while shooting 18.8% from behind the arc.

The timeline of events is important, and although at this point reading the posts is mostly speculative, you have to consider Myles’ role and fit with the team – it has not been the ideal situation for him.

After the game ended, an odd series of events took place around Turner’s inner circle. His mother and Turner himself took to social media, each with a cryptic message of their own.

Just before the end of the game, Myles’ mom posted this on her Instagram story:

Although this doesn’t seem like much, his mom is very active on his status and role with the team – actively advocating and posting about voting him for an All-Star game.

Myles has been rather public with his situation in Indiana this season. Taking time to speak with the Athletic’s Jared Weiss earlier to discuss his frustrations with his role and wanting more clarity.

"“It’s clear that I’m not valued as anything more than a glorified role player here, and I want something more, more opportunity,” Turner told The Athletic.I’m trying really hard to make the role that I’m given here work and find a way to maximize it. I’ve been trying to the past two, three seasons. But it’s clear to me that, just numbers-wise, I’m not valued as more than a rotational role player, and I hold myself in a higher regard than that.”"

The important takeaway previously was that Myles was known to be happy in Indiana and in this piece he reiterated that sentiment.

"“I love it (In Indiana). I want to win here with this franchise, for whatever that may be”."

This was met with an Instagram post from Myles Turner himself in his way to put the noise of him wanting out of Indiana to bed.

https://twitter.com/RomeovilleKid/status/1469514865245138944?s=20

However, this post was deleted after last night’s loss – then removing “INDY” from his Instagram bio. Myles then took to Twitter to leave the most cryptic message to be seen of the evening.

https://twitter.com/Original_Turner/status/1480762144476078082?s=20

It took some explaining from multiple people throughout Pacers Twitter to get to the bottom of the meaning here. After digging, foraging, and exploring the files throughout the internet aether, the answer was found.

This basically translates to, “this ain’t cool”. The timing likely refers to his low minutes and unproductive time on the court in the loss to Boston.

It could also be referring to how this isn’t the brand of Indiana Pacers’ basketball that Myles is used to, being the longest-tenured Pacer, he isn’t used to being this far behind in the win column (15-26).

He mentioned this earlier in the season and he knew the current style of play was not the same as prior seasons.

"“We just gotta get back to bringing excitement and joy back into this building. A lot of that comes from just playing hard, playing like we did tonight. Diving for loose balls and that stuff, that’s what this state appreciates about the way we play basketball and we gotta do that night in and night out.”"

Myles has shown his ability to produce on the offensive end of the floor, and when Sabonis missed a game against Houston earlier this season – he showed he can thrive in the solo center role.

He scored 32 points and led the Pacers to victory, shooting 14/18 from the field with 10 rebounds – playing 37 minutes.

For him, seeing his ability to provide on a much bigger scale when needed likely makes it more difficult to play in a system built around two players doing the same job.

Turner and Sabonis are essentially offense and defense this year. Turner leads the NBA in both total blocks and blocks per game – defense is his focus and he is really good at it.

The Indiana Pacers’ offense just runs better through Sabonis who is a better screener and facilitator who has a great skill set in the post.

The Pacers have been looking for trades involving Turner for what feels like an eternity. With the team holding a record of 15 wins and 26 losses, a change is bound to happen.

One quote from Turner that sticks out more as recent events unfold:

"“I’ve settled for being just a floor spacer who runs up and down and sits in the corner all game and isn’t active because I thought I was doing what was best at the time,” said Turner.I wasn’t looking out for myself and was looking out for the team. But I realized that looking out for myself in turn is looking out for the team, so I’ve flipped my mindset going forward.”"

I feel that Myles has come to a turning point with this Indiana Pacers team and would be surprised if there isn’t a change with the roster.

Again this is speculative at the moment, but there are some questionable comments that have now been followed by these posts.

At the end of the day, there needs to be a change with the construction of this roster, and Myles may want to be part of that change.