With the Indiana Pacers’ season essentially over, the team decided to sit out Myles Turner for the leftover games, which made perfect sense given the lack of meaning that the remaining contests boast from a competitive standpoint. As we enter the last few weeks of the 2021-22 season, we look back on how the 26-year-old big man fared in his seventh season donning the Blue and Gold.
Before getting sidelined with another foot injury, Turner played and started 42 games for the struggling Pacers, and once again led the league in blocks per game before missing the rest of the campaign.
2021-22 numbers: 12.9 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 2.8 BPG, 50.9/33.3/75.2 shooting splits, 29.4 MPG
What were Myles Turner’s strong points for the Indiana Pacers in the 2021-22 season?
Once again serving as the Pacers’ anchor on defense, Myles Turner remained the league’s most prolific shot blocker, averaging 2.8 blocks per game to lead the association, though he failed to muster enough games to qualify as the official league leader.
With Indiana touting the league’s third-worst defensive rating this season, his absence effectively sealed the team’s fate as a poor defensive unit. However, when he played, the Pacers were also a bottom third point-preventing unit, though this says more about the team’s dearth of reliable and relentless stoppers in the guard and forward positions.
In theme with Rick Carlisle’s arrival, Turner also fired away the most three-pointers per game on a per-36 minute scale, also resulting in the most makes on a per game basis. While he struggled from rainbow country for a lengthy stretch before his unprecedented absence, he rarely shied away from his role as a floor spacer compared to previous seasons.
Also, despite remaining a marginal nightly contributor offensively, Turner managed to turn in the second-highest field goal percentage of his career, finishing the season draining 50.9 percent of his shots. Also, while playing the least minutes per game in three seasons, Myles corralled the most rebounds per outing within that period, logging 7.1 rebounds per game.
What went wrong for Myles Turner in 2021-22?
Injuries.
Wailing about halted campaigns due to injury is, by default, far from an aberration within the Indiana Pacers circle. However, Myles Turner’s absence deprived the team from fully assessing its definitive trajectory following their slew of moves in the trade deadline, where he was somehow left unscathed despite literal years of speculations about trades and whatnot.
It’s unlikely that the Pacers try to move him without even availing themselves of a first look at his fit with the new core, but given the right offer, his stature as a fixture in the Circle City could remain on shaky ground, especially with teams projected to be aggressive in the trade market factoring in a relatively weak free agency class and a short list of cap-rich clubs.
On the basketball side, Turner failed once again to be an assertive offensive threat, having churned out wildly inconsistent finishes on a nightly basis. While this could very well be a by-product of his former partnership with Domantas Sabonis, who has since been traded, Myles hasn’t given fans any indication this season that he will reach his offensive potential any time soon. Unfortunately, his role as an ancillary piece in the scoring attack may be a cemented reality moving forward.
His three-point shot, while less trigger-shy, remained below league average, as Turner only drained 33.3 percent of his treys. In the following season, with him currently projecting to be the Pacers’ primary frontcourt option, he has to be a more intimidating force outside, giving ample room for Tyrese Haliburton to operate while providing Isaiah Jackson the platform to function as a dangerous rim runner.
Ultimately, while the list of things to say about Myles Turner this season are far from anticlimactic considering the Indiana Pacers’ continued struggled, the team can at least expect him to remain a big force for the franchise in the foreseeable future while opening a possibility for him to flourish anew given the team’s new movement.
Season Grade: C+