8 Points, 9 Seconds Roundtable: What Should the Indiana Pacers do with Myles Turner?
By Kyle Bordner
At @8pts9secs we are constantly talking Pacers. And as such, we decided to have a bit of a roundtable discussion on what the Indiana Pacers should be doing with Pacers big-man, Myles Turner
This roundtable consisted of @IndyInThePaint (IP) and @_KyleBordner (KB). The discussion took place on January 12, the day after the Pacers lost to the Knicks at MSG.
Open question to the group: What should the Pacers do with Myles Turner?
IP: After last night’s game, every tweet should have just kept saying I miss Myles…
KB: I just kept thinking that if we do end up having to trade Myles, then we might as well shut everyone down for the rest of the season. We looked so terrible without him on the court.
IP: He’s going to want so much money after the season. The question is, are him, Tyrese Haliburton, and Bennedict Mathurin enough if we don’t have the space to sign anyone else in the long run?
KB: Give him the money. You have to spend money to be a good team. The way I understand it, the extension he’d get would give him a big bump in pay for the remainder of this year, then his extension could still be made descending salary over the length of the contract. Even if he gets paid well over the current market value, the cap will continue to increase every year and his % of it will decrease, giving the team lots of flexibility. In my opinion, the Pacers have to go for it while so many of our good young pieces are still on rookie deals. I’m not a cap expert though.
IP: That’s well said. I think if the Pacers could find a way to pay Myles mostly upfront, it would leave enough room for when Tyrese and others are going to command a big payday. Let’s not forget that Nembhard is going to ask for more money as well in a few years.
KB: So a few days ago I read the pertinent sections of the current NBA CBA, and did a few back-of-napkin calculations. If I understand correctly, the Pacers could offer Myles an extension that would have him average 24 million/year if it was a 4-year extension. That would make him just around the 60th highest-paid player in the league next year, which will of course change after free agency in the summer. That’s just under a 4 for $100 million contract.
IP: Honestly that sounds reasonable for a player of his ability.
KB: Yeah. For reference, Jarrett Allen signed a 4 for $80 million contract last summer. I imagine that Myles would get at least 4 for $100 million on the open market. So, it doesn’t make tons of sense for him to accept the extension alone. BUT since the Pacers are under the cap this year, they can renegotiate his current contract and give him as much of their remaining cap this year as they want.
IP: That sounds like an excellent middle ground.
KB: Exactly. He’s already making 18 million this year, we could pay him up to 28 million more this year- which won’t happen, because the team will need keep cap space to pay out bonuses to other players and maintain financial flexibility for trades- making the extension closer to something like 128 million over 4 years without having to compromise too much future flexibility.
IP: Honestly, I’m not sure why they wouldn’t just do that with how well he is playing. They likely aren’t going to contend this year and I’m not sure there are any better things that can be done with the cap space at the moment.
KB: Exactly. All in all, I guess what I’m saying is that the Pacers can do some cool things to get Myles paid, but I understand why Myles might want to hit the open market and get PAID.
IP: Yeah, there could certainly be some big offers coming his way. So we are in agreement that Myles should get extended by all means if possible?
KB: Absolutely.
