Indiana Pacers: Who should be part of the long-term core?

1. Myles Turner

Alongside Sabonis, Myles Turner is the Pacers’ most prized possession under the age of 25 right now, and the draft pick that they should be most proud of from 2015. In his fourth NBA season, he’s on pace to finish the regular season as the league-leader in total blocks and blocks per game, similar to his teammate Oladipo last year with steals.

This year is the last year of his rookie contract, but general manager Kevin Pritchard was wise to set aside some money for a long-term deal for the 23-year-old center, giving him a four-year, $72 million extension.

Turner has not only emerged as a prolific shot-blocker, but he’s adjusted well to the new NBA game, adding a 3-point shot to his arsenal. Of the league leaders in total blocks this year, only Karl-Anthony Towns (41.4 percent) shoots a better clip from deep than Turner (37.4 percent).

Although he’s been somewhat inconsistent on the scoring front in the 2018-19 season, Turner is the anchor of this very strong defensive team, and his fearlessness on the defensive end is a spark plug for easy offense.

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The Pacers wanted to see more of this in the future and took this summer to lock in Turner, who has potential to be a Defensive Player of the Year candidate for years to come.

With a few veteran contributors — Bojan Bogdanovic and Thaddeus Young, most notably —  getting up there in age and approaching free agency, the Pacers should be looking ahead and proactively consider these players for their future success.