The Indiana Pacers are reluctant to trade Myles Turner

The Indiana Pacers are receiving interest on Myles Turner. The problem for any potential suitor is that the Pacers do not want to trade him.

The NBA trade rumor mill has started and despite only one trade being made, copious amounts of articles and old fashioned column inches are being devoted to the topic. One interesting piece written by Sean Deveney of Heavy.com suggested that the Boston Celtics might be interested in Myles Turner of the Indiana Pacers.

The Celtics lost their ability to defend opposition multi-faceted big men effectively when they lost Al Horford and Aron Baynes during the offseason. Their three remaining centers in Daniel Theis, Robert Williams and Enes Kanter are just not up to the task, hence their interest.

Turner is the quintessential big man of the new NBA. At 6’11”, 250 lbs, Turner can bang bodies with most opposition big men in the paint. He is also agile enough to defend smaller players on the perimeter.

His rim protection is also among the best in the NBA. Turner has a career average of 2.1 blocks per game. Last season he led the NBA with 2.7 blocks per game.

His rebounding numbers are not huge, averaging only 6.6 per game for his career. Playing with players like Domantas Sabonis who has averaged 9..4 rebounds per game since joining the Pacers, means that Turner’s rebounding numbers are not a concern.

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Turner is also solid on offense. He has never averaged less than 10.3 points per game, and that was is in his rookie year. He hits from the floor at an impressive 49.1 percent for his career. His 3-point shooting is a work in progress. He takes 1.9 attempts for his career, hitting 36.3 percent of them.

This season Turner is taking 4.4 attempts from deep per game, making 36.4 percent of them. He is only taking 5.2 shots from inside the arc so defenders have to respect both his interior and perimeter game.

The problem for any team looking at Turner is that the Pacers have little interest in trading him. At 23, Turner is at the right end of his career. He is a key piece of their future who is developing all the time.

The Pacers signed Turner to a four year, $72 million contract before last season which is beneficial to both team and player. He is producing at a high level but not costing so much that he stops the team from being able to sign quality players to compliment the Pacers game plan.

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The Pacers are also sitting sixth in the Eastern Conference, just 3.5 games behind the second-place Miami Heat. This is without last season’s team leader Victor Oladipo who will hopefully return before the season’s end.

If this is the case, then why would the Pacers want to ship a player as crucial as Myles Turner to another contender in the Eastern Conference, or any other team for that matter? This stems from the Pacers’ belief that they are contenders themselves and do not need to get help to get them over the line.

They need to wait for Oladipo to return. Then, Turner and the rest of the Pacers believe they can make a run at the title.