INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- The Indiana Pacers selected Myles Turner with the 11th overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. It is not typical for an NBA lottery selection with as much talent as Turner, but it remains to be seen whether or not the Pacers will start him at the beginning of the season.
The Pacers have been left with a hole at the starting center position since they decided to dump Roy Hibbert's salary. With that being said, the team is left to decide between Myles Turner, Ian Mahinmi, Jordan Hill, Lavoy Allen, or Rakeem Christmas for the starting center position.
Indiana stated that they wanted to go with a smaller lineup next season by going small at power forward, but they would keep a traditional center for rim protection. If Indiana wants a rim protector, that would automatically rule out Jordan Hill and possibly even Lavoy Allen.
Jordan Hill is a horrendous defender at the center position. This is largely due to the fact that he has a size and strength disadvantage when he plays the position. Therefore, he is best suited at the power forward position. Also, Hill is nowhere near consideration for being a rim protector.
Lavoy Allen is a good defender and a solid offensive option, but like Jordan Hill, he is best suited for the power forward position. Lavoy Allen is a decent rim protector, but he is nowhere near large enough to be an effective rim protector against starting talent. Both Allen and Hill are best suited at power forward.
Rakeem Christmas is not close enough to being a finished product to start at center, but he was a good rim protector and role player on offense at Syracuse. Due to his lack of NBA experience with being a rookie, it doesn't appear wise to consider Rakeem Christmas for the starting center position. In fact, Christmas might not even crack the rotation next season.
Ian Mahinmi would not work out well with players like Monta Ellis, Paul George, or George Hill, as those players need space in the lane to effectively score in the paint. Defenders will choose to seal off lane penetrators instead of staying home on Mahinmi, which would cause frustration in the stars, lower finishing and close shooting effectiveness, and chemistry problems.
Last season from 0-3 feet in, Mahinmi shot 69.1 percent, but there is a dramatic drop off from 3-10 feet out with 39.1 percent. It gets worse from 10-16 feet, as Mahinmi shot 37.5 percent. The 16 feet to three-point range was absolutely disgusting, as he shot 18.8 percent. This goes to show that Mahinmi will need passes that are either alley-oops, passes that are practically at the rim, or he will need to be a lights out offensive rebounder and traffic finisher.
Mahinmi's shots basically only come from rolling off a screen and going towards the basket, cutting to the basket, hanging out near the basket, offensive rebounds, and rare transition opportunities. 67.2 percent of Mahinmi's career two-point made field goals have been assisted. Not only has Mahinmi shown that he would be a liability with his skill set, he never has played over 20 minutes per game in a single season. With a poor fitting skill set and a lack of heavy-minute experience, it is a recipe for disaster to start Mahinmi. Mahinmi has only started 21 games out of the 327 games that he's played in his career. Also, Mahinmi has only averaged 15.1 minutes per game in his career.
As mentioned earlier, Mahinmi would simply cause problems for the starting units' offense. It is not worth it to make the stars in the starting lineup frustrated by clogging the lane with Mahinmi because he isn't even that good of a finisher or offensive rebounder to warrant a starting role. He would have to be as good as a finisher and rebounder as the likes of DeAndre Jordan and Tyson Chandler to warrant a starting role, which he is nowhere close.
There have been experience concerns regarding giving Myles Turner the starting role. However, the best way to get playing experience is to actually play the game. It's not just the fact that starting Turner would give him experience, starting Turner would actually be an asset to the starting lineup. The question becomes, how exactly can Myles Turner help the Pacers' starting lineup? It appears that it is all hypotheticals until we can actually see how Turner does in a real NBA game, but the future of the franchise is better off giving Turner the start from day one.
With a projected starting lineup of George Hill, Monta Ellis, Paul George, Jordan Hill, and Myles Turner, there is certainly a reason to believe that Turner fits the squad on paper. George Hill, Monta Ellis, and Paul George are all good at beating their man with their ball handling skills, then forcing the defense to send help. This will pair well with Turner when he spaces the floor from both the perimeter and mid-range with his catch and shoot jump shot. Also, this will be great when Turner is cutting towards the basket for an alley-oop or bounce pass opportunity with nothing but him and the rim. This will also be effective when Turner is hanging around near the basket and can then receive a bounce pass or chest pass with a good situation to put up a close jump shot, finish at the rim, use a runner, or make the extra pass. Of course not every situation is the same and there could be an extra man that rotates over to guard Turner in all of these scenarios, but then he would be able to make the extra pass with ease for better offensive flow and options for the team.
Myles Turner will be able to utilize his on-ball screen skills to get easy offensive opportunities as well. Since Indiana has those talented perimeter players, Turner won't be viewed as the primary threat in these pick-and-roll situations. This means that the defense will have to choose between either letting Monta Ellis, Paul George, or George Hill drive from the perimeter/mid-range, or let Myles Turner have a chance to catch a lob or bounce pass going towards the basket, or close out on Myles Turner on the perimeter/mid-range before he shoots a catch-and-shoot jumper, or let the Pacers' offense have two miss matches by switching on the screen. Turner's jump shot will force his man to either hedge the screen or pressure the ball after the handler uses the screen, and this will allow Turner to slip towards the basket with plenty of space and options to work with. On-ball screens with Turner present many dangerous options for opposing defenses, but this can't be said about any other possible starting center on the roster.
As mentioned earlier, Turner won't be asked to score a lot in isolation scenarios, but that doesn't mean his isolation offense can't be utilized. Since Turner is a terrible matchup for slower defenders, teams could be forced to put smaller defenders on him in order to neutralize his pick and roll and catch and shoot opportunities. This is when Indiana should look to space the floor for Turner and let him isolate from either the low or high post, because he would have a miss match to exploit. Turner's size would then be a problem on the interior when he's waiting near the basket or cutting, especially since Indiana can draw his man away with their perimeter talent's ball handling skills. If Turner's man doesn't over commit in help defense, he always has the low post to attack with.
Myles Turner is good at creating his own shot. From mid-range and close range, Turner has a turnaround jump shot, fade away jump shot, step back jump shot, initial post moves, counter post moves, and he's even good at using ball handling skills to create space for a jump shot. Turner can attack the basket with his ball handling skills as well; however, that isn't one of his biggest offensive strengths. Again, Turner does have the ability to score on his own, but that doesn't mean that he will have to use those aspects of his game. Indiana will have a comfortable role for Turner to get used to the NBA before he is needed to carry a load offensively, which is an ideal situation for Myles. Individual offense from the center position is something that the Pacers haven't had the option of using in recent history, but it is certainly a major weapon to have in their arsenal.
Help defense and rim protection are two of Turner's biggest strengths, and they also happen to be two of the Pacers' biggest needs. Sure, Paul George and George Hill can effectively defend their assignment, but Monta Ellis and Jordan Hill cannot say the same. Based off of recent history, Turner will need to clean up the mistakes of Jordan and Monta in help defense when they get beat by their man. With his size, awareness, athleticism, and having Jordan and Monta as teammates, Turner will be able to best showcase his skills in help defense, defending on-ball screens and protecting the rim. But it is also important that Turner most likely won’t need much help from Jordan Hill or Monta Ellis with his individual defensive assignments, because asking for defensive help from them would be a disaster.
Monta Ellis and Jordan Hill may be known as poor defenders, but there is hope for both. With teammates like George Hill and Paul George, Ellis will rarely have to defend the opposing team's best player, as he will have help defense from both perimeter teammates, and he'll have Myles Turner on the inside. Jordan Hill proved to be a solid defender as a power forward, but he is too small to effectively defend centers. Luckily for Hill, he won't be needed at center. Both players will be able to benefit from a coaching staff that demands defensive excellence. This is all great for Myles Turner too because this means that Ellis and Hill could be better defenders than what their reputations advertise.
Turner can hold his own when defending off-ball movement, on-ball screens, off-ball screens, overall help defense, high-post isolation, mid-range isolation, perimeter isolation, and also against low-post isolation against smaller players. However, he could struggle against heavier post players. Turner hasn’t been working hard on his lower body strength, so he shouldn’t be a liability in low-post defense as what draft experts were leading viewers to believe. It is important to also consider that Turner has a special gift of length that could help with contesting those low-post shot attempts. With added weight and strength, Turner could utilize his length if he can hold his ground in the low post. But of course, Turner will have to stay out of foul trouble when defending crafty and heavy low-post players, which appears to be the biggest problem that he will face.
Rebounding is another key area that Turner brings to the team. He has worked hard on rebounding in traffic and on rebounding in chase down scenarios, which pairs very nicely with his rebounding ability in easy situations. Rebounding is something that both the offense and defense can see benefits from. Turner's likely frontcourt partner (Jordan Hill) is a pretty solid rebounder, but he isn't elite by any stretch of the imagination. Paul George and George Hill will be able to help a lot in the rebounding department too, but not so much for Monta Ellis.
The Pacers’ projected starting unit appears to be an almost perfect match for Myles Turner. He won't be asked to do too much on the offensive end, but what he will be asked to do will all be comfortable for him. Meanwhile, his defensive and rebounding skills will be effectively showcased at the same time. It appears that starting Myles Turner over Ian Mahinmi is the best decision for the team to make. Indiana's players have stated that they have goals of reaching the Eastern Conference Finals next season, so putting the most competitive unit on the court is the best way to go. Simply put, starting Turner makes the Pacers a more competitive team than starting Mahinmi. Starting Ian would be the safe decision to do, but taking the risk of starting Turner looks fantastic on paper.