Myles Turner on not winning Defensive Player of the Year: 'I had more blocks than the Cavaliers'
Myles Turner: It used to really f*ck with me bro. I know it used to really f*ck with me like my first couple years, because it’s everybody in your ear. You feel like bro like I think in my third season like I out blocked an entire organization, I had more blocks than the Cleveland Cavaliers team, right? What they always told me was like all well you don’t rebound, and I was like ‘all right’ you know I’ll take that on the chin, cool. But I feel like defense is more than being just a defensive rebounder, like I’m leading like a like a number two defense in the league, and know we have a decent record. But bro we don’t play on TV, we didn’t get very far in the playoffs so no exposure, so it’s like they had to justify who they get this award to, and it became like a popularity contest. That’s when I kind of bowed out say bro I’d rather get respect from my peers than you know this trophy.
Source: YouTube
Source: YouTube
More on this storyline
Myles Turner: If they get this award to somebody and in the playoffs you can expose that like you talk about. If he may be great at this but not so great at this, yeah we going at that. That’s why when guys like Marcus Smart wins it’s like I tip my cap to sh*t like that because he really a dog, he switches one through four, one through five, he can really guard everybody. But in Rudy’s case like I give respect to him because like when you’re playing Minnesota in the playoffs you know you’re not going downhill just against him but in the switch situations yeah everybody brings him out and and exposes him and whatnot so he does his job but it’s an overall award. -via YouTube / August 9, 2024
Do you think y’all are missing a piece like, what do you think that y’all can bring, not necessarily a player but like something that somebody can add to help y’all get over that hump that y’all are right now. Myles Turner: I think one we gotta be a better rebounding team, we’re still kind of small. We just got James Wiseman so that helps a bit you know I mean he’s like 7-1 but outside of me, Isaiah Jackson was 6-9, Jalen Smith at the time was 6-9, 6-10… So we just to have more frontcourt presence, especially off the bench. And also just vets bro. -via YouTube / August 9, 2024
It’s not surprising that Pascal Sikam and Andrew Nembhard got these extensions. But what do you think were the turning points for Pascal and Andrew that a deal would happen? Todd Ramasar: “With Pascal, from the onset when he was traded from Toronto to Indiana, you could see that Indiana had a very talented team from the rosters with the players and all the way to the coaching staff and front office. They made it to the Finals in the In-Season tournament. Even though they ended up losing, you saw the potential of a young roster. As we were evaluating that in light of a trade, it was about how Pascal would fit with that team. The missing piece to that team was really a versatile forward to complement Tyrese, Myles [Turner] and Andrew. So once Pascal got there, I think there was an adjustment period. Naturally so. For any player that has been with an organization for eight years, there would be a transition or an adjustment. But for Pascal, it was more so with the tempo because of the speed the Pacers play at and the way that Rick Carlisle does a really good job with managing minutes to keep them fresh for the postseason.” -via SportsKeeda / July 29, 2024