Utah Jazz land stretch big Myles Turner
Myles Turner’s name has seemingly been in the trade rumor mill for as long as he’s donned an Indiana Pacers uniform. Largely, his omnipresence in trade discussion has been due to his fit with Domantas Sabonis, a more offensively gifted player who should probably be playing Turner’s center position full-time. Here, we find the Pacers finally re-routing Turner to the Utah Jazz.
In return, the Pacers receive two young wings who could compliment Sabonis’ low-block passing wizardry in modernized, spaced-out lineups. Largely, the Pacers would be gambling on potential, as neither of the Wizards involved in this trade have necessarily met expectations over their young NBA careers. Still, Hachimura demonstrated improvement between his rookie and sophomore seasons.
His three-point accuracy saw an uptick, from 28.7% to 32.8. Even more significantly, the young wing showed real signs of life as last season progressed, averaging 15.1 points on 35.5% shooting from deep after the All-Star break. That is a solid contribution to a team that was winning games with an offensive revolving around a superstar backcourt in Russell Westbrook and Bradley Beal.
On a related note: Deni Avdija’s underwhelming rookie season should not qualify as cause to hit the panic button. It can’t be easy for a rookie to come from overseas and adjust to life in Russell Westbrook’s universe.
Meanwhile, the Wizards shore up a defense that has been problematic for years: last year’s 17th overall rank in Defensive Rating may not be as gruesome as the season before’s 28th overall finish, but it still wants for improvement. Gobert is an optimal pairing with stretch 4 Davis Bertans, in-so-far as the two bigs cancel each other’s respective strengths and weaknesses out perfectly.
Meanwhile, the Utah Jazz acquire a player who, on the surface, is Gobert’s inferior in most respects. Gobert’s career Player Efficiency Rating (PER) of 21.8 encapsulates a vastly superior rating to the 16.7 mark Turner has posted to date. So, why would the Jazz consider this trade?
Really, there are two simple reasons: spacing and age. For his career, Turner is shooting 35.2% from three-point range on 2.4 attempts per game. That’s a little better than Gobert’s 0.0% on 0.0 attempts per. Furthermore, at 25, Turner aligns with Donovan Mitchell’s timeline a lot more cleanly than the 29-year-old Frenchman.
The Utah Jazz would also have ample reason to hope that Turner would blossom into an even more impactful player in an environment that is more catered to his strengths. This trade allows them to add positional three-point shooting and youth while maintaining high-level rim protection (Turner did average a league-leading 3.4 blocks per game last season).