Pacers starting center Myles Turner will be out indefinitely after partially tearing the plantar plate in the great toe of his right foot, per a team announcement.
An MRI today shed light on the injury. Scott Agness of Fieldhouse Files tweets that, before returning to the court yesterday, Turner had sat for the prior six games as he struggled with a left ankle sprain. Agness notes that this toe setback appears unrelated.
The 6’11” Turner, still just 24, had been enjoying a solid run with the Pacers for the 2020/21 season. Across 47 games, he’s averaging 12.6 PPG, 6.5 RPG, an unreal 3.4 BPG, and 0.9 SPG. He boasts a shooting line of .477/.335/.782.
Losing their defensive anchor for any extended period of time is a major blow for the Pacers as they continue to fight for a play-in appearance. The team is currently the No. 9 seed in the East. At 26-30, the Pacers are currently two games behind the eighth-seeded Hornets, a team saddled with a litany of its own major injuries, and three games ahead of the tenth-seeded Raptors.
With Turner absent, the team will lean on the kinds of small-ball lineups it employed during Turner’s prior injury, with All-Star Domantas Sabonis moving to center and 6’4″ forward Edmond Sumner once again being promoted from the bench to fill out the starting front court alongside 6’6″ forward Justin Holiday. Goga Bitadze and Oshae Brissett could see bigger roles for themselves in the front court rotation this season.
“Pain is temporary,” Turner said of his recovery in a Twitter message. “[I’m going to] attack this rehab and we right back to it!”
Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes.com tweets that current Nets power forward Blake Griffin‘s 2016/17 playoff run with the Clippers came to an abrupt end when he incurred a similar ailment, eventually requiring corrective surgery.
Damn, if only Danny traded for him Celtics might be a contender this year!
The day that Ainge trades for anyone serviceable is the day my (Bulls) front office sign a premier free agent in his prime. He missed out on so many players since 2018. I get keeping your picks, but isn’t the goal to win a title with a rookie deal with Tatum and a pre max deal with Jaylen? Seems like they’re really seem adequate with just having a bunch of guys around them and not provide them the horses to challenge for the title
Yipes!!! “Partial Toe Tear” inspires a pretty grim visual!!
Gives Bulls, Raptors, Wizards all hope. All got a shot to move up now. We’ll see who steps up.
Actually the Pacers are better without him. Might not be as good defensively, so they give up 5-10 more points per game. The offense will likely add 10-15 points per game; so conceivably where they’ve lost a lot of close games; the net addition of 5-10 points per game should propel them into the playoffs.
Raps are one Cade Cunningham or allstar almost superstar away from contention again. Bulls have Vucevic now and still suck, Wiz suck too and they have 2 freaking superstars.
I see Turner in a new uni next year….finally-
Probably has more value on the market than effect on this team – They deal him this next offseason they can get 3x what they would the following year, I see it happening with plenty of suitors
this dude can never stay healthy damn
This truly is a weird season. Players who never got hurt all of a sudden are getting injured. The tournament play in to get into the playoffs definitely shouldn’t take place this season. Turner should ask out, but I forgot not everyone is bold. Some settle for mediocrity.
I suspect Turner likes that someone else (Sabonis) is the 5 while he can float and shoot 3s and look for block opportunities.
It was looking good for him once, with Brogdon joining Dipo and forwards getting traded away for the Pacers.
IDK whether he favored the Boston deal or any other or wants out.
Some plans lead to mediocrity, whether that is the objective or not… not every big trying to float is that helpful.