Myles Turner Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Central Rumors: Pacers, Turner, LaVine, Vucevic, Strus

December 13th, 2024 at 3:29pm CST by Rory Maher

Confirming a report from ESPN’s Shams Charania, Jake Fischer of The Stein Line (Substack link) also hears the Pacers are pursuing a trade for a backup center. In fact, Fischer’s sources say Indiana is considered likely to acquire a reserve big man shortly after Dec. 15, when many players around the league become trade-eligible.

The Pacers have an open spot on their 15-man roster and are operating approximately $2.2MM below the luxury tax line. That gives them the flexibility to trade for a player on a one-year, minimum-salary contract without becoming a projected taxpayer.

Here are some more rumors and notes from the Central Division:

Pacers center Myles Turner is on an expiring $19.9MM contract and is not eligible for an in-season veteran extension. That means he’ll be an unrestricted free agent in 2025 at 28 years old. Evidently Indiana isn’t worried about losing him in free agency though, as the team hasn’t been discussing Turner in trade talks, league sources tell Fred Katz of The Athletic.
Zach LaVine is healthy and playing well for Chicago, but the Bulls still haven’t found any takers for his contract, and the two-time All-Star still hopes to eventually be dealt. “Nothing has changed,” one source close to the situation told Brian Windhorst of ESPN (Insider link).
In that same ESPN story, Tim Bontemps reports that people around the NBA don’t expect much of a market for Bulls center Nikola Vucevic either. As Bontemps explains, Vucevic is having a great offensive season, but people think his elite shooting percentages will likely regress, and he’s a poor defender. According to Bontemps, the most important factor in the relative lack of interest in the two-time All-Star may be the market, or lack thereof, for centers. The 34-year-old will earn $20MM this season, followed by $21.5MM in ’25/26.
The Cavaliers are eager to get Max Strus back in their lineup, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com (subscription required), who says Strus could be a more meaningful in-season addition than a trade. However, Strus’ debut will have to wait at least a few more days, as he’s been ruled out of Friday’s contest vs. Washington (Twitter link via Fedor). According to Grant Afseth of RG.org, Strus had planned to make his season debut on Friday, but his ankle didn’t respond as well as he’d hoped amid some “pretty hard” practices this week during the team’s ramp-up process. Big man Evan Mobley is questionable for Friday’s contest with a left ankle sprain, Afseth adds.

Pacers Notes: Nembhard, McConnell, Mathurin, Turner, Toppin, Walker, Freeman

December 2nd, 2024 at 3:32pm CST by Luke Adams

The Pacers fell to 9-12 on Sunday with a 15-point loss in Memphis, but Andrew Nembhard‘s return from a right knee issue was a positive development for the club. As Dustin Dopirak writes for The Indianapolis Star, Nembhard’s solid play on a minutes limit provided a reminder of what Indiana was missing when he was sidelined for 12 games.

The third-year guard scored 14 points to go along with four assists and two steals in just 15 minutes of action. He was a team-high +5 on the night, making him the only Indiana starter with a positive plus/minus rating. Nembhard played eight minutes in the first quarter as the Pacers built an early 45-28 lead over the Grizzlies.

“He’s a big reason we got off to the start that we did,” head coach Rick Carlisle said. “Defensively, he was really solid. Offensively, he made plays, had a couple layups, a couple threes. He just knows how to play. He knows how to play with (Tyrese Haliburton). It’s obvious that we missed him.”

With Nembhard out, opposing defenses have increasingly keyed on Haliburton, sending double-teams his way and guarding him with increased physicality. Haliburton is optimistic that the return of a talented play-maker and shooter like Nembhard will put the Pacers in a better position to attack those defensive schemes.

“Good to have him back, of course, he’s a big part of what we do here,” Haliburton said. “Good to see him healthy and looking forward to having his minutes growing going forward. … They’re doing a lot of denying. I’m sure a lot of teams are going to follow this blueprint moving forward. We just have to be solution-based and figure out what that is, how to attack it the right way. I thought in the first quarter we did.”

Here’s more on the Pacers:

Indiana guards T.J. McConnell and Bennedict Mathurin have drawn “significant” trade interest from potential suitors over the years, but the Pacers have consistently rebuffed those inquiries, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype, who notes that McConnell has been an important veteran leader and Mathurin is still viewed as having All-Star upside. After knocking off some rust to open the season, Mathurin, 22, has averaged 20.0 points and 7.6 rebounds per game with a .478/.438/.863 shooting line in his last 17 appearances (16 starts).
While teams across the NBA have long coveted center Myles Turner, there’s a belief that Indiana wants to re-sign him, Scotto writes. The Pacers won’t be able to extend Turner before he reaches unrestricted free agency in 2025, but will control his Bird rights at that time, allowing them to go as high as they need to.
There’s a belief around the league that the Pacers could eventually move either Obi Toppin or Jarace Walker, since the two power forwards are playing relatively limited roles behind starting power forward Pascal Siakam, Scotto says. Despite some early-season injuries to starters, Toppin is averaging just 20.0 minutes per game while Walker is playing 17.8 MPG.
Two-way player Enrique Freeman is a candidate to have his contract converted to a standard deal after the trade deadline, league sources tell Scotto. Freeman has played a relatively modest role so far, while Quenton Jackson has been the more notable two-way standout for the Pacers this fall. In order to promote either one, Indiana would need to make room on a 15-man roster that is currently full. That could be achieved by making a two-for-one trade or by cutting a player.

And-Ones: Silas, Covington, Efficient Shooters, WBD, 2025 FAs

November 29th, 2024 at 8:55pm CST by Luke Adams

Stephen Silas was an NBA assistant for two decades from 2000-20, spending time in Charlotte, New Orleans, Cleveland, Golden State, and Dallas, establishing himself as a legitimate head coaching candidate and eventually being hired by Houston to fill that role.

However, Silas’ three-year stint with the Rockets didn’t go well. His .250 winning percentage (on a 59-177 record) is the worst in NBA history among 168 coaches with at least 200 games under their belts. His next stop wasn’t any better, as he spent the 2023/24 season as an assistant to Monty Williams on the 14-68 Pistons. Having been let go along with Williams this past offseason, Silas is coaching Team USA’s AmeriCup qualifying roster as he resets following a challenging few years.

“I’ve been enjoying the family time, and it’s important because, like, obviously my dad (former NBA player and coach Paul Silas) passed a couple years ago, and now I have a daughter who is a senior in high school, and I can actually go to the parent-teacher conferences and be there when she comes home and be there for homecoming and stuff like that,” Silas said, according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic. “It is really cool at a time that I probably needed to have after three years in Houston, one year in Detroit which wasn’t very successful. Kind of like take a step back, enjoy the fam’, do the USA thing. It’s really cathartic for me.”

As Vardon writes, a successful stint with USA Basketball could revitalize Silas’ stock and help him earn a new NBA role in 2025. Some of his players, such as Robert Covington and Frank Kaminsky, are also viewing their time with Team USA not just as an opportunity to represent their country but as a chance to show NBA teams they’re still capable of contributing.

“This is a great opportunity just to show people that I’m healthy,” Covington said. “I’ve got four or five years left of basketball in me.”

Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

Mike Shearer of HoopsHype takes a look at 12 players who have significantly increased their shooting efficiency so far this season. As Shearer cautions, there’s no guarantee those players will maintain their efficiency spikes all season, but there are some interesting names on this list, including a handful who will be eligible for rookie scale extensions next summer (Christian Braun, Ochai Agbaji, and Bennedict Mathurin) and trade candidates like Nets teammates Cameron Johnson and Dorian Finney-Smith.
Warner Bros. Discovery – the parent company of TNT Sports – has been sued by investors who claim the company mischaracterized the impact that losing its NBA rights beginning in 2025 would have on its business. Winston Cho of The Hollywood Reporter has the story.
Danny Leroux of The Athletic looks ahead to next summer and previews the top players in the NBA’s 2025 free agent class, starting with stars like LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, Brandon Ingram, and James Harden. Leroux also singles out Pacers center Myles Turner as a fascinating free agent to watch, since he has a coveted skill set for a big man and will be very much in his prime when he reaches the open market at age 29.

Pacers Sign Center Moses Brown

November 20th, 2024 at 9:43am CST by Dana Gauruder

NOVEMBER 20: The Pacers have officially signed Brown, per NBA.com’s transaction log. The expectation is that he’ll be active in Houston vs. the Rockets on Wednesday, tweets Dopirak.

NOVEMBER 18: The Pacers are filling their roster opening by signing center Moses Brown, Shams Charania of ESPN tweets.

Indiana has essentially been going with a 12-man roster, not including two-way players, after centers James Wiseman and Isaiah Jackson suffered season-ending Achilles tears. Brown will provide much-needed depth in that area. Starting center Myles Turner is currently dealing with calf soreness.

Brown is expected to join Indiana on Wednesday, Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star tweets. The big man’s contract will be non-guaranteed, ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, meaning he’ll make $13,939 every day he’s on the roster.

Brown had been on the roster of the Westchester Knicks, New York’s G League affiliate. Brown was signed and waived by the Knicks in October on an Exhibit 10 deal.

Brown hasn’t stuck with an NBA team for more than a single season since making his debut in 2019, but he has racked up 150 regular season appearances in stints with the Trail Blazers (twice), Thunder, Mavericks, Cavaliers, Clippers, and Nets. He holds career averages of 5.2 points and 5.0 rebounds in 11.9 minutes per game.

Brown spent the 2023/24 campaign under contract with the Trail Blazers, appearing in 22 games and posting averages of 3.4 PPG and 3.9 RPG in 9.1 MPG.

Central Notes: Bulls, Giddey, Turner, Ivey

November 18th, 2024 at 5:39pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Bulls face the Pistons on Monday and they’ll be looking to bounce back from two woeful defensive performances. After giving up 144 points to Cleveland on Friday, they surrendered 143 in a 36-point loss to Houston on Sunday.

“It’s just a compete thing; you got to compete at a higher level,” guard Coby White said, per Kyle Williams of the Chicago Sun-Times. “We got to be more physical. We got to take a stand; giving up 140-plus in back-to-back games is unacceptable. It’s embarrassing, it’s a disservice to the organization, a disservice to the fanbase.”

Chicago dropped to 5-9 with the loss.

“We got to be a lot tougher collectively,” wing Zach LaVine said. “We just can’t let it snowball like it did (Sunday). We’ve been playing well all year and competitive. (Sunday) was the total opposite of that.”

We have more from the Central Division:

One of the defensive issues for the Bulls is that opponents have been targeting offseason acquisition Josh Giddey. The team’s defensive rating has been significantly worse with Giddey on the floor, Williams notes. “We’ve got to get better at being able to do multiple things and we’ve got to help him find solutions,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Then the other part of it, too, is he’s got to execute. We got to be able to execute the things that we’re in. We’ve got to help give him where he’s got multiple things that he can do, and the ability to move in and out of dead balls or timeouts to change coverages.”
Pacers big man Myles Turner, a free agent after the season, had been disappointed with his approach in recent days, Alex Golden of Setting the Pace tweets. He erupted for 34 points and nine rebounds in a win over Miami on Sunday after two subpar outings. “Publicly, I haven’t liked my attitude the last few days,” he said. “You’ve gotta be an energy giver and take accountability, but I feel like I’ve been kind of an energy sucker, kinda been in my own feelings a little bit…that type of (stuff) is just negative. Obviously it was a great game just growing as a leader, growing as a man. You can’t put that stuff out into the universe, but I’m gonna hold myself accountable for that.” Turner sat out the second game of a back-to-back on Monday due to calf soreness.
Jaden Ivey, who is eligible for a rookie scale extension next summer, had season highs with 28 points and eight assists in a victory over Washington on Sunday. Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff has been impressed with Ivey’s play this season. “He can hurt you in so many different ways,” Bickerstaff said. “He can get to the basket at will. He’s doing a great job of finding his teammates when people want to commit two bodies to him. And then he picks up full-court most possessions. So he’s setting that head of the snake mentality for our defense as well.”

Central Notes: Walker, Turner, Cavs, Middleton, Jackson

November 7th, 2024 at 10:50pm CST by Tristan Tucker

Jarace Walker played sparingly during his rookie season for the Pacers after being selected with the No. 8 overall pick in last year’s draft. However, he showed Wednesday why he was a lottery selection just a year ago, contributing a career-high 17 points on perfect (7-of-7) shooting.

According to IndyStar’s Dustin Dopirak, that performance could cement Walker in the rotation even when forward Aaron Nesmith returns from injury.

“Jarace Walker tonight, this was certainly a tremendous performance by him,” head coach Rick Carlisle said. “He earned all the minutes. Shot-making was great. He rebounded and defended their best players. Had a big block at the end of one quarter that was a real momentum play. There’s nothing like heat-of-the-moment, big-time intensity to really learn what it’s all about and he really responded great.”

Wednesday’s game marked the third straight time Walker reached double-digit minutes. Some of his primary defensive assignments through that stretch included Luka Doncic, Brandon Ingram and Franz Wagner.

“I feel like [Wednesday] wasn’t my best defensive night but I feel like I’m just continuing to take leaps,” Walker said. “I’m watching a lot of film, continuing to grow on that side, but just continuing to focus on and work on pressing up on defense, pick-and-roll defense and obviously one-on-one. I feel like I’m continuing to grow on that side as well.”

We have more from the Central Division:

Myles Turner continues to be a locker room staple and franchise cornerstone for the Pacers despite being included in trade rumors several times through his 10-year NBA career. In an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda’s Grant Afseth, Turner discussed his connection with his teammates and his value to the Pacers. “I’ve battled through a lot, but it hasn’t broken me,” Turner said. “I want to stay ready and be an example for the next generation.“
The Cavaliers are off to their best start in franchise history, beginning the year with a 9-0 record, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com details. Cleveland is playing tremendous team-oriented basketball, with Donovan Mitchell, Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland and Evan Mobley all playing at or around All-Star levels to begin the season. The Cavs rank first in the league in points and field goal percentage.
Despite the Cavaliers‘ perfect record, Mitchell hasn’t been pleased with recent officiating, Fedor writes. “We’re playing against these teams that are getting tick-tack calls,” Mitchell said after Wednesday’s win over the Pelicans. “Tonight, I don’t even know when the first foul was called in the second half.” Cleveland shot 13 free throws to New Orleans’ 28 in that game.
The Bucks are still not offering a timeline for the return to play for forward Khris Middleton, Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writes. Head coach Doc Rivers said he didn’t know if he’d classify Middleton as dealing with more of a day-to-day or week-to-week injury. Rivers did say that the former All-Star could play in a live, five-on-five practice session on a game day if needed, Owczarski writes, meaning a lack of practice time for the team as a whole shouldn’t delay his return. “Everybody’s different,” Rivers said. “Khris has had a lot of injuries and surgical stuff, so it’s just not as fast as we thought it would be and there’s nothing wrong with that.“
Milwaukee inserted Andre Jackson Jr. into the starting rotation and the Bucks ended up snapping a six-game losing streak. Veteran Bucks guard Damian Lillard was complimentary of how the second-year wing played, according to Gabe Stoltz of Brew Hoop (Twitter link). “Every good team has somebody that you can point to as like a disruptor, energy player that just brings that to a team and I think it was obvious with him out there,” Lillard said.

Pacers Notes: Mathurin, Turner, Walker, Wiseman, Furphy

October 2nd, 2024 at 3:47pm CST by Luke Adams

Bennedict Mathurin had a hand in the Pacers‘ regular season success in 2023/24, but his season ended in early March due to a labrum tear, meaning he had to watch from the sidelines as his team won two playoff series and got within four wins of the NBA Finals.

“It was kind of tough to see that,” Mathurin said at the Pacers’ media day on Monday, per Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star. “It was good for the team, and it was good because it puts me back to myself and it kind of humbled me a little bit because we had such success.”

Mathurin started the first 12 games of the ’23/24 campaign before moving to the bench for most of the rest of the season. Given that the Pacers played some of their best basketball with the former lottery pick in the second unit, he’ll likely come off the bench again this fall, which he says is just fine.

“I don’t think I have any expectations for a role,” Mathurin said. “I’m not going to be joining the team back and saying, ‘This is my role on the team.’ It’s pretty much, whatever I can do to help my team win, whatever it is, so be it. That’s the main thing for me, just help my team win.”

Whether Mathurin is part of the starting five or a key part of the second unit, star Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton is looking forward to having his teammate on the court again this fall.

“I’m so excited to get him back,” Haliburton said. “I think an interesting part of last year is it was presented as a lot of teams (in the playoffs) were hurt, as if our best bench scorer was not. I’m excited to get him back. I think seeing him get that success and knowing how competitive he is and he wasn’t playing lights a fire under one of the most hard-headed, motivated people I know.”

Here’s more out of Indiana:

Pacers center Myles Turner has been involved in trade rumors off and on since arriving in Indiana and has never felt totally secure on the roster, so he’s not stressing about the fact that he’s entering a contract year without the ability to extend his contract prior to free agency in July, Dopirak writes for The Indianapolis Star (subscription required). “I can’t help but laugh,” Turner said. “I’m gonna keep it a stack. Every year at Indiana has been a contract year at this point, whether you’re fighting rumors or staying true to your grind and what not. I don’t really feel too much different.” General manager Chad Buchanan said last week that the Pacers are “big believers” in Turner and want to retain him beyond 2024/25.
Noting that Jarace Walker showed up to camp slimmer and in better condition than a year ago, Gregg Doyel of The Indianapolis Star (subscription required) explores what last year’s eighth overall pick will have to do to earn playing time in his second NBA season. With Pascal Siakam and Obi Toppin at power forward, Walker’s best chance to earn minutes could come at small forward, barring injuries.
Offseason addition James Wiseman has been limited during the early days of training camp due to a groin issue, while second-round pick Johnny Furphy tweaked both of his ankles, according to Dopirak (Twitter links). The Pacers will take a day off from practicing on Thursday to help allow some of the players with minor ailments to heal, per head coach Rick Carlisle.

Pacers GM Hoping To Retain Turner Beyond This Season

September 24th, 2024 at 9:07pm CST by Dana Gauruder

The Pacers are hoping to re-sign starting center Myles Turner next offseason, general manager Chad Buchanan told the media on Tuesday.

“We’re big believers in Myles,” Buchanan said. “We want him to be here.”

Turner, who will make $19,928,500 this season, will be an unrestricted free agent next summer. Complicating matters for Indiana is that Turner will not become extension-eligible before free agency.

As Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star points out, when Turner signed a two-year contract extension in January 2023, he and the Pacers also renegotiated of the final year of his previous contract. Typically, players become extension-eligible on the two-year anniversary of their previous signing, but renegotiating a contract pushes that timeline to three years.

The Pacers will have a small window after the NBA Finals to negotiate with Turner before other teams can come calling, thanks to a new rule allowing teams to exclusively negotiate with their own free agents between the end of the Finals and June 30.

Turner is an impact player at both ends of the floor. He averaged 17.1 points, 6.9 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks per game last season. He has led the league in blocks twice and is also a respectable three-point shooter (35.4% for his career).

“His development fit with (coach Rick Carlisle’s) system,” Buchanan said. “He fit with our point guards. Fit with Pascal. You see how he seamlessly fits into the way we play.”

Re-signing Turner may not be a simple process, as Indiana has long-term salary cap concerns. Tyrese Haliburton and Siakam are on maximum-salary contracts, while forward Obi Toppin and guards Andrew Nembhard and T.J. McConnell each signed long-term deals worth eight figures annually this offseason.

The Pacers will likely have to exceed the luxury tax threshold in 2025/26 to pay Turner market value and retain their core group.

Eastern Notes: McConnell, Nets, Cuban, Brunson, Cavs

September 1st, 2024 at 6:00pm CST by Dana Gauruder

T.J. McConnell‘s agreed-upon four-year, $45MM extension, which doesn’t kick in until the 2025/26, could impact the Pacers’ upcoming decisions regarding Myles Turner and Bennedict Mathurin, according to Dustin Dopirak of the Indianapolis Star.

The McConnell and Andrew Nembhard (three-year, $58.6MM) extensions will put the Pacers closer to the luxury tax threshold and the prohibitive tax aprons going forward. Turner would become an unrestricted free agent without an extension before July 2025, while Mathurin will be eligible for a rookie scale extension at that time.

We have more from the Eastern Conference:

The Nets could dictate next summer’s free agency and trade markets, Brian Lewis of the New York Post notes. They could open up as much as $70MM in cap space, plus they could control as many as four first-round picks in a loaded draft. The Nets also have the league’s second-biggest trade exception at $23.3MM.
Mavericks former majority owner Mark Cuban apologized to Jalen Brunson for a perceived jab at the Knicks guard over Brunson’s 2022 free agency, Peter Botte of the New York Post relays. The exchange between Cuban and Brunson occurred during The Roommates podcast (video link). Cuban said in April 2023 that negotiations to retain Brunson “went south, when (father Rick Brunson) took over, or the parents took over.” Brunson signed with the Knicks shortly after they hired his father as an assistant coach. “The only thing that I … didn’t like about the whole situation was when Mark said, ‘When the parents got involved, that’s when things got messy,’” Brunson said. “So that was the one thing that I was like, I kind of was like, ‘Damn that was a little jab.’” Cuban offered the following reply: “I apologize, if it put you in a certain way, that wasn’t the intention. But it was hard to deal with. It was a unique negotiation in a lot of different ways.”
The Cavaliers will hold their first week of training camp at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., according to a team press release. Cleveland will become the first NBA team to hold training camp at IMG Academy. It will also be the Cavaliers’ first remote training camp since preparing for the 2004/05 season at Capital University in Columbus, OH.

Central Notes: Turner, Pistons Guards, Herd Arena

August 11th, 2024 at 9:08pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Myles Turner believes the Pacers need to be a better rebounding team to reach their ultimate goal, he said on a Club 520 podcast (hat tip to HoopsHype).

“I think one, we’ve gotta be a better rebounding team, we’re still kind of small,” he said. “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 (need) to have more frontcourt presence, especially off the bench.”

Turner also mentioned that rebounding was cited as the main reason why he’s never won a Defensive Player of the Year award. Turner has twice led the league in blocks.

“What they always told me was like, ‘Well, you don’t rebound,’ and I was like ‘all right’ — you know, I’ll take that on the chin, cool,” he said (hat tip to HoopsHype). “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.'”

We have more from the Central Division:

To varying degrees, Pistons guards Cade Cunningham, Jaden Ivey and Marcus Sasser have something to prove this upcoming season, Omari Sankofa II of the Detroit Free Press writes. Cunningham received a max rookie scale extension and he’ll need to show his late-season surge is closer to his norm. Ivey has to be more efficient, coming off a disappointing sophomore campaign, and improve defensively. Sasser needs to show he’s worthy of being the main backup at the point.
The Wisconsin Herd, the Bucks’ NBA G League team, is close to an agreement that would keep the franchise in Oshkosh for the foreseeable future, Justin Marville of the Oshkosh Northwestern reports. The Herd’s future at the arena was uncertain because of claims that the arena’s management had violated the current lease. A judge granted a motion for a different venue management company to oversee the operations of Oshkosh Arena. The Herd had opt-out provisions that could have released the team from its lease agreement due to the arena’s financial difficulties.
The Cavaliers have numerous roster openings but aren’t in a rush to fill them. Get the details here.