Insider: With his future in limbo, Myles Turner proves himself indispensable to Pacers' present

INDIANAPOLIS -- Myles Turner zig-zagged all over the floor creating choke points for every one of the Charlotte Hornets actions on their penultimate possession.

The Pacers center was there at half court when Hornets big man Mason Plumlee set a back screen on Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard, getting low and cutting off Hornets guard Terry Rozier when he tried to go to his left around the screen. Turner then switched back with Nembhard and was there when Plumlee tried to roll to the bucket, getting to him at the 3-point line so Plumlee had to pass the ball right back to Rozier as soon as he got it.

Turner dropped down into the paint as Rozier collected the pass from Plumlee and tried to drive from the left elbow, then met Rozier at the edge of the lane forcing him to pass it again. Plumlee dove from the top of the key, caught the pass and rose up for a two-hand dunk attempt, but Turner busted it from one side of the paint to the other, met Plumlee in the air and pinned the ball off the glass.

Turner landed and stayed underneath the bucket to relish the moment, throwing a powerful right hook at the air and bellowing something primal while point guard Tyrese Haliburton dashed down the floor with the ball in his hand waiting for someone to foul him. Haliburton hit two free free throws, wing Aaron Nesmith later hit two more, and the Pacers escaped a frequently choppy game with a 116-111 win Sunday, their second straight win, sixth in their last seven games and eighth in their last 10.

Four observations: Pacers step up on defense behind Myles Turner to grab 8th win in last 10

"Night, night," Turner said when asked what he was thinking and what emotions he had when he made the block. "I was ready to go home at that point. Got it done and still got, what time is it, 8 o'clock? Still got the rest of my evening left."

At least some fans at Gainbridge Fieldhouse surely had other thoughts, perhaps best summed up by John Malkovich's famous line as Teddy KGB in the 1998 poker movie "Rounders."

Pay him. Pay that man his money.

It's not clear at all where the Pacers' attempts to keep Turner currently stand. His current four-year deal, worth $70 million guaranteed and up to $80 million with incentives runs out at the end of this season. Shams Charania of The Athletic reported just before Christmas that the two sides had started negotiations on an extension. Marc Stein, formerly of ESPN and the New York Times, reported on his Substack on Saturday that Turner "to this point" had rebuffed the Pacers offers. None of this has been attributed to or confirmed by the Pacers or Turner, and, of course, neither side has shown their cards as far as what dollar figure Turner would be willing to sign for or what the Pacers would be willing to pay him. With a month to go before the trade deadline, by which the Pacers would presumably want to move Turner if they know he won't sign, the two sides don't have very long to make a decision.

But while the two sides are talking, Turner is making about the best case he possibly can on the floor, proving himself more indispensable to these Pacers by the game. At the season's halfway point, they are 23-18, sitting not only in playoff position but above the play-in round cutoff at sixth place in the Eastern Conference when most media prognostications had them pegged at or near the bottom of the East when the season began. Haliburton is the Pacers' most likely All-Star and the cornerstone on which the future of the franchise currently rests. and the Pacers might be able to replace Turner in the long run if they were to trade him or let him walk. However, because of the way this current Pacers team is constructed, Turner is bearing nearly as much of a load for it as Haliburton and its hopes could come crashing down like a Jenga puzzle if he were removed.

Sunday night was one of Turner's finest, grittiest and most clutch performances of the season on both ends of the floor. He scored 29 points on 10 of 16 shooting with 12 of those coming in the Pacers' 43-point fourth quarter that won them the game. All 12 came in the the game's final 6:41, which included a pair of 3-point plays, a step-back jumper from just inside the arc and his only 3-pointer of the game with 3:03 to go that tied the game at 100. He also grabbed nine rebounds, added a steal and blocked four shots, including the game-clincher on Plumlee's attempted dunk.

"Myles Turner down the stretch was tremendous," Pacers coach Carlisle said. "Shot-making. And-1s. Made 3 in the corner. Blocked shot to seal the game. Big-time stuff."

Turner is doing big-time stuff with more frequency and consistency than at any point in his career. Offensively he is in the midst of arguably the best stretch of what is clearly the best season in his career. His 17.0 points and 7.9 rebounds are both career highs, he's shooting a career best 55.2% from the floor on more attempts per game (11.0) than he's ever had. He's shooting 37.9% from 3-point range and 78.4% from the free throw line, in both cases his second-best career marks, his effective field goal percentage (61.7%) and true shooting percentage (65.7%) are career highs by a wide margin even though his usage rate (20.9%) is also a career high.

And in recent games he's been particularly efficient. He's averaging 22.4 points per game and shooting 59.2% from the floor in his last five games and 17.3 per game with a .575 shooting percentage over his last 10. He's scored in double figures in eight straight games and in 17 of his last 19. He's shot under 50% from the floor in a game just once since his 2 of 10 shooting, five-point outing in a loss to the Knicks on Dec. 18.

That's happening in part because he's comfortable in his role as an all-the-time center after he had to play power forward next to Domantas Sabonis prior to his trade to the Sacramento Kings for Haliburton, Buddy Hield and others in February. Turner hasn't been great from 3-point range lately, making just one of his last 12 and five of his last 21, but he gets more and more opportunities to attack the basket on slips and rolls, rim runs, post-ups and even dribble drive opportunities. He actually went coast-to-coast for a layup Sunday.

"He's adjusted to playing his natural position," Carlisle said. "That sounds like an odd thing to say. He's, in effect, been playing his secondary position the last couple of years when Domas was here. He was really the 4 man on offense. This year he's been the starting 5 man and played the 5 almost all the time.”

Turner's production and his presence are critical for the Pacers' offense, but they can still score when he struggles. On defense, however, he's their backbone, and their current starting five would be barely viable on that end without him.

Carlisle and his staff have shaken up the starting lineup this season with defense in mind, putting the rookie Nembhard and third-year wing Aaron Nesmith on the floor because they've proven themselves to be the teams' two best perimeter defenders. Haliburton has been far too good of a playmaker and Hield too good of a shooter to come out, so the Pacers moved the 6-9 Jalen Smith from starting power forward to second-unit center.

Nembhard and Nesmith have taken on some of the toughest matchups in the NBA. Nembhard the likes of LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kawhi Leonard and Damian Lillard. Nesmith has had to guard Donovan Mitchell, Julius Randle and Jaylen Brown. They give them answers to top-level scorers they didn't have when the season began. But with them on the floor, the Pacers have just one player taller than 6-6 in the starting lineup -- the 6-11, 250-pound Turner.

But Carlisle trusts Turner as a defender and particularly as a rim protector so much that he doesn't have a problem with the small lineup. He's earned that trust, of course, with 1,063 career blocks, a figure that puts him 90th in the NBA's all-time list even as he's still two months from his 27th birthday.

"There are very few guys that have that kind of presence around the rim that can change the game defensively and allow you to play a smaller lineup," Carlisle said. "You can't consistently play a smaller lineup with a smaller center. You're going to have to score 130 points to win the game. And Myles is always there.

“He is always there."

Turner's blocks are actually down from recent years. He has 2.3 per game, but he had four Sunday, five Wednesday in a loss to Philadelphia and six in a win over Cleveland on Dec. 29. He's third in the NBA in the category behind only Brooklyn's Nic Claxton and Milwaukee's Brook Lopez, both averaging 2.6 per game. No one else in the NBA averages 2.0 or more.

"He erases mistakes, but he also is the ultimate traffic cop," Carlisle said. "He runs the show defensively. We don't have a team of perfect defenders, we're a team of system defenders. A guy like Myles is very important."

It's helpful especially because the Pacers' top defenders are so young. The 22-year-old Nembhard has guarded some of the best players to ever hold a basketball, and it's much easier for him to do so knowing he has one of the game's best shot blockers behind him.

"Having a small lineup where we can switch and get aggressive and try to make it tough on guys, we know when we get beat or we give them a little edge we know that Myles is going to be there and weakside help is gonna be there," Nembhard said. "I think it's huge for us. That's why I feel like I can be so aggressive on the ball."

Turner takes the role of backstop seriously, especially because of the message it sends from him as a leader. Even at 26, he's been with the Pacers longer than anyone else on the team. Just four players on the roster are older than him and just two -- 30-year-olds Hield and T.J. McConnell -- are part of the rotation.

"A big thing we talk about as a group is trust," Turner said. "Just letting them know I have their back. They gotta trust that I'm there to have theirs. I think that's what it all comes down to when we do go small and they do get beat, I'm there."

Even with Turner on the floor, the Pacers still have shortcomings with a smaller lineup. Rebounding has been a struggle and was again Sunday as the Pacers lost the rebounding battle 49-41 with 10 second-chance points to the Hornets' 15. Only the Oklahoma City Thunder allow more second-chance points per game than the Pacers' 15.2. They're 20th in the NBA in scoring defense, giving up 115.6 points per game and 18th in defensive rating, allowing 113.4 points per 100 possessions.

But they are third in the league in blocks per game with 5.9 with Turner as the driving force behind that number. He makes it so every Pacers opponent has to work to score on them. That's been enough to get the Pacers a lot of wins including the one they got Sunday.

"It's another day at the office," Turner said. "I think I'm the best at what I do."

What he does is make the Pacers a viable playoff contender, and it's going to get him paid. Where he gets paid is the most important question facing the franchise ahead of the trade deadline.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers vs. Hornets: Myles Turner's value rising during negotiations