Sorry, Myles Turner
It's not personal, it's strictly business.
Good morning! I hope you had a good weekend. Sorry for the delay. I meant for this to come out on Monday. I had some personal issues come up, and I’m still working out the kinks. I wanted this to be perfect. From now on, I will have a newsletter out every Monday.
I’ve seen many Myles Turner to the Knicks talk for a while, so I had to address this subject. I also watched the Netflix doc: Untold: Malice at the Palace.
This is jam-packed, so I hope you enjoy it!
🗽 The Presser For Kemba & Evan🗽
The Knicks introduced new free agent signees Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier in a press conference on Tuesday.
Typically, there’s an undertone of dishonesty to any Knicks press conference, but this one didn’t have that. This one just felt different.
Thibs, Rose, and Perry didn’t speak to the media, so they didn’t have the opportunity to lie. Not that they would’ve needed to, as their offseason was great.
In other news: Leon Rose has been in charge of the Knicks for nearly 18 months, and he still hasn’t spoken. That’s pretty funny.
After all that time as Melo’s agent, Rose must know that nothing good comes from being friendly to the NY media.
Fat Joe was there to talk about how much he loves Kemba and take pictures with the new Knicks duo.
Among other things, we learned that Kemba and Evan got along great in Boston, Fournier has wanted to be a Knick for a while, and Kemba will be playing back-to-backs. (Thibs made a joke!)
Speaking of Evan Fournier, if he’s really looking for Knicks podcasts to guest on, I know one.
More Knicks Notes
New York will open the season at home on October 20th against the Boston Celtics. It should be an excellent payback game for Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier.
The Knicks are back on Christmas Day! New York was bumped on Jesus’ birthday the past two seasons, but they are back at the Garden in their customary noon ET slot this year. The game is a rematch of the first round of last year’s playoffs against Trae Young and the Hawks.
🏀 The Appeal of the “Stretch 5” 🏀
This Myles Turner nonsense on Knicks Twitter is why I love doing the newsletter. I don’t have to pretend to be unbiased here.
Dennis Reynolds voice: Trading Mitchell Robinson for Myles Turner is a terrible idea and anyone who disagrees is a savage and an idiot!
Okay, we’re back.
There are actually Knicks fans who think replacing Mitchell Robinson with Turner is a good idea. You know, because the Pacers center is tall, and he made a jump shot or two.
I don’t know where the hype started about Turner on Knicks Twitter, but I know these same fans would be disappointed in Turner’s production.
Knicks Twitter sensation Kris Pursiainen summed up my feelings on the situation perfectly.
In the wake of Brook Lopez’s three-point renaissance in Milwaukee, Zach Oram theorized who could follow in the big man’s footsteps. Myles Turner was the first name listed.
The good teams will ignore Turner at the three-point line almost as much as they do Mitch.
If you need evidence, let’s take a look at this play from the end of Knicks vs. Pacers on February 27, 2021.
Julius Randle watches Turner move to the corner and gives him the open three, contesting the drive instead.
If you need more proof, let’s take a look at some wide open1 three-point shooting stats from last season.
Player A: 53 makes on 155 attempts (34.2%)
Player B: 54 makes on 153 attempts (35.3%)
Player A is Myles Turner.
Player B is Russell Westbrook.
It’s never a good thing when you are lumped together with Russ in a shooting comparison. Technically, Russ made more open triples than Turner on fewer attempts last season.
So let’s forget the idea that Turner is gonna spot up, get open, and wait for Randle to pass him the ball. The guy doesn’t turn into prime Dirk when he’s open.
A pick and roll with one of the league’s best lob threats (Robinson) is more efficient than a three-pointer from a league-average shooter (Turner).
Mitch set the NBA single season record for field percentage (74.2%).
Turner is a career 35.2% shooter from deep. He also shot 33.5% on a career-high 4.4 three-point attempts per game last season. Both those numbers are below league average.
In May 2017, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer wrote a piece titled “Al Horford and the Rise of the Stretch 5.” It was about how important Horford was to the Celtics offense despite his pedestrian numbers.
I’m not taking a shot at KOC here because he’s great, but it shows just how overrated the concept of a “Stretch 5” can be. The Celtics overrated the importance of Al Horford’s shooting by giving him a max contract.
Here’s the thing: Al Horford was a good shooter, but Myles Turner really isn’t.
Turner’s average shooting didn’t stop the Pacers from paying him like a stretch big man. They gave him a four-year, $72 million extension - of which he still has 2 seasons and $36 million remaining.
Mitch’s pending free agency is one of the great wild cards facing this franchise. One of the arguments made by these pro-Turner fans seems to be that the front office is out on Mitch.
That’s the only argument I get for trading him. If they’re going to let him walk anyway, then you might as well move him.
But there is no universe where Myles Turner is a more efficient player than Mitchell Robinson. You can’t make that argument.
Mitch has been one of the most efficient players in the NBA since entering the league. Turner was in the 54th percentile of bigs this season in points per shot attempts, per CTG.
Yes, three is greater than two. I get that, you got Daryl Morey, James Harden, Shane Battier, etc. But the most efficient shot in basketball is the dunk and Mitch lives in the paint.
I understand the allure of Myles Turner. He’s a 7-footer who can theoretically shoot, block shots, and run the floor.
Knicks fans have never seen a player like that before.
Oh wait…
📺 TV Ramblings 📺
Takeaways From…
Untold: The Malice At The Palace
The story of the infamous 2004 brawl between Pacers players and Pistons fans
It’s truly insane to think that security was that terrible at a sporting event post-9/11. The game was a blowout so fans just started coming down (probably mostly all wasted) from the bleachers to the lower levels. There were only three cops at the game when all this was going down and no security in sight as Artest was running at the guy.
David Stern really didn’t want to hear any excuses. Artest was done for the year, Jackson got 30 games, and O’Neal 25 (reduced to 15) within 48 hours of the brawl. The dress code came out later for PR.
I wish there was a video of the Detroit cop rushing in like Rod Farva to try and mace Reggie Miller because he didn’t recognize him. Stephen Jackson had the line of the doc by the way, “How do you not know Reggie Miller's on the Indiana Pacers?”
The Pistons fan who squared up with Artest is a fucking scumbag. I’m glad he’s banned.
When we think about The Malice at the Palace, we always think about Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson first, but Jermaine O’Neal was the best player on that team. O’Neal was a six-time All-Star who made three All-NBA teams. He averaged a career-high in scoring during the 04-05 season, but he never got close to that number again. Multiple people interviewed for the doc talked about how O’Neal was on the way to being one of the best players in the NBA. Nobody on the Pacers suffered from Malice at the Palace more than him.
The media covered basketball very differently back then. Former Cavs head coach John Beilein was harshly criticized for calling his players thugs in January 2020. In the aftermath of the MATP, the media just casually threw the word thug around to describe the players involved. Established journalists like Bob Costas were using the word. Jermaine O’Neal described how much it hurt him to be insulted on TV after working so hard to get to where he was.
If you want some expert analysis on The Malice at the Palace, check out the great Bill Burr’s hilarious bit.
NBA Stats defines being wide open as not having a defender within six or more feet.