25-under-25: Myles Turner at No. 7

The Step Back is rolling out its 25-under-25 list over the next two days. Follow along with our rankings of the top 25 players under the age of 25.

Myles Turner was drafted into a very different situation to the one in which he finds himself going into the 2017-18 NBA season.

Chosen No. 11 in the 2015 NBA Draft, Turner was supposed to be another piece to fit around Paul George and give the Pacers the jump-shooting big man they always lacked when Roy Hibbert manned the paint for the great Indiana defenses of the early 2010s. In just his second season, Turner’s already well above average on both ends of the floor. While he doesn’t have the same brand recognition as fellow 2015 draftees Kristaps Porzingis and Karl-Anthony Towns — both of whom are above Turner on this list — he’s arguably been just as good as those two over the past two seasons.

Centers make their living on the defensive end. As the main deterrent for guards and wings looking to score at the basket, the most important skill a big man can have is his ability to protect the rim. Turner’s defensive field goal percentage at the rim stood at 49.4 percent for last season, above league average for big men who saw a significant number of attempts at the rim. More important than the percentage he gave up at the rim, however, is his defensive usage in these situations — only Rudy Gobert defended more shots per game at the rim last season.

Unlike a lot of rim protectors, Turner isn’t nailed to the paint in pick-and-roll coverage and on switches. While centers like Hassan Whiteside and Dwight Howard almost seem to be magnetically drawn toward the basket defensive, Turner is just as happy to switch out and contain a ball-handler. His active feet and boundless energy help him to prevent an initial drive in the pick-and-roll, gaining back valuable time for his teammate to fight through the screen and recover to his assignment.

Offensively, Turner still grades out well, though there are still holes in his game that will need to be ironed out for him to reach his ceiling on that end. He loves a good mid-range jumper, which can be an effective shot, but he’ll have to hit more than 43.6 percent of them to make it a viable offensive weapon. He took fewer than half the 3-point attempts of both Porzingis and Towns, so stepping just a bit further out on the floor would drastically improve Turner’s offensive profile.

It doesn’t help that his shot mechanics aren’t nearly as smooth as Porzingis and Towns, but at the center position, his pick-and-pop jumpers are rarely very well contested. Turner can put the ball on the floor well when he does face a hard close-out, but almost never has to do so — of the 189 pick-and-pop possessions used by Turner last season, 168 resulted in a catch-and-shoot jumper, per Synergy. He’ll draw a lot more defensive attention this year, as Paul George and Jeff Teague have been replaced with Victor Oladipo and Darren Collison, which will be a truer test of his skills as a primary offensive option.

There have been flashes throughout the past two years that would indicate Turner could take over that role, but it remains to be seen if he can do it on a consistent basis.

If Turner never becomes anything more than an active screener and volume midrange shooter who relies on his teammates to create opportunities for him, it will be a disappointment, but he’ll still be a starting-level NBA player due to his defensive prowess. However, with just two years in the league and already a more well-rounded player than many of his draft classmates, there’s ample reason to believe Turner can focus on his offensive game during this transition period in the Pacers’ development and come out the other side as a monster on both ends of the floor.

Turner’s defensive talent and burgeoning offensive game have him clearly on track to being one of the top handful of big men in the league. Still just 21-years-old and two years into his rookie scale contract, there’s much room for optimism in Indiana, even if this year looks to be headed toward the lottery for the first time since Turner was drafted in 2015.

Next: 25-under-25 -- The best young players in the NBA

There will be bumps in the road this year, but Turner still looks to be a very valuable long-term piece of the next great Pacers team. He may not get to the same heights as Towns, who already looks like an MVP candidate just two years into his career, but Turner still fits the bill as the perfect center for this era of NBA basketball — he can shoot from the perimeter, put the ball on the floor, protect the rim and switch out onto smaller players. He’s got the whole package. Now it’s just about refining and polishing his skills to maximize his unending potential.