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 Hoops Hype).
“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 all well you don’t rebound, and I was like ‘all right’ — you know, I’ll take that on the chin, cool,” he said. “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 display if 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.