Indiana Pacers Not Interested In Trading This Player
For years now, Myles Turner has been one of the biggest names talked about ahead of the NBA trade deadline. While several teams have shown trade interest in him through the years, the Indiana Pacers never seemed to be interested in moving him and this year, this feeling remains the same.
There were questions about if this would be the season the Pacers finally move on from Turner given that he is in the final year of his contract and given the fact that they recently selected Isaiah Jackson in the first-round of the 2021 NBA Draft, but the Pacers will not be trading their defensive-minded center, especially after reaching an agreement on a new contract extension.
The Pacers and Myles Turner agreed to a new two-year, $60 million contract extension this past weekend and on Monday, the team held a press conference to announce this deal with Turner where head coach Rick Carlisle was adamant on the fact that his starting center is not available.
“Yes he's off the trade block,” Carlisle said quickly to reporters on Monday.
While Turner told team president Kevin Pritchard that they did not need to answer the question regarding trade talks, Pritchard stated that the team signs the players that they do to have them around, not to trade them.
“One of the things we have always believed in is that if you sign a player, it’s to sign a player. We don’t sign a player to trade a player,” Pritchard said. “Myles has blossomed this year. We have seen the relationship with him and Tyrese in pick-and-roll, they are one of the best pick-and-roll players in the league right now. We see that this is the beginning of a nice core, a great core, and we signed Myles to be here.”
The Pacers are currently 24-28 on the season and are still right in the middle of the battle in the Eastern Conference standings. They are currently outside of the Play-In Tournament right now, but they have also lost nine of their last ten games without Tyrese Haliburton, who is dealing with knee and elbow injuries.
With Haliburton healthy alongside Myles Turner, Buddy Hield and rookie Bennedict Mathurin, the Pacers have looked like a competitive, young and energetic team that can play against some of the best teams in this league.
They will undoubtedly be a problem for many years to come as they continue to grow and now, by signing Turner to a new long-term extension, he will continue to be the veteran leader and defensive anchor this team needs.
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