Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner wants to be Defensive Player of the Year badly.
For that to happen, Turner will have to overtake Utah Jazz big man Rudy Gobert, who has won the award two years in a row.
“Well, definitely want to be Defensive Player of the Year,” Turner told Uproxx. “That’s something I want to work for year in and year out and is something I’m going to keep pushing the envelope on. And offensively, it’s just touching up my shot. I think that I’m an efficient outside shooter and an efficient shooter in general, and it’s just being able to have that crisp at all times.”
This season for the Pacers, Turner is averaging 11.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.9 blocks in 45 games. He's shooting 45.1 percent from the field, 34.4 percent from beyond the arc and 76.4 percent from the free throw line.
The Pacers are 32-23 on the season, good for sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings. Turner and Indiana open the second half of the season on Friday against the New York Knicks.
Turner led the NBA in blocks per game (2.7) and total blocks (199) last season. He thought he should have won the Defensive Player of the Year Award instead of Gobert.
There is still time left in 2019-20 for Turner to establish himself as the best defensive player in the game and bring some hardware back to the Pacers facility.
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