The Indiana Pacers were looking to go towards a new small ball look as they developed their rookie out of Texas, big man Myles Turner. They moved Paul George to the four and their big man rotation focused around Ian Mahinmi and Jordan Hill rotating in along with George. They had some size coming off the bench in Turner but he’s not ready to take on the big task of being a starting big in the NBA.
Turner’s development has hit a small snag as he suffered an injury recently which will keep him out for about a month.
Following from Nate Taylor of the Indianapolis Star.
The Indiana Pacers learned before their practice that Turner, the rookie the team selected with the 11th pick in the last summer’s draft, will miss at least the next four weeks after he chip fractured his left thumb during Wednesday’s victory over the Boston Celtics. The hand was heavily wrapped Thursday.
Turner sustained his injury in the first quarter when he tried to steal the ball from Boston’s Kelly Olynyk. Instead of swiping the ball away, Turner said his thumb hit Olynyk’s leg. Turner tried to play through the injury, but noticed a sharp pain in his thumb when he caught the ball on the next possession.
“My thumb was like dangling a little bit,” Turner said. “While I was in the game, I popped it back into place. Yeah, it was kind of painful. After that, I tapped coach and said, “Coach! Coach! Get me out! Get me out!’”
Turner will return but he will miss a nice chunk of the season. He’s not exactly the most important player to the Pacers rotation but he is a young player that Indiana wants to develop given the losses of Roy Hibbert and David West over the summer.
Hopefully Turner will come back quicker than expected so he can continue to become the player that scouts loved when he was coming out of high school.
UPDATE:
Myles Turner will undergo surgery to repair his thumb injury. Following from Shams Charania of Yahoo! Sports.
Indiana Pacers rookie center Myles Turner will undergo surgery Monday afternoon to repair a fracture in his left thumb, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Turner, 19, is expected to miss four to six weeks after surgery.
