2015 NBA Draft: The Five Most Head-Scratching Moments of the NBA Draft
Indiana Wants To Play Faster So They Draft Slow Myles Turner At No.11
Larry Bird made it no secret that he wanted to revamp the Indiana Pacers roster so that they would play with a faster pace.
The NBA game is obviously changing into more and more of a full court, up-tempo, run and gun game. So Bird’s thinking makes a lot of sense.
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The Pacers were in need of a point guard and were rumored to be wanting Cameron Payne out of Murray State.
They were also rumored to be interested in Willie Cauley-Stein with the 11th pick, but he was already taken with the 6th pick by the Sacramento Kings.
There were still plenty of players that were available at No. 11 that would have fit what Larry Bird is hoping to do.
Kentucky power forward Trey Lyles is the type of player that would have been able to fit into an up-tempo offense. Wisconsin’s Sam Dekker was still available and could have played on the opposite wing from Paul George.
Even shooting guard Devin Booker out of Kentucky was available and would have fit a need for Indiana at shooting guard while making the team faster.
So when the No. 11 pick came around the Indiana Pacers took 6-foot-11 PF/C Myles Turner out of Texas, you had to say “huh” and scratch you head.
The pick simply does not make sense. Turner is not fleet of foot, he is almost a duplicate of the big man they already have in Roy Hibbert, and he has nothing in his game that says the Pacers are going to be playing at a faster tempo.
If they really wanted a 6-foot-11 guy who could run Bobby Portis was staring them in the face.
It was just a complete miss !
Larry Bird can do better than this. But if there was one pick in the draft that was a total “F” grade, it was Indiana picking Myles Turner at No.11.
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