Myles Turner on Bucks media day
Myles Turner addresses the Milwaukee media for the first time.
- Turner’s performance has been inconsistent, with his statistics fluctuating throughout the first half of the season.
- Despite some struggles, Turner remains positive and focused on improving his game and fitting in with his new team.
- Bucks head coach Doc Rivers expressed confidence that Turner will improve as he continues to acclimate to the new system.
SACRAMENTO – A decade into his NBA career, Myles Turner fully understands there are ebbs and flows in a game, in a season, and that one cannot ride the waves. He had already dived into the deep end in leaving the Indiana Pacers, the only franchise and city he’s known, to sign with the Milwaukee Bucks in the offseason. So, allowing himself to get lost in the current would only make matters more difficult.
“I’ve just challenged myself to be uncomfortable,” he told the Journal Sentinel recently. “I’ve been comfortable the past three, four years. It’s something I’ve known. I think true growth happens in uncomfortable moments. I’m rolling with the punches. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy making a change like that, so just embracing the uncomfortable part of the role right now.”
Following the Bucks’ game in Sacramento on Jan. 4, Turner’s logged 36 games with his new team. He played 642 regular-season contests and another 66 with Indiana from 2015-25. Teammate Bobby Portis Jr., who was part of Turner’s draft class in 2015 and has played with four teams, chuckled, saying his new teammate is probably getting used to the colder Milwaukee winters.
“Obviously being with a team for a decade and then shift teams, it’s probably always tough,” Portis said. “It’s always tough to change teams in general.”
Which is why Turner has tried to remain as even-keeled as possible, even if the first half of his first season with a new team hasn’t gone the way many expected.
“Staying patient. Everything’s fresh,” he told the Journal Sentinel. “I’m still processing a lot of emotions coming from a finals run to the offseason that I had to coming here to coming to a new team, a new city. Everything is very fresh for me, so staying patient, being the person I am, putting the work that I put in and just trust in a higher calling. I can’t really expect too much. I always gotta take it day by day.”
And that day by day has come, so far, with mixed results.
In his first 14 games, Turner played 29 minutes per game and shot 41% from behind the 3-point line but 44% overall on 9.6 shots per game. He averaged 12.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks.
But from Nov. 17, when Giannis Antetokounmpo left the game against Cleveland early with an adductor strain, through the star’s return on Dec. 27, Turner shot 33.3% from behind the 3-point line and 39.2% overall on 9.8 shots per game. He averaged 12.4 points, but his rebounds fell to 4.8 per game and blocks to 1.2.
For a seven-game stretch in that period, from Nov. 29-Dec. 14, Turner’s minutes dropped to 24 per game (and he attempted just 7.0 shots per game) and he made just 30.6% of his attempts from behind the 3-point line.
“Me personally, I think that with every transition it’s gonna take your licks, take your wounds,” Turner said during the midst of that stretch on Dec. 9. “I’m not personally where I want to be. I think my impact is greater than what the number show. But again, I know that I’m not a finished product.
“I’m still working to be a better version of myself. I think there’s things I can do better, especially as a center. I know I gotta rebound better, take accountability there. I know gotta make better decisions with the ball, especially being on the perimeter a lot more. And I know I gotta be a defensive anchor.
“I do think that there are things that I do well but I think that we kind of gotta bring out the things that need improvement and those are the things that jump out to me. I’ve had fun with this group so far, man, honestly. Losing obviously sucks but the group of guys that we have, being able to communicate, being a voice, all that stuff has just come second nature to me. I think that I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
During that time when Antetokounmpo was out, in which the Bucks managed only a couple of wins as they tumbled out of the postseason picture entirely, Rivers said Turner’s minutes were being reduced because others were playing better.
And the head coach bristled at the idea that the team should run offense through the center, even as the team struggled to score points. Yet, Rivers remained confident brighter days were ahead for the center.
“I think Myles is going be way better later than he is now,” Rivers said during that rough stretch. “He’s been in one place for 10 years. It’s just gonna take a minute. He still talks about that. Yet he’s still very positive in the locker room, been great around the guys. Then the plus/minus numbers are all pluses when he’s on the floor so whatever he’s doing he’s doing something for our team, and that’s a good thing.”
For his part, Turner maintained he was constant communication with assistants about what he could do differently, and better, particularly after the team was able to hold a half dozen practices in mid-December.
“I’m still trying to figure it out, man,” he said after one of those sessions on Dec. 17. “I think personally it hasn’t been a consistent thing night in and night out. But that’s what it is in this league, man. It’s anything, any change is going to come with growing pains. I think I’m just kind of going through that myself right now. But you to remain positive. I’m a very hard worker. That’s all you do is work through it and things have to work themselves out because what you put in is what you get out.
“So, I think I just gotta continue to keep being myself, continue to keep just remaining positive in this situation. Because that’s all I can do, is control my spirit and control the controllables with that. So, yeah, it’s a work in progress.”
To his credit, and perhaps expectation with the work he’s put in, Turner’s play has begun to turn.
In the four games the Bucks played Dec. 27-Jan. 2, Turner’s averaged 12.5 points on just 8.8 shots per game, making 50% of his 3-pointers (42.9% overall). He averaged 2.8 blocks per game, along with 5.5 rebounds. He began the stretch with 36 points and nine blocked shots in Chicago and Charlotte, but then in a home game against the Hornets on Jan. 2 he scored just one point in 22 minutes.
“I mean, the biggest thing is to keep playing – that’s it,” Turner told the Journal Sentinel. “Everything will work itself out. The basketball gods rewards the guys who are consistent and that’s all you can do is put consistent work in and just keep going day by day. You can’t really just wait for it to happen. It’s going to happen when it does.”
