Myles Turner

I am in a quandary about Myles Turner. It is easy to blame his lack of great play on Barnes (and it might be the case to some or a great extent)... but I am not so sure he was just not very overrated.

I am not sure it is just coaching. Even Kabongo and other players that did not work well with Barnes were more productive than Turner. Maybe he did not get enough playing time, but even with all the playing time or better coaching, I do not believe that Turner would have been all that great this year. I do not want to call him the Gilbert of basketball, but he really did not produce like the scouts thought. I think it's possible he can develop into a great player but he simply was not great year one like Durant.

Did Barnes get the most out of him? Maybe not and probably not with our offense, but from what I could tell all year, there was not all that much to get out of him at this point in his life. He may well still be a great NBA player one day, but I think he is years away whether he stays in college or not. Whether he comes back next year or transfers, it seems like he would be better served with more time in college.

His three point shooting and shooting in general just was not very good. He was a great defensive player at the end of the year (I will say that part of his game developed), but we needed more offensive fire power which he did not provide. He just looks, regardless of coach, years away from Durant like numbers. Even with better coaching and an offense, I did not see the shooting ability this year to be anything beyond a defensive role player.

Turner was supposed to be a big boost, but I think today we actually would have been better off benching Turner for the entire game (not that it would have made much of a difference). He was 1-5, today 0-1 from three point range. He did tie as team leader in rebounds and had one block but he also had 4 turnovers (our 15 turnovers to Butler's 5 killed us today) and 4 fouls. Maybe he just had a bad day or quit. I do not know. I am just left thinking that more minutes for Turner might have been the answer if he were to come back next year, but I do not know how many more games, if any, it would have won this year. If he goes to the NBA (I do assume he will), it seems like his year with the program was a waste of time for Texas (he simply was not good enough to be much help) and a waste of time for Turner (he did not get the minutes he needed for his NBA development). Hopefully he will be a great NBA player down the line and help with recruiting like Durant has and probably always will.

What are people's thoughts on Turner? Was it just Barnes, was Turner overrated, both, something else?

 

I think it's unfair to think he was overrated. Wasn't he just named Big 12 freshman of the year? Anyway, there is no doubt he started strong and regressed as the season want on. Way too many turnovers and too many 3 point attempts. His shot blocking and rebounding was pretty good but his overall defense was not.

His confidence looked shot at the end of the season. Only Turner can tell us why. I don't think he is close to being ready for the NBA but money talks and I think he's gone unless there is a coaching change and a coach is hired who can develop his talents.

 

See I was kind of surprised when that happened, but I guess there were not any other better freshmen?

Barnes has generally and even recently developed talent. That really has not been the issue with him unlike coaches in other sports. His issue has been more lack of offense and lack of offense and lack of offense and lack of offense and teams with low basketball IQ. Maybe Barnes completely did not develop Turner, but even with bad coaching or no coaching, the number 2 overall recruit should have been better than what I saw today against Butler.

Plenty of other Barnes players including on this team have played better.

 

Turner looked completely lost today on both sides of the ball. I'd love to see him get 1 more year of experience under his belt, but as long as the NBA drafts on potential and not accomplishments he's a lottery pick.

 

Myles Turner outstanding talent. Very under coach. I like R.Barnes, but he reminds me of Jody.That use to Coach the Women's Team.His time has passed.You got all of that Height in the Post.And your Guards are jacking up shots, like no tomorrow.That was crazy.Sometimes they never let the Post player touch the ball.And that's the Strength.What happen to I.Taylor today.Never really went to the hole today.I don't get it.Now J.Holmes finally came to play.And no one else showed up.To me that is Coaching.I like Rick Barnes a lot.But it's time for a New Coach.Hookem'

 

Too much money is on the table for him to stay, could his basketball benefit from another year, sure but why risk injury etc. He is and should be gone.

 

Extremely talented, but under-coached, under-played, and under-utilized.

For the better part of the season, Miles should have been part of the starting line-up and during crunch-time with designed plays to get him good looks. Instead, he was forced to come off the bench and work his way into an offense that is dominated by guards running weaves for 20 seconds, then a post player heading out all the way to the 3 point line for a ball screen. So, have the time he is looking to screen for someone else and the other half, he is fighting for position on the block with no real hope that the guards will be in any sort of position to get him the ball. Unlike Durant who could handle the ball and create his own offense, Miles needed to be in a system in which the coach had a clue about offense.

I remember the first time he touched the ball for the Horns, he hit a Dirk-like fade-away. And, I thought damn, let's ride this guy for all he is worth. Should have known better.

Here's an idea, how about an off-guard screening to free up Miles in the post or on the baseline. I can think on only one-time where we through a alley-oop to the back side and let Miles throw it down. It was a thing of beauty and something we should have run at least once a game.

But, instead (and not terribly surprising), we wasted his talents, so much that come tournament time, he 'looked lost' rather than confident.

The NBA guys aren't blind. They draft talent and he's dripping with it. Too bad, fellow Longhorns. We'll regret not taking full advantage of his abilities.

 

Even under-coached lottery pick players should be able to face and make a solid move half the time or more.(not just throw it up) Throw in the turnaround motion and you increase the difficulty to make a high FG% a ton.

 

You are probably right, he sucks. But, coming off the bench he was:
1st Pts/min
1st Reb/min
1st Blocks/min
3rd in FG %
2 in FT %

Nevertheless, I'll stick with my opinion that we failed to fully utilize him.

 

he was a true freshman. not many are lottery pick material. he will get better. do you feel he met expectations?

 

Yes. The NBA drafts on potential. His upside is huge.
I'll stand by my prediction. Lottery pick.

 

you feel he met expectations against Butler? turn and throw it up was what I saw. not trying to be petty. he will get better. the consenus preseason was based on him being dynamite, impact contributor.

 

Half way through the season when his stat lines were better, NBA scouting reports were not projecting him any higher than 15. Ironically, it seems playing under Barnes didn't hurt him much. He should be a top 10 pick just for his shot blocking and free throw shooting. He has no reason to stay.

 

And could someone please tell Taylor it's okay to run the pick and roll?

 

Players play. If Myles plays like a should be lottery pick in his early minutes vs Butler he gets more minutes and Texas wins.

 

Agreed that Miles did not shoot the ball well during the Butler game. He also had 4 turnovers. On the other hand, he had 10 rebounds in 16 minutes, so he did make some positive contributions.

My contention is that Myles needs to be in an offense that get him the ball in the right areas of the court for him to be the most successful. I can't tell you the number of times this season, I found myself yelling 'through it to the really big guy'.

And, I would have like to see him starting in games rather than having to come off the bench and try to catch up with the flow of the game.

At this point, I guess we'll have to agree to disagree.

 

If we were in the old days, where players played 4 years, wouldn't we for sure be saying that Myles Turner was unbelievable for a freshman, and going to be a first-team All-American, etc. It's just because our event horizon is so short--he's either got complete D-1 national level game in his first 5 months out of high school or he's dead to us. Oh well, that's the one-and-done game if you want to play it.

I guess we are figuring out that Kevin Durant isn't even a normal one-and-done lottery pick. You're more likely to get (in that first year at UT) Cory Joseph, Avery Bradley, Tristan Thompson. Good, no doubt, even in that first year, but not ready for a championship run.

 

Joseph, Bradley and Thompson all showed a lot more and looked like better players with more NBA potential their first years than Turner did this year. So have numerous others. What i was getting at was Turner simply did not show the same stuff many of our other NBA players did year one.

Let me put it this way, I knew very many would be short stays but it was frustrating to see those players go. Turner leaving does not seem to have the same frustration attached as Joseph or Thompson. Turner seems like a player that if he is great one day (not saying he will not be), then it was never going to be with us because he was a slow developer and that development was not going to happen year one. Maybe year two, but not year one.

^ This is a great summary actually. He may have been under-coach, but his impact ability year one was also overrated.

 

It was interesting to read the opinions on Myles. I wondered all year why he didn't see more minutes and of course why his performance was less than contributive when he was in. I didn't know if it was the chicken or egg's fault ( as to whether myles is the chicken or the egg I have no idea).
As has been pointed out the NBA will take him and pay him to develop. I hope he does. He seems like a good kid.

 

But hey, Barnes may have achieved putting another player in the NBA.

Heck this program may have the most NBA players without any real college team accomplishments to show for it. Now thats hard for a coach to do......

 

Because if Tuner is a great player a few years from now in the NBA, he was obviously a great player as a freshman at Texas?

You realize 2003 VY was not anywhere as good as 2005 VY? This would be like criticizing Mack Brown for not winning a national title in 2003 because "he had VY and all."

I guess the final four, 3 elite 8s, 5 sweet 16 and 3 big 12 titles were not accomplishments.

I like how Barnes accomplished nothing, yet we are supposedly a top 20 college basketball program (with every argument for us being top 20 being based mostly on the accomplishments of Rick Barnes).

 

And, there you have it .. for all those who argued that Myles Turner was not a lottery pick, while I stood by my opinion.

 

Do you think he played like a lottery pick in the NCAA tourney game? How about his performances in the Big XII conference games? He started out the season playing very solid in my opinion. His shooting suffered, it seemed to me anyway, as the season went on.

His game in the NCAA tourney was weak sauce. Too bad for Texas, I guess he will take his talents to the Pacers. He will probably kick some *** there as he seasons. Good luck to him.

 

I'm not in all of those because I never once argued he was not a lottery pick. Reread my posts. I just said he did not show many anything. I did not say whether or not he would be drafted as a lottery pick.

What I said was:

Jamarcus Russel was a number 1 pick. He was not a great NFL player. Kurt Warner was undrafted and was a 3 time NFL MVP, a 4 time pro bowler and a super bowl MVP. Being drafted does not make one great.

I do hope Turner becomes great and he may very well become great. He is just years away from it in my opinion.

Also, like Zork says, Turner being a draft pick does not change how he did here.

The real story is Rick Barnes produced yet another NBA draft pick. Add that to the list of Rick Barnes accomplishments.

 

Let me think ... did he play like a lottery pick in the tourney ... obviously not.

I didn't say he did. I said that he was a lottery pick that was not utilized the way he should have been. He should have started day one and we should have built an offense to take advantage of his skills. Instead, he was relegated to coming off the bench where he eventually lost confidence ... and was lost in the lack of offensive scheme.

And, I didn't say that he would be great in the NBA. Only that he has tremendous potential ... and that he would be a lottery pick.

And, despite our squandering his one year, he's still a lottery pick.

Good luck to him ... and good luck to Shaka!

 

It is a shame Turner had no interest in playing for Shaka.

 

That would have been great, but hard to begrudge him going pro with lottery-pick money on the line.

 

"He should be a top 10 pick just for his shot blocking and free throw shooting. He has no reason to stay". What I said in March.

He (Myles) was a one and done guy from the get go. We knew that. He wanted to play for Barnes because Barnes had a reputation for helping 4-5 star HS talent get one step closer to the NBA skill level required to be a lotto/first round pick. I don't think any of the NBA superstar elite caliber recruits Barnes pursued ever thought they had a snowballs chance of winning a NC at Texas under Barnes.

 

Barnes didn't produce Turner's status as a lottery pick. Barnes just recruited and squandered him. Turner was drafted in the lottery despite Barnes.