Rumored NY Knicks trade target No. 3) Myles Turner
Ok, so lastly we have a player that has stirred up a ton of controversy between myself and essentially the rest of my cohorts here at Daily Knicks.
The majority of those here at the site, along with a plethora of other NY Knicks fans seem to be under the impression that a guy like Myles Turner would be a “perfect” grab for this team, as they often state that his particular offensive abilities would be a tremendous compliment next to Julius Randle in the frontcourt.
In a perfect world, perhaps this statement would be correct, but we do not live in such a world and this season has been far from perfect.
The narrative of him complimenting Randle from a scoring perspective to me, seems like a complete and utter farce.
Yes, while the concept of seeing a frontcourt companion next to the All-Star who can step out and consistently space the floor beyond the arc seems to be rather enticing, for it would then clear up the paint for him to feast, the problem is Randle has not been someone who’s keen on attacking the rim.
In fact, he’s been wildly reluctant to do so.
Though he finds himself converting on 64 percent of his attempts at the rim, the 27-year-old has only attempted 167 shots from this range. To put this into perspective, Randle has shot just 76 fewer attempts from the mid-range and has hoisted 54 more shots from beyond the arc, despite the fact that he’s converting on just 35 percent and 31 percent of these types of takes, respectively.
To make it abundantly clear, this is not simply a “sign of the times” situation when it comes to Randle’s shot attempts, for he has never been one to use his 6-8, 280-pound frame and interior skills to his advantage — at least, not since joining the Knicks.
Even last season, outside of only long 2-pointers (16ft to <3-point range), where he attempted 234 shots, the big man took fewer attempts in the paint (235 shots) than he did anywhere else (281 attempts from the mid-range and 422 attempts from long-range) despite converting on 65 percent of said attempts.
Far too often this season, even when there’s an opening for a backdown opportunity in the paint, we see Randle settle for a mid-range jumper instead, especially when on the right block where he likes to go with his famous fadeaway.
What I mean to get at is, bringing on a guy like Myles Turner won’t really unlock all that much for the struggling star, for he’s not someone who looks to attack the paint too often anyway, so why does it matter if we have a center who can step out when Randle likely won’t utilize the openings anyway?
Now sure, one could then argue that Turner’s floor spacing abilities (35 percent career 3-point shooter) would be able to make the team’s offense more efficient, as it would provide their ball handlers (again, mainly Randle) with quality options for kick-out attempts.
That said, Turner has been struggling mightily of late with his outside shot, converting on just 33 percent of his triples on the year and is only cashing in on 34 percent of his catch-and-shoot attempts from distance as well, thus making this narrative a bit of a moot point.
After this, naturally, a last-ditch argument is always how great of a rim protector he has proven to be throughout his seven-year career and, while this is true, with this attribute to go along with a struggling jumper and severely lacking post-moves to hang his hat on, don’t the NY Knicks already have someone of this ilk in Mitchell Robinson?
Don’t get me wrong, a guy like Myles Turner is a phenomenal talent who could be a great acquisition for a myriad of ball clubs around the league. Having said that, looking at New York’s current issues, one should not be under the impression that coughing up assets for the big man is going to be that much-needed shakeup that will aid in a midseason turnaround.