Kindee1688 Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner is urging his teammates to improve their offensive and defensive rebounding if they want to reach their ultimate goal of an NBA championship. Kindee1688

The Pacers advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, but lost to the Boston Celtics, who eventually won the Larry O’Brien Trophy.  ( Kindee1688 )

However, the experienced center doesn’t want to find excuses to console himself that he lost the championship because if you look at the statistics of both the team and himself, he is lacking in rebounding. 

“I think one thing we need to do better is be a rebounding team because that aspect of our team has been lackluster,” he told the ‘Club 520’ podcast. 

“ We just got James Wiseman in, so he’s definitely going to help a little bit at 7ft – 1in . ”

“ Apart from me, Isaiah Jackson  is 6’9 ” , Jalen Smith is around 6’9 ” – 6’10 ” … So we  need to have a better frontcourt, especially  the reserves . ” 

Another reason why Turner is considered unlikely to be considered Defensive Player of the Year is because of his lack of rebounding, despite averaging twice as many blocks as anyone else.

“ They often tell me – You are weak in rebounds, so I tell you that ?  I will take it into consideration. ” 

“ But I just feel that playing good defense doesn’t just mean defensive rebounds, because in other aspects of defense, I have the best stats in the league. ”

“ Or maybe it’s because we don’t play on national television. In the past, we didn’t make it deep enough into the playoffs. People didn’t see our form very often. So I think the judges who decide on this award are competing more for popularity than skill. ” 

Turner plays center but has never had a career double- digit rebounding average season, with his best coming in 2022-23 at 7.5 rebounds per game .