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30. Myles Turner, Indiana Pacers
Myles Turner is largely overlooked thanks to an unspectacular role. It doesn’t make sense to post him up as often as Domantas Sabonis, and he is not an elite rim-roller. He’s deceptively quick when cutting without setting a screen, but ho-hum touch on the move betrays his finishes.
Turner does have the whole floor-spacing thing down. He’s burying nearly 39 percent of his threes, shooting 41.1 percent on long twos and hitting close to 48 percent of his looks between 10 and 16 feet. Indiana just has yet to show an interest in meaningfully increasing his usage.
Defense is Turner’s bread and butter. He is the stymying backdrop for a team that, prior to the All-Star break, ranked third in points allowed per 100 possessions after filtering out garbage time. The Pacers have slipped in the weeks since, but Turner is the same nuisance around the basket.
Opponents are shooting 55.5 percent against him at the rim—a top-10 mark among the league’s higher-volume rim protectors. That surety is hard to find when paired with Turner’s workload. Joel Embiid and Rudy Gobert are the only players who challenge more shots at the bucket.
Beyond that, Turner has developed a knack for swatting jumpers. He’s averaging almost 0.9 blocks on short mid-range attempts per 36 minutes, according to PBPStats.com. Embiid, by comparison, sends back roughly 0.5.
29. Joe Ingles, Utah Jazz
Joe Ingles suffers from excessive unselfishness. He could stand to throw up another four or five (or 12) shots per game.
Utah will settle for the extra playmaking he has offered amid an unstable point guard rotation. He is still turnover-prone when running pick-and-rolls, but he’s a whiz in the open floor and an expert at letting plays develop in the half-court.
Directing a larger share of the offense has demanded Ingles at least feign intent to score. He has responded by eclipsing 10 drives per game. Kyle Lowry is the only player who comes remotely close to matching his shooting and assist percentages on similar volume.
And in case you’re wondering: Yes, Ingles’ defensive assignments continue to belie the deliberately discreet pace at which he plays. Putting him on specialists is a waste. He can instead be found on the other team’s most prolific perimeter scorer, almost without exception.
28. Eric Bledsoe, Milwaukee Bucks
Giannis Antetokounmpo is not the sole beneficiary of Milwaukee’s era-appropriate shot profile. Eric Bledsoe’s offense has received a similar boon from the additional space.
For starters, his own outside shooting isn’t a problem. The Bucks have the breathing room to work around his sub-30 percent clip on spot-up threes.
Bledsoe, by extension, has an easier time maneuvering inside the arc. He is among the nearly 50 players who average more than 10 drives per game, and Antetokounmpo is the only one converting a higher percentage of his shots on these plays. Bledsoe has also seen his scoring efficiency out of the pick-and-roll skyrocket from last season.
Guaranteeing him an All-Defense selection does not require stepping out on a limb. Not all numbers are in love with him, but he’s light on weaknesses. He does a nice job haunting the more complicated half-court actions and has a nose for shot contests inside the three-point line even when he’s not the primary defender.
27. LaMarcus Aldridge, San Antonio Spurs
LaMarcus Aldridge is the Mike Conley of big men, only with actual All-Star recognition. He’s steady to the point of being taken for granted.
This year didn’t start so hot for LMA. Establishing himself alongside DeMar DeRozan took time, and his shooting splits didn’t turn the corner for more than a month. That crisis of fit has long since subsided.
Aldridge is averaging 22.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.4 assists while shooting a whopping 55.3 percent on twos since his 14-of-25 detonation against Indiana in late November. His shot difficulty is the same. More than 60 percent of his two-point attempts come as contested and tightly contested opportunities, of which he’s hitting 55.9 percent during this most-of-the-season stretch.
Given DeRozan’s checkered postseason resume, Aldridge’s unvarying offense is crucial. He is the most important Spur.
26. Tobias Harris, Philadelphia 76ers
Tobias Harris’ recent cold spell from long distance is neither ideal nor damning. The Sixers need him to shoot way better than 32.7 percent on catch-and-fire threes. And they need him to substantially boost his 43.4 effective field-goal percentage on pull-up jumpers.
He will.
Scorers always work their way out of slumps, and Harris has shown time and time again, for numerous teams, that he’s one of the NBA’s most dependable bucket-getters. He will figure it out.
In the meantime, Harris offsets some of his rut by playing smart. He is not whiling away possessions with unnatural attempts to score. He’s making quicker decisions.
More than 47 percent of his touches are ending in under two seconds—a demonstrative increase over his 38.6 percent share with the Clippers—and he’s proving to be a serviceable pick-and-roll table-setter and tactful cutter. (Aside: Philly would do well to call for more pick-and-rolls between Harris and Ben Simmons in the time they log without Joel Embiid.)
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