Myles Turner implores for Pacers to be a better rebounding team in 2024-25

Myles Turner implores for Pacers to be a better rebounding team in 2024-25

The Indiana Pacers are coming off an improbable Eastern Conference Finals run after earning the No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference. They ultimately got swept by the Boston Celtics, though they were arguably the most competitive team against the eventual-champion Celtics during the postseason.

There is still plenty of growth with this core to be had. According to starting center Myles Turner, the improvement he wants to see is on the glass.

“I think one we gotta be a better rebounding team, we’re still kind of small,” Turner said on the Club 520 Podcast with Jeff Teague. “We just got James Wiseman so that helps a bit you know I mean he’s like 7-1 but outside of me, Isaiah Jackson was 6-9, Jalen Smith at the time was 6-9, 6-10… So we just to have more frontcourt presence, especially off the bench. And also just vets bro.”

The Pacers didn’t have a particularly active offseason outside of re-signing Pascal Siakam, Andrew Nembhard and Obi Toppin. Though they did bring in fourth-year center James Wiseman, presumably as the Jalen Smith replacement after he signed a three-year deal with Chicago.

Indiana’s inability to close possessions was one of their prime weaknesses last year. It finished in the bottom-seven in rebounding percentage while posting the fifth-worst defensive rebounding percentage–being better than only the Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, Raptors and Washington Wizards.

While they were better in the postseason, they were still in the middle-of-the-pack in those categories. Indiana didn’t have title expectations entering last season, but that’s not good enough to win one anyway. Rebounding wins championships. Being a mediocre rebounding team does nothing but assure that.

Perhaps Wiseman can help alleviate that struggle, even though he’ll likely act as a third center behind Turner and Isaiah Jackson. What about a full season of Siakam, who hauled down 8.6 per 75 possessions after joining Indiana? The latter is more plausible, but they will need to improve on the glass–and defensively, as a whole–if they want to take that next step as a contender.

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