Hawks Player Preview: Evan Turner
As the NBA has trended toward Moreyball, Evan Turner has run the opposite way – or, rather, simply stayed in place. While the league almost demands that players capably shoot from 3, at the rim, or both, Turner remains one of the NBA’s most faithful practitioners of the midrange jumper. In 2016, he declared the shot “the future” and has never taken less than half of his total shot attempts from the midrange. He subsists mostly on shots that probably should have been phased out of his game by now. And yet, Turner has been a consistent rotation player his entire career and – barring injury – will be one again this season.
When a player lacks a specific skill as glaringly as Turner does, he must compensate with reliability everywhere else. He doesn’t have one indomitable skill. What Turner offers instead is competence. He plays based on feel, and is therefore best working with the ball in his hands. He may not take open three-pointers, but can set them up for teammates. He may cramp his team’s spacing, but has the wherewithal to pass through tight windows. Coaches can trust him to slot in on defense and provide a sustained, disciplined effort.
His skill set, however flawed, will be an important one for the Hawks this season. Turner may be wing-sized, but he’ll likely function primarily as Atlanta’s backup point guard. Simply having 48 minutes of adequate offensive stewardship is critical in the NBA, and Turner is nothing if not capable. He played a similar role as a Trail Blazer, where he initiated much of the team’s offense while Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum rested. He’s a savvy passer, with the ball-handling ability to settle backup units and offer a young team guidance. There’s a steadiness to Turner’s game that makes denying him his moves and spots difficult. Much like DeAndre’ Bembry, Turner creatively navigates around his weaknesses and almost defies categorization because of the incongruity between his offensive and defensive functions. “I just help when I can,” he said. “I try to get in where I fit in.”
He is one of the more accurate mid-range shooters in the NBA, but not so unerring as to justify taking so many. Despite shooting a tidy 46 percent overall last year, Turner ranked well below the league average in true shooting percentage because of his proclivity for inherently inefficient shots. When he doesn’t have the ball, defenders can sag as far from him as they please. That makes for a slightly uncomfortable contrast with Atlanta’s plan to space the floor and allow Trae Young to make plays. Defensively, Turner doesn’t have quite the length or footspeed to cover the league’s best wings, but can defend four positions capably. That sort of versatility could allow Lloyd Pierce to keep more of his shooting threats on the floor when Turner plays, rather than using a plodding power forward or center.
In Portland, Turner’s teams had the luxury of working from a shared, robust knowledge base. This Hawks team has been more deliberate and granular in preparing for the season. “It’s kind of like restarting over, in a sense. You really have to build stuff up, you have to teach, just kind of going through the steps,” Turner said. “So the emphasis is always on teaching and slowing down and teaching again.” As one of the senior members of the team, Turner has been an important part of that teaching process, offering younger players advice where they need it and allowing them the room to grow.
It’s unclear how long he’ll remain a Hawk. His contract expires at the end of the season, and while his market may be tepid enough for Atlanta to keep around for cheap, some team could jump at the chance to acquire a seasoned – if heavily flawed – playmaker. He isn’t a particularly clean match with Young and the Hawks are rife with younger players at his position. He won’t be an easy piece to fit in, but Turner has done all he can to facilitate the process.
