Turner: Thunder-Pacers Finals represents 'new blueprint' for NBA
Myles Turner believes the superteam era may be over.
After helping his Indiana Pacers defeat the New York Knicks on Saturday to win the Eastern Conference finals, the center cited similarities in roster construction and play style between the Pacers and their NBA Finals opponents, the Oklahoma City Thunder.
"It's a new blueprint for the league," Turner said, according to The Athletic's Shakeia Taylor. "I think the years of the super teams ... it's not as effective as it once was.
"The new trend now is just kind of what we're doing. OKC does the same thing. Young guys who get out and run and use the power of friendship."
Oklahoma City and Indiana were among the top turnover punishers during the regular season, with the Thunder averaging a league-best 21.8 points per game off turnovers and the Pacers' 18.3 ranking 12th. Indiana was slightly more effective in transition, registering 17.5 fast-break points per contest (fifth in the NBA) to the Thunder's 16.1.
However, both sides were adept at limiting those opportunities for opponents; the Thunder and Pacers held teams to just 12.3 and 13.2 fast-break points per game, respectively - the two best marks in the league.
One of the multiple roster construction parallels between the sides involves franchise stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Tyrese Haliburton.
The two point guards were acquired via trade after brief stints with their first NBA teams. Gilgeous-Alexander played his rookie year with the Los Angeles Clippers before being sent to Oklahoma City in 2019. Haliburton, meanwhile, arrived in Indiana midway through his 2021-22 sophomore campaign after he'd played just 109 games in one-and-a-half seasons with the Sacramento Kings.
Philadelphia 76ers wing Paul George had a significant role in the construction of both Finals contestants. After seven seasons in Indiana, George was traded to Oklahoma City for guard Victor Oladipo and center Domantas Sabonis. Two years later, the Clippers acquired George in the deal that sent Gilgeous-Alexander to Oklahoma City, while the Pacers flipped Sabonis to the Kings in the six-player swap that landed them Haliburton.
Both franchises also took a leap with defensively skilled trade acquisitions in 2024. The Thunder pried Alex Caruso from the Chicago Bulls last June, while Indiana landed Pascal Siakam from the Toronto Raptors six months earlier in a three-team deal. Both Siakam and Caruso led their respective squads in defensive rating this regular season among players with at least 600 minutes.