Jun 25, 2015; Brooklyn, NY, USA; Myles Turner (Texas) receives a hug from family and friends after being selected as the number eleven overall pick to the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the 2015 NBA Draft at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Indiana Pacers The Weekside: Myles Turner is another breakout star in an incredible rookie class

Myles Turner will not be playing in the Rising Stars Challenge during All-Star weekend. That’s probably for the best, since it is an unwatchable pickup game that the NBA cannot make compelling no matter how many times it changes format. But the honor of being asked to play is something the Indiana Pacers rookie likely regrets missing out on. At least right now. Unfortunately, the funky-haired big man broke his thumb early this season and missed six weeks. He also was merely good-not-exceptional in the early going, coming off the bench and hitting shots but not exactly setting courts ablaze. That changed recently. Against the Denver Nuggets, the 11th-overall pick in last summer’s draft scored 25 points on 11-for-13 shooting. He had already been back from his thumb injury for 10 games, but this was his first big-minute outing since returning. He capitalized with a flurry of jump shots, post moves, and transition buckets on top of high-level rim protection. It was easily Turner’s career-high scoring night, but he bested that just a few days later against the Warriors with a 31-point game. He went 12-for-17 from the floor in Golden State, and the scorching shooting didn’t stop. Over a six-game stretch, while taking many jumpers from just a step or two inside the 3-point arc, the 6’11” Myles Turner made 51-of-82 (62.2%) shots while averaging 19.7 points and 2.5 blocks per night. He did this all off the bench, scoring as a pick-and-pop dynamo, on the block, and while running the floor more swiftly than anyone of his hulking size should. His play injected life into the arm of a Pacers team that has played middling basketball since the start of December. His performance was so impressive that head coach Frank Vogel was forced to put him into the starting lineup. Vogel is a still a defense-first coach and, for all of Turner’s shot-blocking prowess, he remains a rookie. So he makes blunders, he blows assignments, he misses rotations. But despite this — and Vogel’s reluctance to have Turner play power forward instead of center — the coach made the move. He had to. Turner forced his hand. Since the Indiana Pacers began starting their prized rookie, Turner has actually cooled off from his hot-shooting ways. But the team has done even better. Indiana is 3-1 with Turner starting, and a beleaguered, tired Paul George seems to be getting some of the help he believes he needs. Even without making nearly all his jumpers, Turner’s impact on the energy level of the team is undeniable. The Pacers are protecting the rim better than they had all year, and Turner’s signature moment of his early career proved that. Pacers' Myles Turner blocks Cavaliers' LeBron James at the rim pic.twitter.com/1yn88Q5x4e — Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) February 2, 2016 LeBron James thought he was going to get a dunk. Myles Turner had other plans, sizing up the four-time MVP and timing his leap perfectly. The 19-year-old swatted away The King’s dunk try and the building lit up. But as great as Myles has been at times, rookies are still gonna be rookies. In the same game he made his “You Belong In The League Now, Kid” block on LeBron, he also made a ghastly error on the final possession of regulation. The Pacers had the ball in tie game with around 20 seconds to play and he was supposed to set a screen. But he didn’t know what he was doing. He either froze up in crunch time and forgot the play or never had learned it to begin with. This led to Indiana not getting off a good shot and losing the game in overtime. This is why all coaches want to strangle their rookies much of the time — even the ones like Myles Turner who show some All-Star-level talent. And there are many with as much, or more talent in this rookie class. Karl-Anthony Towns looks like a certain Hall of Famer if injuries don’t disrupt his career. Kristaps Porzingis is a mold-breaking phenom we have ever seen before. Jahlil Okafor, for all his off-the-court run ins, has true, throwback skill to score in the post. Emmanuel Mudiay is unpolished but potentially terrifying. Willie Caulie Stein is a force. Justice Winslow plays savvy, smart defense like few 19-year-olds ever have. Devin Booker is emerging right now just like Turner. So it’s no wonder that Turner, who missed six weeks and is playing catch up, lags behind his peers in name recognition. He doesn’t deserve to be in the Rising Stars Challenge. But he did light up the shot chart for six straight games in a way that looked like no fluke. He has various ways to score, led by a quick catch-and-shoot that catches defenders off guard. He can block shots with the best of them — and, as LeBron found out, the shots of the best of them. Most importantly, the now-starting 19-year-old is starting to turn the Pacers’ season back around. He is exactly what the franchise needed for the long run, and he is precisely the ball of energy this 2015-16 Indiana squad needs right now. If he keeps it up, he won’t ever have to worry about missing out on All-Star weekend’s JV game in his rookie season. Because he’ll end up playing in the main event.

Throwback Thursday Vince Carter just turned 39 years old recently, and that means NBA TV and other outlets have been showing old clips of his playing basketball. And watching young Vince Carter play basketball was one of the joys of the NBA in the late 1990s, early 2000s. People forget. Vince didn’t become Michael Jordan, so the legacy of Air Canada have been tainted. His Raptors teams flamed out, he didn’t achieve team greatness with the Nets, and he came up short alongside Dwight Howard and the Magic. Then, of course, his grand sin was appearing in too many All-Star Games, being more popular than he was truly great. That, a reputation for milking injuries, and a Bill Simmons-repeated-ad-nauseum claim that he “gave up” on Toronto when he wanted to no longer play for a franchise that was generally run poorly from the day it began until like two years ago. That’s what people remember now. It’s a shame. Because for nearly a half decade, nothing — nothing — was more exciting than watching Vince Carter walk onto a basketball court. The man could fly, and his performance at the 2000 dunk contest was breathtaking. He also played in that All-Star Game the next day, clips of which NBA TV has been recently showing. There is one where a young Tim Duncan tells the man his peers were looking at like Superman that afternoon that it isn’t fair that Vince has so much hops while Timmy has so little. Then there is Karl Malone, who was 36 years old at the time. After the game he sincerely explained to Vince that there isn’t much that would get him to spend money to go to a game. But the Mailman says he would take his kids to go see Carter play. The things that the grizzly, cantankerous old man saw Vince do were that special. Vince never became Mike. But Vince was Vince. And there was a long time in this league where being Vince was the coolest thing you could be.