Pacers C Myles Turner won't return this season due to foot injury

Pacers center Myles Turner will miss the remainder of the 2021-22 season, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).

Turner, who turned 26 last Thursday, has been sidelined since January 14 due to a stress reaction in his left foot. According to Wojnarowski, Turner has made “good progress” in his recovery, but the Pacers only have seven games remaining and are out of the playoff hunt, so it doesn’t make sense to bring back the big man at this point.

Prior to going down with his foot injury, Turner averaged 12.9 PPG, 7.1 RPG and 2.8 BPG in 42 games (29.4 MPG) for Indiana. His name surfaced in several trade rumors earlier in the season, but his injury diminished his value to some extent and Indiana ended up moving its other center, Domantas Sabonis, while hanging onto Turner.

It’s still possible the retooling squad will shop Turner this offseason ahead of the final year of his contract. But with Sabonis no longer in the mix, the Pacers may be more inclined to keep Turner, perhaps envisioning him as their long-term starting center.

As Bobby Marks of ESPN observes (via Twitter), Turner is eligible for a contract extension this offseason and Indiana could theoretically use its cap room to to renegotiate the last year of his current deal, giving him a raise on next year’s $18M salary as part of an extension agreement.