I wasn’t a part of the fanbase at the time of Smits, but outside of the three pointer him and Myles have nearly identical stats. Even advanced stats like Ortg, Drtg, VORP, and win shares are essentially the same. So why is it that Rik Smits is universally loved and held as a legend, but it seems half the fan base hates Myles? Stats of course don’t tell the whole story, so can any veteran fans weigh in here?
I love Myles, I didn’t even know that a significant amount of pacers fans hate him
Unequivocally, no. Everyone loved Rick. He was a borderline All Star playing against some of the all time greats in an era when big men dominated and constantly held his own. If he had been the same age as Shaq the 2000 Finals would have gone down differently and I’ll die on that hill, but alas his body was spent. Never heard a fan say a bad word about the Dutchman.
No. Most people here are still butt hurt about Sabonis that get mad at Myles.
The issue stems from the very beginning, where people wanted a back to the basket, low post center.
Myles never has been that. He’s a tall 4 playing the center. But he has always been weighed down with that expectation. The complaints stemmed from two things. He didn’t average double-digit rebounds, and he didn’t play down in the post.
The Pacers tried to solve this when a player like that fell in their laps.
Editing… gimme a sec
Seeing pacers fans saying Myles still got things to prove blow my mind lol who do y’all think he is?
He’s not an all star, not a second option on a championship team, and is an average rebounder.
But one thing he is for sure is one of the best shot blocker in the league and one of the best shooter at his position, making him the perfect modern center in the NBA. There’s a reason why basically every nba team wanted Myles Turner at one point.
I can’t speak directly to Rik Smits, but I can speak personally about Myles in this comparison. My personal Myles hate started when he was drafted because we were trying to get back into contending and had a major hole at Shooting Guard. Instead of drafting Devin Booker, who was my favorite player out of college and a shooting guard, we drafted a big man when our roster was loaded with big men. He was supposed to be able to play with the others, but he has proven time and time again that he needs to play the 5 so we keep losing out on players that can make a real difference for the team, but instead he get a player that everyone in the comments has called a role player. Sure, we would not have gotten Tyrese without Sabonis, but my hatred started when we drafted 2 Bigs in the draft when we only had Rodney Sucky and Monta Ellis as our guards to pair with George Hill.
TLDR: Rodney Sucky, Monta Ellis, Myles < Domas and Devin Booker = I hate the players because of who we had in our grasp, but chose mediocrity as always
Rik was a different situation because he was originally hated by Larry Brown and other coaches and he kind of became a sympathetic figure even though he wasn’t living up to the hype it more felt like he was being held back
But what’s the most perplexing thing was he was probably the best player last night, and gets the most blame. And most the blame was because the bad PNR and driving coverage by the guards.
He played great, for the most part it was turnovers, missed threes, and PNR coverage.