With Turner we went from a bad defensive team to a pretty good one...when we signed Turner it was for ball handling and defense...not scoring...when we share the ball as a team Turner fits fine...when we go ISO he doesn't.
c'mon man.....Turner doesn't do shit for Portland's defense
* in 2015-16, when it was a combination of Aminu, Harkless, and Gerald Henderson at SF, Portland was
20th in the NBA in defensive rating at 108.0. That's also when Ed Davis was healthy and effective all year
* in 2016-17, when Aminu moved full-time to PF (but missed 21 games), it was Harkless and Turner at SF. Portland was
24th in defensive rating at 110.8. Not only did Aminu miss 21 games, Ed Davis was rarely healthy that year.
* the next season, 2017-18, was when Portland made the big jump in defense finishing
8th at 106.4. That was due mostly to Nurkic but once again, Ed Davis was healthy
now, this season, Portland has fallen back down to
15th at 110.0. But Meyers is taking most of the minutes Ed Davis gets and that's almost certainly a big reason Portland's defense has suffered. Another is that Napier and Connaughton were better defenders then are Curry & Stauskas. And another reason is that Harkless was MIA to start the season and instead, Turner and Layman were taking his minutes
this isn't all to say Turner is a bad defender. But it is a stretch to call him a good defender. As a SF, he ranks 62nd out of 84 in DRPM. Among 473 NBA players tracked Turner ranks 347th; the median is 236. Turner is an above average defender on the Portland roster. Among NBA players, not so much, and it's pretty clear he struggles guarding quickness
