Washington Wizards need to lure Myles Turner from the Indiana Pacers

The trade deadline will be here before we know it and the Washington Wizards need to make a splash.

The Washington Wizards are bad at defense. Like historically, all-time bad. Per Basketball Reference, the Wizards are on pace to finish the season with the worst defensive rating of all time.

That’s how bad the defense is here in Washington, D.C. Now if you want to blame it on the constant flow of injuries that have crippled the Wizards all season, especially in their frontcourt, you’d have a point. The Wizards have been one of the NBA’s most injured teams this season. But even when they’ve been healthy, they’ve given up points with ease.

In the offseason, the Wizards brought in Mike Longabardi to try and help with the defense, but it’s obvious that this team’s defensive woes go beyond coaching. They just don’t have the personnel. And with the trade deadline looming, it’s time to go get that defense.

At this point, the Wizards need to do whatever they can to shore things up around the rim. With Clint Capela and John Collins already off the market after the recent four-team blockbuster trade, there aren’t a ton of rim protectors left. They could overpay for Tristan Thompson, but they’d have to renegotiate that contract this offseason. Same with Andre Drummond. If they want to fix their defense long-term, the only answer in Myles Turner.

The Myles Turner trade rumor mill has dried up a bit, but the Pacers center was seemingly on his way out of Indiana not long ago. The emergence of Domantas Sabonis has made Turner, who was a Defensive Player of the Year candidate just one season ago, somewhat dispensable. If the Wizards even sniff a Turner sale, they should pounce.

And here’s a package the Pacers would probably be reluctant to turn down…

It’s a hefty price to pay for Turner, but with the Pacers growing reluctant to move the big man, it will probably take a sweet deal for them to even budge.

In Bertans, the Pacers add a deadeye shooter to a team that ranks 30th and 29th, respectively, in three-pointers attempted and made per game. And Thomas Bryant, who is locked into his deal for two more seasons at $8 million, would be a young, cheap backup behind Sabonis.

In Turner, the Wizards would have one of the best rim protectors they’ve had in recent memory. Last season, he led the NBA in blocked shots, averaging 2.7 swatted shots per contest.

This season, Turner has played 41 of the Pacers’ first 50 games, and already has three games with five or more blocks. No Wizards have a single game with more than four blocks this season, and even then, Thomas Bryant and Ian Mahinmi have each only done it once. Furthermore, Turner’s 106 defensive rating is a good six points fewer than anyone on the Wizards.

Losing Bryant would hurt, but Turner can do everything Bryant can offensively. And then some. Adding Turner would be a definite upgrade at the center position.

Of course, losing the prolific shooting of the Latvian Laser will hurt, but he might walk this summer, anyways. And the Wizards are the best proof that simply scoring a ton of points isn’t necessarily a winning formula. The Wizards have one of the highest-scoring offenses in the NBA, but one of the worst records. To win games, you need to actually stop your opponent sometime, too. Turner can do that. He can do that better than most.