The fourth edition of Cream of the Crop pays respect to the disrespect that Myles Turner has shown on defense.

(Cream of the Crop is a recurring series that zeroes-in on something super cool that hasn’t been talked about enough. And, yes, we realize there is more than corn in Indiana, but this is Indy Cornrows and you have to let us live.)

Myles Turner’s dip in productivity amid stagnant opportunity wasn’t limited to the offensive end of the floor last season; his defensive impact also experienced a noticeable drop-off in comparison to 2016-17.

*per 100 possessions

Nate McMillan attributed the starting center’s season-over-season decline as a paint deterrent to his tendency to allow lack of involvement or missed shots to affect where his head was at on defense.

“I think there’s too much focus by him on the offense and not the defense,” McMillan told reporters at season’s end. “When his offense isn’t going or he’s not getting anything, he’s taking that to the defensive end of the floor. I think he needs to reverse that mindset, that thinking — be a dominant defensive player, rebound the ball, let the offense come to you.”

Turner’s shooting has been rocky to start the season. Confidently taking, and making, that which was surrendered by Rudy Gobert and Deandre Ayton, he looked every bit the part of a modern stretch-five on the first two legs of the team’s current west coast swing. However, outside of those standout performances, he’s shot just 36 percent (21-of-58) on pick-and-pop jump shots (which still account for 70 percent of his possessions as the roll-man) and has yet to show any consistent signs of extending his range out to the 3-point line.

Maybe finding his hot hand on the road, including that huge, go-ahead three against Phoenix, will prime the pump?

Whatever happens with his scoring, it’s quite clear that he hasn’t allowed the outcome of his shot to impact his effort on the other end of the floor.

In fact, all of the very same defensive numbers that he let slide last season have rebounded — and some even with a vengeance.

For reference, there are 14 players in the league this season who are averaging at least seven shots per game defended within six feet, among them only Javale McGee (48.4%) is allowing opponents to shoot a lower percentage than Turner (52.0%).

But, let’s be real, what REALLY jumps off the page is the 22-year-old’s absurd block percentage. Not only does it rank third in the league, if that figure holds it would set a franchise record for the Pacers in the NBA-era, dwarfing the best rates posted by noted shot-blockers Roy Hibbert (6.7 percent) and Jermaine O’Neal (6.2 percent).

Despite averaging fewer minutes, Turner has registered at least three blocks in 11 of the team’s first 21 games, including a game-clincher which required him to venture 19 feet from the basket to snuff out Antonio Blakeney.

And yet, even while doing things like tracking Devin Booker from the deep corner on a switch to block his baseline reverse lay-up on the other side (seriously, not even the rim could protect Booker from the wrath of Turner’s outstretched arm!!!), arguably the most eye-popping component of his defensive presence has at times been his ability to right his own wrongs.

Take this possession against the Sixers, for example. Philly is running a sidelines out of bounds play to generate a basket for Dario Saric off a hawk cut, which means Turner needs to step out for a split second to bump the Croatian forward wide off the screen in order to buy Thad the opportunity to fight over and recover from Embiid’s high post rub.

That doesn’t happen. Instead, whether oblivious to the play call or reluctant to leave Embiid, Turner nets Saric a generous head start to the basket.

Except, those rarely really seem to exist whenever Turner’s impeccable timing and reach are lurking nearby.

On that possession, Saric is basically the real-life version of every cartoon ever that has run off a cliff expecting to find further terrain only to sheepishly look down before gravity, in this case Turner, unsuspectingly pulls the rug out from under them.

All that’s missing is the sound of “Meep, meep!”

Another positive sign for his fluidity of motion as a defensive anchor has been the team’s willingness to be more adaptable with his pick-and-roll coverage.

When Portland’s ball-handlers rolled into town scoring a league-best 1.136 points per possession with Lillard launching 5.6 pull-up threes per game in late October, Turner was asked to come out higher to confront the 25-plus points per game scorer at the level of the screen rather than dropping deep into the paint.

Stuff like this happened:

Look at how much ground Turner had to cover on that possession in order to: Dissuade Lillard from dribbling off the pick into a three, scurry back to Nurkic once Thad released the tag, and contest Layman’s drive as the second-line of defense.

Those are moments when the results of his offseason before-and-after trim-down come into full focus.

Or how about against the Knicks, when he jumped out against Trey Burke and recovered with high hands to Lance Thomas as the four while sharing the floor with Sabonis.

Neither of those possessions ended in a shot attempt for the screener, but that in and of itself — albeit with an assist from the defense’s background noise — is sort of a big deal. Last season, Turner’s preoccupation with preventing the ball from getting to the rim routinely made him susceptible to staying a count too long with the ball-handler at the expense of the popping or rolling big, especially against empty-corner actions.

Per Synergy, he surrendered 1.294 points per possession when defending the roll-man, a mark which ranked dead last among the 35 players with at least 60 such possessions.

He’s cut that figure to 0.75 in 21 games, good for 69th percentile.

And here is where it begs mentioning that Indiana’s defensive efficiency hasn’t been appreciably better with Turner on the floor compared to off, except for the fact that the Pacers have held opponents to a downright stingy 98.3 points per 100 possessions during the minutes he has shared the court with Cory Joseph in the absence of Darren Collison; a reality which suggests his anti-gravity is not-so-surprisingly best amplified when he’s allowed to stay at home, despite some of the flashes he’s shown when straying away from the basket.

None of this is to say that Turner’s recognition and execution has been without hiccup. He doesn’t always drop at the proper depth, sometimes he still gets twisted around when backpedaling in 2-on-1 situations, he (like many, many others) got pushed around by Embiid’s more imposing frame, and of course there’s the whole rebounding thing, but progress isn’t always linear.

And, sometimes, growth is in the details.

Previous Harvests

Cory Joseph is a cult hero without a cult following

Domantas Sabonis is playing big without being confined by his size

How the Pacers censored an NSFW play