Mercury expecting even more from Turner in her 3rd season
No one is sleeping on Brianna Turner. Not after the Phoenix Mercury forward blossomed into a WNBA Defensive Player of the Year contender in her second season and improved offensively playing this offseason in the Russian League.
“We have a big role for her,” Mercury coach Sandy Brondello said Wednesday after Turner’s first full training camp practice. “She made us a better team today, let’s put it that way.”
The 6-3 Turner made the WNBA AllDefensive first team in 2020 and was third in Defensive Player of the Year voting behind Candace Parker and Alysha Clark. She was second in the league in blocks per game and total blocks behind A’ja Wilson and set a Mercury record by averaging 9.0 rebounds albeit in a COVID-shortened 22-game season. Her 21 boards in an overtime game against
Connecticut last season was a franchise single-game record.
Even on a team stocked with AllWNBA talent, 24-year-old Turner is a major part of the present and even more so of the future since Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Skylar DigginsSmith are 30 or older.
In her first Russian League season, Turner averaged 13.8 points and 12.4 rebounds for Nika Syktyvkar.
In a season-ending series for third place, she raised her scoring average to 21 points in three narrow losses to MBA Moscow.
“We had two post players get hurt so I was getting a lot more looks, and I took advantage of that,” Turner said. “There’s always room to grow your game. Maybe this year being more aggressive offensively will open up our offense even more and even get BG (Brittney Griner) open more.”
Turner played twice against 6-9 Griner in Russia, joking on social media that should much prefers being her teammate. Griner also was in full training camp for the first time Wednesday leaving just three players — Kia Vaughn, Megan Walker, Shey Peddy — still to report from overseas.
Walker is due to arrive in Phoenix on Wednesday night and Peddy on Thursday then they must quarantine before starting to practice with the Mercury.
“BG’s obviously one of the best players in women’s basketball,” Turner said. “Overseas she really got a lot better. When the double would come to her finding the open person and even 1-on-1 coverage, her go-to move was spin back baseline. Her confidence level is so high. That’s how I want to play in the future.”
Turner played in the 2019-20 offseason in the Australian WNBL, where she was most valuable player runner-up behind Kia Nurse, now her Mercury teammate. Except for 2017-18 at Notre Dame, when she sat out due to a knee injury, Turner has mostly been on a straightline improvement since high school with no end yet in sight.
“I see a player that’s continued to gain confidence and expand her game,” Brondello said. “We know defensively she is one of the best defensive players in the league and her rebounding, but today I saw her being aggressive offensively. She knows she’s very capable (of scoring).”
But with so many other Mercury scoring threats and the responsibility of guarding MVP caliber forwards like Breanna Stewart, Wilson and Elena Delle Donne, Turner doesn’t figure to lose sight of the dirty work contributions she makes.
“I’ve always had a passion for defense,” she said. “Always wanting to get a stop, go the other way. I know every night is going to be a difficult challenge,” she said. “I’ve accepted the challenge of guarding those type of players.”