Myles Turner was supposed to be part of Milwaukee’s answer.
When the Bucks lured him away from Indiana last offseason, the move was framed as a bold swing to keep the championship window open around Giannis Antetokounmpo. Turner, after 10 seasons with the Pacers, arrived on a four-year, $107 million contract that was meant to give Milwaukee a floor-spacing, shot-blocking center to fit next to its superstar.
That vision did not last long.
ESPN’s Ben Golliver recently surveyed the state of all 30 NBA teams after the offseason and pointed to Turner as a major issue for Milwaukee. “The bad news: They haven't yet found a take for Myles Turner, who was signed to a four-year, $107 million contract last summer in a failed attempt to appease Antetokounmpo,” Golliver wrote.
Milwaukee had to get creative to make the deal happen, waiving and stretching Damian Lillard to open the financial room needed to land Turner. The Bucks were pushing hard to squeeze every last bit out of their Antetokounmpo era, and Turner looked like the kind of fit that could help them do it.
Instead, his first season in Milwaukee brought modest production - 11.9 points and 5.3 rebounds per game - and the bigger outcome the Bucks were trying to avoid still arrived anyway, with Antetokounmpo eventually traded to the Miami Heat.
Now Turner is left as an expensive holdover on a team in a very different place. He has three years left on his contract, and Golliver previously listed moving him as one of the steps Milwaukee should consider while shifting into a new era. The idea would be to deal him to a playoff team and possibly bring back more draft capital for the Bucks’ rebuild.
The irony is hard to miss. Indiana took heat for letting its longtime starting center walk after reaching the 2025 NBA Finals, and Turner left for one of the Pacers’ biggest rivals on a big-money deal. A year later, though, Milwaukee is the one stuck trying to figure out what comes next.
The Bucks signed Turner to help convince Antetokounmpo to stay in a title chase. Instead, Giannis is gone, Milwaukee is rebuilding, and Turner’s contract is now one more expensive problem the franchise has to solve.
In Other News...
Pacers Zubac Trade Just Got Even Harder To Defend
The Pacers decision to send a 2026 first-round pick and other assets to the Clippers for Ivica Zubac and Kobe Brown already had the look of a move worth revisiting, and the back end of the deal has only made it more complicated. What was once a simple future-pick transaction has turned into a reminder of how much draft capital can change hands in the NBA long before anyone knows exactly what it will be worth.
Now the leagues punishment of the Clippers for salary-cap violations tied to Kawhi Leonard has added another layer, because one of the first-rounders lost in the penalty package was the 2029 pick that originally came from Indiana. The Pacers will not get that pick back, and with it gone from the draft altogether, the trade sits in an even tougher spot to justify from Indianas side. [Read more 🡒]