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...
Bucks Still Face A Tough Jaime Jaquez Jr. Decision
Jaime Jaquez Jr. remains one of the more interesting extension cases hanging over Milwaukees long-term planning. The Bucks have not reached a rookie contract extension with the 2023 draft pick yet, even though conversations may still be happening behind the scenes, and the October 19 deadline is starting to loom as the cleanest marker for when this gets real. Milwaukee would like to get something done, but the clock is now part of the story.
Jaquez also has a reason to be patient. Other players from the 2023 draft class have already landed significant extensions, and that kind of market movement can shape how a young player views his own timing. Whether Jaquez wants to lock in security now or wait and see if a bigger opportunity comes later is the kind of decision that can linger well past the deadline, which is why this one still feels unresolved for the Bucks. [Read more 🡒]
Jaime Jaquez Jr. Is Headed For A Bucks Decision Heat Fans Will Notice
Jaime Jaquez Jr. arrives in Milwaukee with a different kind of weight on his shoulders now, moving from Miami in the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade and into the final year of his rookie contract. For the Bucks, the next step is no longer just about fitting him into the roster, but deciding what kind of long-term role he can grow into after a season that suggested real improvement.
The timing makes this a decision worth watching, especially with Miamis own move to lock up Pelle Larsson on a four-year, $60 million deal. Jaquez is projected as a possible key piece for Milwaukee moving forward, and talk around the league has already pointed toward an extension in the neighborhood of four years and $75 million, leaving the Bucks to sort out how aggressively they want to bet on his upside. [Read more 🡒]
Which Bucks Stars Truly Belong In The Rafters
Retiring a jersey in Milwaukee has always meant more than a ceremonial night and a banner reveal. It is the franchises way of marking the players who helped shape its history, and the current Bucks era has given that conversation real substance again. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the obvious centerpiece, but the discussion does not stop there, because the run of recent success has also left the organization weighing how to honor the supporting stars who helped build it.
Khris Middleton, Brook Lopez and Jrue Holiday each left fingerprints on the Bucks in different ways, from championship-level consistency to franchise records and the kind of postseason value that usually gets remembered long after a player is gone. An Athletic prediction about NBA players most likely to have their numbers retired only sharpens the debate, because Milwaukee is now in the awkward but enviable position of sorting through a core that has given the team a legitimate case for multiple names in the rafters. The only real question left is where that line gets drawn. [Read more 🡒]