The Milwaukee Bucks have reached a four-year, $107 million agreement with free-agent center Myles Turner, securing a younger rim-protecting partner for Giannis Antetokounmpo. Milwaukee created the required cap space by waiving and stretching the final two seasons of Damian Lillard’s $112 million contract, a move that rival executives estimate leaves roughly $22 million in dead money annually and pushes the effective cost of adding Turner toward $49 million per year.
Turner, 29, leaves Indiana after a decade in which he became the Pacers’ career blocks leader and helped the club reach this year’s NBA Finals. League sources say Indiana’s offer never exceeded three years at about $20-23 million per season—below both Milwaukee’s bid and the five-year, $125 million extension Minnesota gave backup center Naz Reid. With All-Star guard Tyrese Haliburton sidelined by an Achilles tear, Pacers management opted against entering the luxury tax and let Turner walk.
For Milwaukee, stretching Lillard represents the largest such charge in league history, but team officials believe Turner’s three-point range and interior defense can offset the loss of Brook Lopez and keep the Bucks in the Eastern Conference race while reassuring Antetokounmpo of the franchise’s commitment to contend.
Indiana, meanwhile, loses its longest-tenured player just weeks after Haliburton’s injury, raising uncertainty over a roster that was 41 minutes from a championship. The Pacers now face a thin center market and decisions on whether to pivot toward development while retaining future draft flexibility.
Myles Turner leaving the Pacers was a shock, but not something that seemed impossible.
He’d been in trade rumors for years, didn’t have a great finals run and he was entering unrestricted free agency.
Milwaukee getting him though, was a shot to Indiana’s solar plexus.
Myles Turner reportedly wanted the Pacers to pay him more than the contract Naz Reid received from the Timberwolves, per @espn
“But no one saw the Bucks creating salary cap space to sign Turner. And once they did, they could then outbid Indiana. Minnesota signing center Naz
A league source said the Pacers’ offer to Turner topped out around $23 million per year, short of what he got from Milwaukee, a source tells The Athletic.
Indiana decided that it didn't want to "overpay" for Turner, a source said. The Pacers had signaled a willingness to pay the