In a shocking move, Myles Turner agreed to a new contract with the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday morning on a deal for 4 years, $107 million. The Indiana Pacers offers to their longest tenured player never got above $20 million per season according to multiple reports despite Rick Carlisle calling him the top priority of the Pacers off-season last week.
It’s not a sign and trade. The Bucks created the necessary cap space by waiving and stretching Damian Lillard as he recovers from his own Achilles tear. After years of endless trade rumors, the Pacers lost their starting center for nothing in return.
It’s not great. The Pacers have limited avenues available to replace him. Trading for a center now would require further pieces of the roster and/or future picks to be lost. They have no cap space and the $14.1 million mid-level exemption available. Tony Bradley is the only center under contract. Asking Isaiah Jackson to return from an Achilles to be a starter for the first time in his career seems like an unwise decision so they’ll have to find someone to fill that role if they plan on trying to remain competitive in 2025-26 in their year without Tyrese Haliburton. Maybe they don’t. We shall see in the coming days.
It looks right now like the Pacers ownership just lived up to their reputation for being cheap as they looked to avoid going into the luxury tax. Yes, the Pacers were unlikely to compete again this season without Haliburton but you also just watched your best player put his body on the line for the organization and the team’s response in the following weeks was to immediately look to cut costs. It’s not the best look—regardless of whether being in the tax this next season makes much sense.
The Pacers could have looked to cut costs in other ways as well if they did re-sign but there were no easy answers if they went that route either. TJ McConnell? Obi Toppin? A young prospect like Bennedict Mathurin or Jarace Walker?
In the wake of Tyrese Haliburton's injury, the mood surrounding the Pacers' ownership and front office changed, sources told @ClutchPoints.
While they were expected to go into the tax, they did not want to for Myles Turner, which is why he never got more than a $20M AAV offer.
— Brett Siegel (@BrettSiegelNBA) July 1, 2025
Jake Fischer also reported the offer never got better than somewhere in the 3 years, $60 million range.
Even if the organization believed they needed to find a different center than Myles Turner to reach their ultimate goal after he struggled to perform at his typical level of play in the NBA Finals, losing him for nothing is not ideal. Perhaps the Pacers were too confident that he wouldn’t be able to find a team willing to get creative in order to pry him away without needing a sign and trade. Even if they wanted to pivot in another direction, the move may have been pay him now, trade him later. Use his salary to match in a trade for someone else down the line like the Rockets just did to turn Jalen Green into Kevin Durant or like the Pacers did to turn Bruce Brown to Pascal Siakam.
Turner’s skillset is not easy to replace. Everyone wants a shooting big that can protect the rim, but few teams have one. Was he a perfect player? Absolutely not but his fit with Siakam and Haliburton was enough to get the team all the way to Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
We’ll see what the front office has up their sleeves but they may find out soon that the grass isn’t always greener when it comes to life without Myles Turner.
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