The Milwaukee Bucks are in the middle of having cooked up a controversy ... and two rival teams are being stirred into that pot, with NBA watcher Bill Simmons turning up the heat.
The Bucks recently signed Myles Turner to a $107 million deal, stealing him away from the Indiana Pacers. Indy - fresh off an NBA Finals appearance but now without the injured superstar Tyrese Haliburton for a year, seems to have thrown in the towel on 2025-26 ... and that is a controversy all its own.
What was the Bucks' motivation? How could they afford that deal as they try to keep their Giannis Antetokounmpo-led gang together?
It was done in conjunction with the team having waived Damian Lillard in order to clear up cap space. It was a surprising move for a number of reasons, including the fact that Giannis seemingly favored keeping Lillard - a star in his own right - on the club.
As a result, Giannis is allegedly now undecided about his own future with the Bucks, waiting to see what management will do to quickly rebuild.
There's one trickle-down of all of this; If "The Greek Freak'' is truly going to come available, the San Antonio Spurs figure to want in ...
And Simmons is struggling to see why the cogs started moving on all of this in the first place.
“I thought what Milwaukee did was one of the most desperate, reckless moves that I could ever remember since I’ve been a basketball fan,'' Simmons said on his podcast. “I hated it. I don’t understand it. I think it’s a disaster. I didn’t approve of any single aspect of it. ...
“Carrying the (Lillard) stretch thing for five years, idiotic. Doing it for Myles Turner, I have no idea why they would do that. I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t have just traded Giannis.
“If that’s how desperate you are to keep Giannis, I’m trading Giannis at that point, I’m folding my hand. I just don’t get it.''
So the Pacers are being questioned for letting Turner leave. The Bucks are being called "idiotic'' for not keeping their superstar happy. And the NBA championship-craving Spurs seem to be lurking ... poised for the time when Giannis can be approached about joining up with Victor Wembanyama in The Alamo City.