How the Pacers Avoided a Costly Mistake With Myles Turner

When the Indiana Pacers entered the offseason, they had every intention of re-signing Myles Turner to a multiyear deal. Believing that no opposing team was a real threat to pry him away, the Pacers played hardball, standing firm in their offer. The reported deal was three years at $22 million per year, which would have given Turner $66 million total.

Instead, the Milwaukee Bucks saw that the end was near with Brook Lopez after the Pacers played Lopez off the floor in the playoffs. They swooped in and gave Turner a four-year, $108.8 million deal. But in order to come up with the money to pay Turner, they had to waive and stretch Damian Lillard’s $113 million over five years.

The desperation move by Milwaukee to try to build a better team around Giannis Antetokounmpo cost them $22.5 million per year for Lillard not to be on their team and $27.2 million per year to sign Turner. This move costs Milwaukee $49.7 million per year this season and over the next three years. Woof.

This move was voted as the worst move of the offseason in a recent article by Zach Kram of ESPN, surpassing the New Orleans Pelicans’ horrendous decision to trade an unprotected first-round pick in 2026 to move up 10 spots in the 2025 NBA Draft.

While this looked like a loss for the Pacers at the time, it has turned into a massive win. Losing Turner certainly hurt Indiana’s roster depth and forced them to make an aggressive move to acquire a starting center — which they did by trading for Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac — but overpaying Turner for four seasons was not a smart business decision.

Turner turned 30 years old on Tuesday, March 24, and he has had one of the worst seasons of his career in Milwaukee. In addition, the 10-year Pacer — who once had a massive fan base in Indiana — has seen many of those supporters turn on him after making bold comments about the team, the city, the fans and the front office.

Turner was hurt that Indiana wouldn’t pay him what he wanted, but the Pacers offered him what they felt he was worth. There is no question that Turner played a major role in Indiana’s run to the NBA Finals, but he disappointed on the biggest stage. The Pacers needed more from him than he gave, but not so much that they didn’t want him back — just at a lower number than he believed he was worth.

Bill Simmons was joined by Joe House and Big Wos on his annual “Worst Contracts” NBA segment, and Turner was selected sixth overall in the exercise. Everyone knows Turner is a valuable piece on a playoff contender, but he cannot be paid like a second or third option. That’s simply not who he is.

Indiana may have dodged a massive bullet by not overpaying Turner and instead acquiring a more well-rounded center in Ivica Zubac. The only question now is whether what the Pacers gave up to acquire Zubac will ultimately prove more costly than retaining Turner would have been.

Time will tell on the Zubac trade, but when it comes to Myles Turner, Milwaukee may have done Indiana a favor by overpaying for the 10-year veteran out of Texas.

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