Milwaukee Bucks center Myles Turner was a recent guest with Thanasis Antetokounmpo’ Thanalysis Show. One of the topics discussed was why Turner left the Indiana Pacers for the Bucks this offseason. Turner said he was originally told the Pacers would take care of him when he became a free agent.
“Pascal was in a contract year. T.J. McConnell was in a contract year. Aaron Nesmith was in a contract year. I could go down the list, but you go through that, and we had a great run. Everybody got taken care of. Everybody got paid because we won,” Turner said. “Then, the next year, we surpassed what we did, we went to the Finals. And all everybody told me was, ‘Myles, just keep your head down. Keep your head down and work. You’re going to get taken care of.'”
Turner said Indiana’s front office then changed their minds after the team made the NBA Finals. In the wake of the Tyrese Haliburton injury, the Pacers chose to go in a different direction from the longtime starting center.
“Then, the unfortunate situation happens in the Finals with Tyrese, and I guess the front office and ownership just changed their mind,” Turner told Antetokounmpo. “It was like, ‘Yeah… we told you all those things. And yeah… you helped us get to the Eastern Conference Finals and the Finals… but… we had to pivot.’ That was basically the sentiment. And we were just very far apart on what we thought the future should be.”
Turner signed with Milwaukee on a four-year, $108.8 million contract. This came after the Bucks cleared cap space in part by waiving-and-stretching Damian Lillard’s salary.