The Milwaukee Bucks are waiving All-Star point guard Damian Lillard to give them the flexibility to sign Myles Turner to a four-year, $107 million contract, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, taking arguably the top available center off the market in the NBA’s 2025 free agency period.
The stunning moves happened after Turner was unable to come to an agreement to re-sign with the Indiana Pacers a little more than a week after they lost the seven-game NBA Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
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The Bucks are creating the room to sign Turner by waiving Lillard and stretching the remaining $113 million and three years on his contract. Lillard is expected to miss most, if not all of next season after tearing his Achilles in the playoffs just days after he returned from dealing with deep vein thrombosis.
The stretch provision in the NBA’s collective-bargaining agreement allows teams to waive a player and spread his remaining salary across multiple years to reduce the salary-cap hit. The $113 million left on Lillard’s contract will now be stretched across five seasons.
The Bucks made the moves in an effort to surround star Giannis Antetokounmpo with more talent as he mulls his own future with the franchise. However, Antetokounmpo reportedly is not pleased with the team’s decision to waive Lillard, NBA insider Chris Haynes reported.
Per Charania, Turner’s deal includes a player option for the 2028-29 season and a full 15% trade kicker.
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Turner is coming off a stellar 2024-25 campaign that saw him average 15.6 points on 48/40/77 shooting splits to go with 6.5 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 1.5 assists in 30.2 minutes per game for the Pacers, playing an integral role in Indiana’s remarkable run to the NBA Finals.
According to Charania, Turner wanted to remain with the Pacers, but the team’s “aversion to the tax,” especially after Tyrese Haliburton’s injury, kept a deal from getting done. Now, Turner should help cement Giannis Antetokounmpo in Milwaukee.
The 29-year-old has become an excellent two-way contributor — one of just four players in the NBA last season with at least 100 blocked shots, 100 3-pointers and 50 steals, alongside Victor Wembanyama, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Brook Lopez.
Pacers opponents shot 57.7% at the basket with Turner defending this season, according to Second Spectrum tracking — just outside the top 25 among players to defend at least 200 up-close tries. All told, the opposition shot just 63.4% at the cup when Turner was on the floor — which was 4.5% below their success rate when he was off of it, and which would have finished third in the NBA over the course of the full season, behind only Oklahoma City and Cleveland.
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With Turner patrolling the paint, Indiana allowed just 112.7 points per 100 possessions outside of garbage time, according to Cleaning the Glass — a top-eight rate of defensive efficiency that was one of the most important drivers of the Pacers’ surge to 50 wins, a second straight Eastern Conference finals appearance, and the franchise’s first trip to the NBA Finals in 25 years. Combine that with knocking down 39.6% of his 3-point looks on 5.5 attempts per game — both career highs — and the 6-foot-11 Turner profiled as a vital offensive and defensive piece for a Pacers team that came within one win of the NBA championship … and an ideal partner and backstop for star point guard Tyrese Haliburton.
“I always thought in my career I was going to be best with a guy who plays above the rim, and a pick-and-roll threat,” Haliburton said during the Finals. “Now, having experienced playing with Myles so long, I feel like he unlocks a lot of what I do. It’s been an interesting dynamic to play alongside him.”
Displaying that inside-out versatility on the sport’s biggest stage — in addition to the physicality he brought to bear in bodying up Thunder big man Chet Holmgren throughout the Finals, and the toughness he showed in continuing to play high-level defense despite struggling to make shots through a bout of illness — earned Turner the type of praise that he’d rarely received through 10 NBA seasons. For years, the 6-foot-11 Texas product heard his name bandied about in trade rumors. Now, he’s widely viewed as precisely the kind of modern floor-stretching, rim-protecting pivot that just about every high-level team is searching for — a star in the role he’s found over the course of a rollercoaster decade in Indianapolis.
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“When you come into this league, you’re the man everywhere you go, right?” Turner said before the start of the Finals. “High school, you were the man. In college, you were the man. You get here, you have to fall into a niche or a role. When you’re trying to build a championship roster, a lot of stuff gets in the way. You have individual accolades: Everyone wants to be MVP, All-Star, the glory that comes with this. I’ve been in this league long enough to know that’s a phase, you know what I mean? Championships are forever.”
After falling agonizingly short in the bid for that title, Turner will now head into next season with a big new deal to carry him through his early 30s, and the implicit vote of confidence that comes with it — the belief that, through the force of his shooting and interior defensive work, he can impact the game at a championship level.
