Myles Turner, Indiana Pacers Didn’t Align. So He Chose Milwaukee Bucks

LAS VEGAS – Myles Turner is smiling, talking to his family and friends in a large room dressed for a special occasion in the Thomas & Mack Center. He’s about to participate in a press conference. Dozens of reporters wait in the Pavillion. Milwaukee Bucks signage sits everywhere. That’s new for Turner.

To this point in the offseason, he’s the best free agent who switched teams. Turner previously spent 10 seasons with the Indiana Pacers, the only franchise he’d ever known. Entering the 2023-24 season, the Dallas native began to realize just how much Indianapolis had become a part of his life.

“I’m really a resident… I’ve lived here since I was a teenager,” he said of Indianapolis with a huge grin at an event for his W.A.R.M. foundation in November of 2023. “It really hit me last year… I’ve really been here for some time.”

Milwaukee now becomes Turner’s home. That’s what made his press conference new and fresh. His life was entering a new chapter. Yet in many ways, Turner’s moment felt like déjà vu. He’s been here before.

Back in 2023, Turner had signed a contract extension with the Pacers. It was a unique deal that saw Indiana bump up the big man’s salary in the then-ongoing season and add more years onto the deal. At the time, it made perfect sense for everyone.

“That’s a huge reason why I stayed here. I truly believe that we can accomplish something here,” Turner said of his reasoning for putting pen to paper on that extension with Indiana. He added two new seasons to his contract and roughly an additional $60 million.

That day – January 30, 2023 to be exact – Turner sat in front of a crowd for a press conference announcing his new contract. On one side of him, his head coach. And the other, his team’s top front office executive. His family couldn’t make it, but some of his management team sat among the onlookers, taking in the exciting news.

Behind Turner was giant Pacers signage. He wore a Pacers sweatshirt, and another Pacers logo was centered on the desk placed in the entry Pavillion of Gainbridge Fieldhouse. It was an event. Turner was staying in Indiana.

30 months later, and it’s happening again. It’s the same, but different. This time, it’s a different Pavillion and in a different arena. Behind Turner was a team logo – in this case, dozens of Bucks logos. His family is looking on, cheerfully. His management team is sitting in the front row.

Next to Turner on one side is his head coach. On the other side sat the team’s top decision maker. But it isn’t Rick Carlisle and Kevin Pritchard this time. It’s Doc Rivers and Jon Horst.

It’s Milwaukee themed. Turner switched teams, joining one of the Pacers biggest current rivals. It was a shocking move to many, and the Bucks had to make some dramatic moves to free up enough salary cap space and bring in Turner.

Why did Myles Turner join the Milwaukee Bucks?

“Jon, even Doc, assured me that winning is a top priority here. We just aligned with our visions,” Turner said.

That word aligned became telling on this day, just as it did in 2023. Turner has never changed teams. He played for just one high school and one college and one NBA team before making his jump to Milwaukee. It’s what made the Las Vegas setting distinctive. Turner is, for the first time ever, doing something new. He’s on a new team with different expectations and a distinctive short and long-term outlook.

Yet the similarities between his last two press conferences continues to be apparent to anyone who attended both. Horst is explaining details about how the Bucks are trying to maximize their future with superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo on the roster, and the Bucks believe Turner helps them do that. Two years ago, the Pacers laid out that Turner’s ascent and fit alongside star guard Tyrese Haliburton played a part in their month-long negotiation to extend his contract and keep him in Indiana.

Two and a half years ago, Turner gushed about his teammates and how hard they were working hard every day. “To actually see our team come together and create a culture of [hard work], it’s huge,” he said at the time. Last week, Rivers explained just how difficult it is to win in the NBA. Turner thinks his new team can do it. “There was a respect from afar about just how they went about their business. My former team, we were just young and hungry. I look at this team, it’s a veteran group of guys that is just kind of grungy. [They] want to win by any means necessary,” he said of the Bucks.

“I just think there’s a real belief in this organization. I align myself with that,” he added. There’s that word again, align. Moments later, Turner shared that it wasn’t an easy decision for him to leave Indiana. He was a teenager when he got there. But an evaluation of his circumstances made him excited about the opportunity the Bucks presented.

In his eyes, Milwaukee is going to be competitive. The Pacers were, too. They reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 2024 and the NBA Finals in 2025. With Haliburton out for the 2025-26 season, it’s reasonable to believe Indiana might step away from the competitive spotlight for one season. They could be back. But Turner anticipates the Bucks being his best chance to stay at the top right now.

He thinks the grass is greener whenever he goes. In this instance, that’s Milwaukee. When Turner made his decision to switch franchises for the first time in his career, he said he shared it with his Pacers teammates. He didn’t want them to find out through social media. That’s how Pritchard found out, though. Indiana’s President of Basketball Operations saw a tweet from ESPN reporter Shams Charania that detailed Turner’s departure.

Earlier in the offseason, Pritchard was honest and shared that he was shocked to find out Turner was leaving. He thought negotiations were trending in the right direction between the Pacers and Turner’s camp. But the first offers weren’t strong enough to prevent Turner from looking elsewhere for a contract. Then, the Bucks made moves that nobody saw coming. They had cap space and grabbed the big man. Turner was gone. He left the place that he spent the last 10 years of his life, and Pritchard shared that he didn’t even have the chance to match Milwaukee’s offer.

“Of course it was hard,” Turner said of walking away from the Pacers. He scored over 9,000 points for the franchise. In his next sentence, he detailed how that difficult decision happened. “There were alignment issues on that side as far as me and them,” Turner shared.

Alignment. There it is again. Something didn’t align between the Pacers and Turner in free agency. And to Turner, that’s why he’s gone less than a month removed from playing in the NBA Finals.

It’s up to interpretation what that really means. As the center shared earlier in the press conference, perhaps that alignment was about the team’s competitive level. Turner wanted to remain competitive, as he had been for the last two seasons. He feels as if the Bucks give him the best chance to do that with Haliburton on the shelf.

Yet perhaps the alignment issue boils down to the most common reason for business disagreements in the NBA – money. The Pacers and Turner were negotiating, then the Bucks came in with a big offer. It has a player option, trade bonus, and over $100 million in guaranteed money. Pritchard shared that Indiana was willing to go into the luxury tax to keep their Finals group together, but he never had a chance to equal the deal Turner ended up signing. That does, of course, signal that the Pacers’ offers were lower.

And now, both parties move on. Carlisle believes the Pacers will be fine at center. Turner thinks his new team can be competitive. Indiana and Milwaukee will battle at least four times per season as both teams venture down separate paths that crossed at Turner’s decision.

In 2023, the last time Turner agreed to a contract before his free agency, he inked a new deal with the Pacers. He went through the same press conference. “Myles’ values and what he stands for really align with what we’re trying to do here,” Carlisle said at the time. “His love of the game, his loyalty to his teammates, to this city, to our vision, and his commitment to growth has been something that’s great to see.”

Alignment. It was there then, and it isn’t now. That’s why Myles Turner is a Milwaukee Buck.