What A Mid-Season Contract Extension Could Look Like For Indiana Pacers Center Myles Turner

Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner is in the midst of his best-ever season. He is currently averaging career-highs in points per game (17.6), rebounds per game (8.1), three point percentage (39.4%), and free throw percentage (81.5%). On top of that, Turner has maintained his excellent defense and ranks third in the NBA in blocks per game. He has been excellent at just about everything in his newer role.

“Myles is at the five now, playing in kind of a different role too. He’s not shooting as many threes as he used to. He’s rolling,” former Pacers center Domantas Sabonis said of Turner earlier this season.

The Pacers are in the midst of a surprising start to the campaign, and Turner’s success has been a big factor in their strong record. Indiana currently sits at 13-11 after 24 games, and they rank tied for fourth in the Eastern Conference. While they’ve been struggling lately, their season thus far has still been above expectations.

Turner is playing at center on both ends of the court this year, and Indiana’s new-look roster allows him to venture inside the paint more than he did in the last half decade. He’s getting 6.6 paint touches per game, more than he has in any season since his second year in the league, and he has refined his post play in the time since. The eight-year veteran has elevated his game.

“I absolutely love being the five. I think it’s my natural position,” Turner said during the preseason. “I think that being at the five is where I need to be and where I want to get more reps.”

Improved play is always welcome in the NBA, but for the Pacers, Turner’s surge comes at a tricky time in the team-building process. The big man is playing on an expiring contract, meaning he could become a free agent at the end of this season.

Turner discussed that reality on The Woj Pod earlier this season, stating that the Pacers almost have to consider trading him at some point before free agency if they don’t want to lose him for nothing. “Coming into a contract year as well, you can’t lose me for anything (nothing),” Turner said. “They can’t have the notion of me playing out this year, they don’t trade me, and it’s like ‘okay, say free agency comes around and I don’t re-sign here,’ Let’s just be real in that that’s just bad on the organization.”

The 26-year old has never ruled out a potential return to the Pacers. But with the Pacers’ front office taking on a new, long-term approach to team building, they have to consider the long-term options with Turner, as the center stated himself. There is a middle ground between a trade and free agency, though.

The Pacers and Turner could negotiate a contract extension, and they could theoretically sign it today. Most, but not all, extension options for the Texas product can be signed at any point between now and free agency, and doing so would keep the center tied to the franchise as they progress through another roster build.

On the court, Turner fits extremely well with the team’s best young players. There is a reason he is putting up career-best numbers. Off the court, he is the roster’s longest-tenured player and one of the team’s key veterans. He has a lot of value to the blue and gold as a player and person.

Financially, Indiana is well below the salary floor, and it would be hard to overpay Turner in any extension given his current salary. The dollar amount is not a limitation for the blue and gold, even with a significant raise coming for Tyrese Haliburton in the not-so-distant future. Turner is a talented player and a good fit, and those facts combined with the lack of financial pitfalls involved with an extension means there are reasons for the team to pursue a longer contract. Of course, Turner would have to agree.

There are also reasons to avoid an extension. It would reduce the team’s flexibility going forward, and Pacers President of Basketball Operations Kevin Pritchard loves flexibility. A shorter extension would not constitute long-term thinking, either, as the same conversations that the team is having now would have to be repeated in a few years. With Indiana rostering several players who are 25 and under, there has to be a contractual middle ground in any deal with Turner.

Keeping a good player under contract through their prime is hardly a bad thing. The Pacers would be totally justified in keeping Turner — it would require minimal explanation. But a contract extension agreement between the team and player isn’t a cut and dry choice, especially with the finances involved.

The big man could make quite a bit of money in free agency this coming summer. Turner is in the final season of his current contract, and if he doesn’t sign an extension, he will become an unrestricted free agent for the first time in July. Starting big men with less impact than Turner, such as Jusuf Nurkic and Mitchell Robinson, signed deals worth $17.5 and $15 million in average annual value this summer, respectively, so it’s reasonable to assume that Turner could ink a deal worth $20+ million per season. Even if the eight-year veteran does ultimately want to stay in Indiana, exploring the free agency market could behoove Turner.

On the flip side, free agency can be risky for any player. Lakers guard Dennis Schroder was famously offered a sizeable contract extension that he declined, and he ended up earning much less money in free agency. Free agency may be the best route for Turner to explore external options, but an extension is not without merit.

Because Turner is in the final year of his four-year contract, he is eligible for veteran extension until the day before free agency in 2023. The veteran extension rules allow a player to add years to their contract, but the maximum extension is four additional years. The first year of a veteran extension can be at a maximum salary of 120% of the player’s salary in their final year of their ongoing deal ($18 million for Turner). The maximum raises year over year are 8% of the first season of the extension.

Packaged all together, the maximum contract extension value for Myles Turner with the Indiana Pacers would be four years, $96.8 million. But it can be as short as one season and as low as the NBA minimum salary; it just has to fit within those parameters. The extension can contain a team or player option as well as a signing bonus, though neither impact the Pacers’ salary cap situation.

That extension type is far and away the most common type of veteran extension signed in the NBA. That is how Malcolm Brogdon lengthened his deal with Indiana last offseason.

However, there is another extension path that the Pacers can take because they are below the salary cap — a renegotiation and extension. The Pacers can only do this type of extension with Turner through the end of February 2023.

A renegotiation and extension would allow the Pacers to do what the name suggests — renegotiate Turner’s contract in the ongoing season and then add more seasons on to the end of it. So long as a team has enough salary cap space, they can renegotiate the contract of a player that initially signed a four (or more) year contract, and are able to initiate this renegotiation once three years of the initial contract have passed. Turner meets the criteria.

Thus, his deal could be renegotiated, but the Pacers would never simply add money to Turner’s contract unless they were extending it at the same time.

Because Indiana has roughly $24 million in salary cap space, and Turner makes about $19 million less than his maximum salary right now, the Pacers could legally up Turner’s salary as far as his maximum (just over $37 million), though it can be increased by any amount so long as the Pacers are still under the salary cap after the renegotiation.

Extension rules work the same after a renegotiation, but there is an added wrinkle that a team can decrease a player’s salary by a maximum of 40% from the renegotiated season to the first year of an extension. For example, if Turner’s salary this season was bumped up to $36 million, then his salary could drop as low as $21.6 million in 2023-24.

There are countless permutations for renegotiations and extensions, but the pro for Turner is that he could get more money now while still receiving an extension that nearly matches what his next deal could be in free agency. But he still may prefer to see what options are available to him in free agency, and the Pacers lose a ton of flexibility by using their cap space to renegotiate Turner’s contract. It is noteworthy, however, that the renegotiation deadline comes after the trade deadline.

In short, like with any contract, there are pros and cons for both sides. Turner has proven to be a good fit with the blue and gold this season and is still relatively young, but his contract expiring means the Pacers have to consider his long-term future. Turner, meanwhile, has to consider his future as well, and if he prefers to see the free agent offers from other teams, then extension offers would be meaningless. If the two sides decide that they are better together than apart, then discussions could come. However, given how Turner has discussed the situation as well as the fact that the Pacers pursued another center, Deandre Ayton, this summer, free agency seems like the most likely outcome for Turner.

That Ayton agreement was months ago, though. Since then, Turner has performed at a career-best level, shown a commitment to the blue and gold, and helped the team start strong. Things change often in the NBA, so many options remain for both the Indiana Pacers and Myles Turner. With so many extension possibilities out there, this could be an ever-evolving topic.