Indiana Pacers – Myles Turner moves on from Pacers to Milwaukee – leaves an easily filled hole!

Indiana Pacers – Myles Turner moves on from Pacers to Milwaukee – leaves an easily filled hole!

i know it may be inglorious to celebrate but Miles Turner going to the Milwaukee Bucks i could not be more pleased that Miles Turner is now the property of the Bucks four years $107 million good for Miles he’s getting paid and that is awesome good for him he wants the money he’s going to get the money he wanted to stay in Indiana but the Pacers didn’t want to pay into the luxury tax according to Sham Shirania with Tyrese Hallebertton being on the shelf for the year and so the Pacers move on sometimes you got to rip the band-aid off and it hurts to rip the band-aid off but you got to tear it off and then you got to figure out what you’re going to do next with your life and that’s what Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan need to do they need to figure out what’s next for the Indiana Pacers this is like forcing them into that discomfort that is going to require their best effort to get this thing right and there’s good news in this even for those of you who ru the loss of Miles Turner to the Bucks even for you there is good news there is a silver lining to this cloud that you believe exists between the sun and where you’re at today this is a very early edition and a glorious edition of Inside Indiana Sports now with Ken Sterling for July 1st it’s a Tuesday July 1st 2025 brought to you by the great people at today’s dentistry Dr mike O’Neal best dentist in the world that’s why you got to go see him if you got a chance to see the best you go see the best he is to dentistry not as Miles Turner is to the center position in the NBA so give him a call 3178492933 is the number uh you got to be a subscriber to win a prize we got great prizes an autographed Rams jersey by Jack Youngblood we’ve got an autographed Mike Tomzac mini helmet a Buckeyes helmet ohio State hate giving away the Ohio State swag uh not because I want it but I I don’t like to reward Ohio State fans then we’ve got uh Jim Gilliam an 8 by10 we’ve got a Steve Burline autograph football we’ve got a Mike Brown autographed Bears helmet and we’ve got an 8 by10 from Pton Matting but you can’t win unless you subscribe that is the price for being eligible all right hit the like button whether or not you’re happy that Miles Turner is departing Indiana and going to Milwaukee whether or not that pleases you you hit the like button cuz it’s the polite thing to do and if you want to make a donation make a donation no big whoop but uh please include a comment or a question that elevates the level of discourse and if you want to tell me to go to hell and and Kevin’s right you know what would like to thank Miles Turner for being a stand-up man his time is appreciated that’s fine that’s all well and good we’re not crapping on Miles Turner the man he’s fine right he’s a nice guy he’s a smart guy and he got paid and that’s the point of being a professional at anything four years $107 million a really really good thing but if you want to leave a comment question with your donation please do that uh makes us better for sure uh but let’s talk about this deal and why it is ultimately a good thing because this is the discomfort that occasionally is necessary within a franchise to push you to do the right thing and make the right decision uh Miles Turner over the course of his 10-year career has been an all-star no times he has been all NBA no times this past year he averaged 15.6 6 6.5 and two blocks a game in the finals he averaged I think 10.4 and like 4.5 that is not going to get it done that that’s not the way this game needs to be played and over the course of the 10 years we just kind of kept waiting for Miles Turner to grow up and become the kind of center that an NBA team can win with and he did not and so it’s time for him to go you rip off the band-aid and you say “All right let’s let’s see what’s out there.” And the good news is that from the Pacers perspective they’ve known this if Sham Shirani’s reporting is accurate that Miles Turner wanted to stay in Indiana but the Pacers knew when they talked to Herb that spending into the luxury tax with Tyrese Hallebertton on the shelf was not going to be a possibility if that was known then the Pacers have been game planning for this for what about eight days from whenever which I guess it would have been Monday after they lost game seven of the NBA finals uh Herb was like “Hey without Tyrese I I don’t want to spend to the luxury tax.” So what you’ve got is they’ve got a weak head start on trying to figure out what the hell they’re going to do next and so I think that that is likely what they have done a lot of people are mentioning DeAndre Aton i don’t know deandre Aton is coming off a season where he played 40 games that is not ideal right even Miles Turner Miles Turner healthy is much better than DeAndre Aton sitting on the bench right or a convolesing somewhere with an injury can’t have that but what you can have you can go out and get creative and figure out how to go get somebody maybe on the cheap maybe not on the cheap maybe you have to spend a little bit of money maybe you have to spend you have to move either Benedict Math or Obi Toppenhen in order to get the kind of player that you want maybe you put into play those uh first round draft picks including the 2026 firstrounder that the Pacers picked up a couple of weeks ago with in that trade with the New Orleans Pelicans where they gave up the 23rd pick in the just concluded draft to go get their original pick that they sent to Toronto in a deal to acquire Pascal Seakum kevin Huber thanks very much appreciate it very nice of you um I think Pacers have the money so they can afford a center i think ML maybe money i’d rather start Obie in that spot anyway he can shoot it and play better defense that’s an idea but you’re you’re going to get you’re going to get bigbodied right out of the game at some point you have to have I if Obi Toppin’s going to be your starting center you’ve got to have a plan B that can come in and is kind of a a big Hartstein looking guy where when Joic goes haywire or or somebody down low with it or Hartinstein for goodness sake goes down low tries to body up and get position on the block you’ve got an answer got to be able to do that i don’t know who that’s going to be that’s Kevin Pritchard’s issue he’s got to figure that out but what we do know is this we do know that Miles Turner wasn’t going to be a starter on a team that won the NBA championship and and by that I mean this that and this is what I’ve always said if uh so are Paces Pacers planning to tank Pacers never tank they don’t tank that’s not in their DNA they have never done that they are never going to do that so put that right out of your head um but what the um I’ve always said that Miles Turner could not be an NBA champion while being a top three player on a team so if Miles Turner is one of your top three players you have no chance to win that championship none now could he be the fifth best player as a starting center for the Milwaukee Bucks a team that’s got Giannis a team that’s got Lillard if Lillard can come back from that torn Achilles uh Gary Harris they signed today i that I I’m not I don’t think that he can I don’t think he can be a starter on an NBA champion he definitely cannot be a top three player on a team that has designs on being an NBA champion he can’t and you saw why he is too easy to attack and he is in unable to attack offensively in a way that’s going to help him get to the bucket in a sevename series in the regular season playing like a one-off against the Trailblazers he’s fine you know playing a one-off against the Clippers or the Suns or the Hornets the Pelicans he can do work but if you’re playing a best of seven series where people get to figure out where the chinks in his armor exist he can be attacked and he can be stopped and the Thunder did exactly that so this doesn’t bother me doesn’t bother me at all no of course Bradley Bradley’s an end of the bench guy he He’s not a guy who’s going to start on this team are they going to be able to go out and get eight and I don’t know i I tend to They don’t want to spend into the cap i don’t know how you do it you You’ve got to be very clever as the Bucks were the Bucks were clever in freeing up the money right they freed up the money by restructuring Damen Lillard’s contract to get the cap space to bring Miles Turner in right what the the Pacers have to do is be equally clever in figuring out how to go get a piece of the puzzle where they don’t necessarily have the cap space in order to do it like if they go out and they want to trade first round draft picks like they did for Seakkum and and bring a player in and they give up nothing but draft picks man that that’s too expensive you you can’t get that kind of deal done without offering back guys contracts at the very least the the NBA the CBA and the NBA get really really complicated with tier one tier 2 that kind the tax threshold the cap and the different rules that apply to each but what is true I’ll tell you definitely what is true is that Chad Buchanan and Kevin Pritchard got to be really really clever in what they do next because you’re right Tony Bradley cannot be the starting center for the Pacers isaiah Jackson do you trust that Jackson’s going to be back do you trust that James Wiseman is going to be back bucks waved Willard after after let me let me see because what has been said or what had been said up until this point was that uh he had been restructured to spread his his uh his expense so let’s see Gary Harris had agreed to a two-year deal kings of uh they’re trading uh Jonas Valenunis to the Nuggets for Dariosaric um they found a creative path to wave and stretch Lillard whose 113 million is going to be stretched over the next five seasons while leaving their future draft assets untouched in a stunning turn so that’s what happened yeah don’t get it twisted it does get it does get complicated but they they didn’t wave him to say bye-bye to him they waved him then stretched him so there you go uh but the Pacers are in a better position they Let me make it Let me make it clear in this way all right the uh the Pacers are going to be in a better position two months from now than they are today the Pacers are going to be better able to compete in 2026 27 even without Tyrese Hallebertton than they are today that I guarantee you what it looks like now is we need to like Oh no oh wo was me oh the horrors because Miles Turner is now a member of the Milwaukee Bucks no don’t look at it that way look at what’s coming have the foresight to trust in Kevin Pritchard and Chad Buchanan that what’s coming is going to be better than what’s been or what was yesterday which was an assumption by many not me that the Pacers were going to extend Miles Turner to an 11th 12th and 13th season in Indianapolis at some point you got to say “No we are not paying mediocrity 30 million a year or 25 million a year that is not who we are it is not what we do and we’re not going over the tax threshold and we’re not going to cost Herby Simon even more money in taxes because of our inability to creatively solve this problem that is Miles Turner that’s what the Pacers are doing and that is what’s going to be done and at the end of this series of events this is the the first event that we’re aware of this is going to become a series of events that’s going to make us very very happy by the time we get to October 15th i promise you that it this kind of thing this was sort of weird it was unexpected in that you never thought the Bucks were going to be in the game for game form however uh Owen Stevens says “Ked I hate to say it but this is likely a salary shredding move we’re not winning without Hallebertton no reason to sign someone else in in a weak free agent class but there is a reason to go get somebody via trade and and get that guy here to take that spot and be an upgrade because being an upgrade over Miles Turner Miles Turner in peer ranked 36th last year 36th there are 30 30 teams in the NBA so there are 30 30 teams but 35 centers whose peer was better than Miles Turner’s so let’s not get it twisted we are screwed no no no no no screwed and they’re not going to tank this is going to wind up being better i’m telling you right now I guarantee it that the Pacers wind up being a better more competitive team because of the absence of Miles Turner and what is is invested to bring in a replacement i promise you that uh Kent without Tyrese there’s no way well I mean that’s not debatable right i mean without Tyrese Hallebertton you’re not going to be as good but you’re not going to tank and they are going to be as good as they would have been with Miles Turner that that I I have no problem guaranteeing that miles Turner not being a part of this team how many times did we have to over the last 10 years go like this go what are you doing my wife called him Uncle Clunky what’s Uncle Clunky done now what’s that tell you true statement my Miles is a nothing burger he is mediocrity he is basketball’s version of mediocrity he’s not bad and he’s a really good guy but he is mediocre as a starting center in the NBA and that I think is being kind so moving on without him this is not this not heavy lifting this is not the the woe of woes this is this is a good thing and because it’s a good thing what do we do we ring the bells we celebrate because this is going to open the door to a move that puts the Pacers in business if not in 2526 then damn sure in 2627 when Hallebertton’s back assuming he gets back to 100% full strength all right you with me it’s bell ringing time we got to be happy we got to celebrate this don’t be down in the mouth don’t be glum like this is a second game seven that’s not what this is mathan season 2526 mathan could average 27 points a game um a lob threated setter that’d be nice isaiah Jackson’s a bit of a lob threat but we don’t know how he’s recovering from that Achilles surgery same thing with James Wiseman i’m not I I gotta tell you DeAndre Aton I was kind of excited when the Pacers made that uh made that offer when he was a a free agent you know kind of a free agent and then the uh the Suns matched but I I’m not I’m not so so big on Aton may maybe it works out maybe that could be maybe that could be something i hate to say it i’m not with you pacers don’t have assets to trade for more they’re cutting salary to justify being mediocre this year that’s not what they do i’m telling you that’s not what they do uh Steve Stefanic equals Oh you mean Stapanovich stapanovich he was something man he was a brute at Missou you know if you’re of a certain age you remember him at Missouri happy for miles new adventure head up to Milwaukee good town fun sports town get to play with Giannis that’s awesome get to play with Gary Harris that’s awesome and we’ll see what he does i think it’s good pacers will turn this into an upgrade yes Mark Sherman now you’re on board that’s exactly what’s going to happen this is We’re going to look back on July 1st 2025 as a very very good day in Pacers history i promise you just like Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade uh talking about Charlie Sims charles Sims i promise you he’ll make you proud one day and I promise you Kevin Pritchard’s going to get this thing solved and you’re going to see

Myles Turner heads rto Milwaukee for four years and $107M – but this is a day to celebrate what will be – not what has been!