What does Myles Turner bring to the Bucks? Breaking down the fit on both ends of the floor

New York Times

a day ago

The shock of Milwaukee Bucks general manager Jon Horst deciding to waive nine-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer Damian Lillard and stretch the $112 million remaining on his contract over the Bucks' salary cap books for the next five seasons is probably not going to wear off for a bit.
The same goes for the cap maneuvers that allowed the Bucks to create cap space to work a deal with Myles Turner, the best free agent center on the market, to a four-year, $107 million deal.
The Bucks' roster in the 2025-2026 season will look different because of one of the last decade's most audacious roster moves (and a bevy of other moves, as well). And while the paperwork behind it is quite interesting, there will be basketball played in the fall. Turner will suit up for the Bucks, so let's take a closer look at what makes him a special player.
Let's start here.
The play above was a sequence that Brook Lopez could not have pulled off last season.
To be clear, Lopez is a great player capable of blocking shots and knocking down 3-pointers. In his seven seasons in Milwaukee, Lopez's impact on the Bucks was substantial. He was essential in the Bucks winning the 2021 NBA championship. But in his 17th NBA season, Lopez could not run behind an All-NBA guard to complete a chase-down block and then sprint to the other end to make a left-wing 3 five seconds after the block.
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Like Turner, Lopez can block shots and knock down 3s, but he cannot play at the same pace as the former Indiana Pacer. At 37 years old, no one should have expected him to do so, but plays such as the one above are why it is important to note that Turner (29), being eight years younger than Lopez will allow him to impact the game differently, even if both players share similar strengths.
Last season with the Pacers, Turner averaged 15.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in 30.2 minutes per game. He knocked down 39.6 percent from deep on 5.5 attempts per game. Despite playing more than a minute and a half fewer per game than Lopez, he bested the Bucks center in each of the listed categories. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Pacers were plus-4.7 per 100 possessions in lineups featuring Turner with an offensive rating of 117.4 (72nd percentile) and a defensive rating of 112.7 (70th percentile).
Offensively, playing for the Bucks will be much different for Turner. As the Bucks know, after playing them in the NBA playoffs each of the last two seasons, the Pacers' offensive system is based upon constant movement, constant attacking and the ability to effortlessly flow from one action to the next. Turner had the skill to flourish in that environment, so he should be able to make it work in Milwaukee as well, but things will be different.
With Giannis Antetokounmpo running the show, the Bucks are not going to play like the Pacers. The two-time MVP does not need a free-flowing and intricate offense to draw help defenders and bend a defense to his will. A simple post-up on the block from one of the game's most dominant players will quickly draw two defenders and create opportunities for teammates and Turner should be able to take advantage of that.
Look at how Turner cuts to the open space and then quickly fires off a 3-pointer before the defense arrives for a closeout.
That isn't necessarily a movement 3, but for a 6-foot-11, 250-pound big man, that is a strong piece of relocation and good footwork to get his shot off quickly enough before the defense arrives.
In a moment where Turner had his feet set and saw a reckless closeout later in the playoffs, he did this:
Myles Turner COMING THROUGH 😤😤 pic.twitter.com/qNkyHPbTvz
— Indiana Pacers (@Pacers) May 24, 2025
Turner's mobility could be a real addition to what the Bucks do on offense. Often, when the Bucks would put Lopez into screening actions, he would get called for illegal screens because either ballhandlers moved too quickly for him to get his feet set before setting a screen or defenders would bounce off his massive 7-foot-1, 280-pound frame and it would be assumed he had hit them too hard.
This play ends with Turner finishing through tough contact at the rim, but it was set up by the former Pacers center setting three screens in six seconds and helping the Pacers force switches:
Turner didn't make contact on the second screen, but he was smart enough to flip it and then seal Mikal Bridges on his roll to the rim to create a passing angle for Haliburton. That is something the Bucks simply didn't have with Lopez.
In the NBA Finals, against one of the best defenses of the last quarter century, Turner was unable to help create the same advantages. The Oklahoma City Thunder switched so many actions and played such physical defense that the next cut or screening action that was needed to help create space for the Pacers' playmakers wasn't always obvious. But that will be something that the Bucks can worry about if they advance to the NBA Finals. (And frankly, with Antetokounmpo as the lead playmaker, the Bucks can use brute force better than most teams to create advantages against the Thunder.)
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It will be incumbent upon Bucks head coach Doc Rivers to find ways to use Turner's varied skills, but his willingness and ability to set screens in Indiana could be a real assist for a team that will likely not have traditional shot creators alongside Antetokounmpo. Turner's mobility and intelligence could make him an ideal partner for pindown screens and dribble handoffs for shooters like AJ Green and Gary Trent Jr. His ability to pick and pop could be used to help Kyle Kuzma get downhill. Being able to flip screens and avoid fouls might even allow the Bucks to do a big-to-big pick-and-roll/pop with Antetokounmpo getting a chance to be a pick-and-roll ballhandler.
There is no doubt that Turner benefited from playing with one of the NBA's elite tablesetters. Per Sportradar, Haliburton assisted on 36 percent of Turner's 390 made field goals. (Antetokounmpo assisted on only 21 percent of Lopez's 394 baskets.)
Despite being a big addition, Turner should not be a primary playmaker for the Bucks, but that isn't a bad thing or even unexpected. He can do a lot more than stand above the break waiting for 3-point shots; he has the athleticism, mobility and intelligence to help the Bucks be a better offensive team, even if he isn't making plays with the ball in his hands.
The same thing is true defensively.
Turner shares some similarities with Lopez. He has averaged at least two blocks per game in six of the last seven seasons and he led the NBA in blocks per game in the 2018-19 (2.7) and 2020-21 (3.4) seasons. Lopez averaged two or more blocks per game four times in his seven seasons with the Bucks. Per Sportradar, Turner defended six shots per game at the rim and forced 2.26 misses last season. Lopez defended five per game and forced 1.92 misses.
But while their rim protection numbers are similar, this past season, they did the job differently.
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Per Synergy data, Lopez was in 'soft' coverage on pick-and-rolls (drop) on 60 percent as a screen defender and 'ice' coverage on another 18 percent of possessions. Those coverages correspond to plays where defenses are trying to force opponents inside the 3-point line, but stop them before getting all the way to the rim, which requires strong efforts from players on the ball. While that data shows that Turner was in 'soft' coverage 54 percent of the time as a screen defender, he was only in 'ice' coverage five percent of the time and ended up in 'show' coverage on 25 percent of these possessions.
In the end, like Lopez and just about every shot-blocking big man, Turner would love to sit in drop coverage on pick-and-rolls and wait to swat shots at the rim, but that isn't what the modern NBA asks of big men. Bigs have to be able to do different things and while Turner isn't the type of big man who can switch one through five, he is athletic enough to pull off a more diverse variety of coverages.
Look at how close to half-court Turner gets on this possession against New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson:
The credit for the steal largely needs to be given to Andrew Nembhard and Aaron Nesmith for the pressure on the perimeter, but that play doesn't happen without Turner making his way out to the level of the screen a few feet away from halfcourt and backpedaling the whole way to give Nesmith time to catch up to Brunson.
Did Turner switch on Brunson and shut him down one-on-one? No. Was it a perfect show-and-recover? Maybe not. But it was a type of coverage that the Bucks would never have been able to consider with Lopez on the floor last season. Turner's agility and mobility will allow the Bucks to be more aggressive at the point of attack in ways that were not possible during the last seven seasons.
And while there were times in the NBA Finals when the Pacers opted to go without Turner because of the Thunder's predilection to play smaller lineups and Turner's offensive struggles (6 of 28 from 3), there were also moments where the Bucks' new center was able to effectively wade his way through the sea of screens set by the Thunder and use his agility to effectively show and recover to get a stop:
In the end, there is no denying the price the Bucks have paid to get Turner to Milwaukee, a price that will show up on their salary cap sheet for the next five seasons. But as far as Turner's game is concerned, that should be a nearly perfect fit.
Not only does Turner have the skills that made Lopez indispensable to the Bucks for seven seasons, but Turner is also younger and more athletic. He might not be the lead ballhandler (Milwaukee will need to continue to search for help in that department) the Bucks lost when Lillard tore his left Achilles tendon in Game 4 of Milwaukee's first-round loss to the Pacers, but if deployed correctly, Turner will be able to do all the things — plus a few more — that made Lopez one of the Bucks' most important players. And that could allow the Bucks to evolve moving forward.
(Photo of Myles Turner and Brook Lopez: Gary Dineen / NBAE via Getty Images)