Pacers president blindsided by Myles Turner's departure: ‘I was shocked'

New York Times

5 days ago

INDIANAPOLIS — Social media was how Kevin Pritchard found out.
The Indiana Pacers' president of basketball operations had been in contract negotiations with Myles Turner, the team's longest-tenured player, but those negotiations abruptly ended July 1 at 11:07 a.m. ET. That's when ESPN's Shams Charania shared a post on X that Turner had agreed to a four-year, $107 million deal with the Milwaukee Bucks, thus ending Turner's 10-year run with the Pacers. Turner officially signed his contract Monday, shortly before Pritchard met with the media to recap the Pacers' run to the NBA Finals and the dominoes that have already started to fall in the aftermath.
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'We would have been open on a sign-and-trade because it's sort of mutually beneficial, but we didn't get to that point unfortunately,' Pritchard said. 'I saw Shams tweet it, and that's how I knew that Myles was taken away.'
Aside from Tyrese Haliburton rupturing his right Achilles in Game 7, an injury Pritchard confirmed will sideline the star guard for all of the 2025-26 season, the Pacers' biggest personnel shift was the departure of Turner. Pritchard intended for Turner to return on a new contract. He said negotiations with the big man were never acrimonious, and said 'I don't think so,' when asked if Haliburton's Achilles injury affected talks.
'(Team owners) Herb Simon and Steven Rales and the Simon family were fully prepared to go deep into the tax and we really wanted to do that,' Pritchard said. 'We were negotiating in good faith, but what happens in this league is sometimes you're negotiating, but because a guy is (an) unrestricted (free agent), he has the right to say, 'That's the offer I want. I'm gonna take it.''
Asked if the Pacers had the chance to match Milwaukee's offer, which would've put the Pacers in the luxury tax for the first time in 20 years, Pritchard sidestepped the question and stated that he thought he and Turner's agent, Austin Brown of CAA, were working toward a deal. Pritchard noted that the Pacers had kept tabs on other franchises that may have had the cap space to sign Turner, but admitted that Milwaukee's ingenuity — or desperation, depending on your perspective — caught them off guard.
The Bucks used the waive and stretch provision to waive future Hall of Fame guard Damian Lillard and stretch the remaining $112.6 million of his fully guaranteed salary over the next five years. Milwaukee will incur a dead cap hit of $22.6 million every season through 2029-30, which helped open up enough financial room to take on Turner's hefty contract. The Bucks' dismissal of Lillard marks the largest waive and stretch provision in NBA history.
'I was shocked,' Pritchard said of Turner's departure. 'If I'm being perfectly honest, again, I thought we were kind of going back and forth in an open way. We've done big deals with that agency, and they're great guys and we'll be doing more business with them. But Myles must've heard something in that (Bucks offer) that said, 'I'm gonna take it right now.''
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Turner was the Pacers' No. 11 pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. The 29-year-old ranks No. 1 in franchise history in blocks (1,412), No. 6 in games played (642) and No. 7 in points (9,031).
Turner averaged 15.6 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game during the 2024-25 regular season. He shot 48.1 percent from the field and a career-high 39.6 percent on 3-pointers. However, Turner struggled mightily against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals, averaging 10.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks across seven games. He shot just 37.7 percent from the field and 21.4 percent from behind the arc.
Despite being held to just six points in Indiana's Game 7 loss, Turner was still a vital part of the most successful season in Pacers history. Pritchard joked that the team couldn't replace Turner 'unless he's got a clone' and that they'd have to fill his void by committee. Indiana's roster retooling has already begun.
In addition to picking up Tony Bradley's team option for the 2025-26 season, Indiana recently acquired reserve center Jay Huff in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies. Pritchard also announced Monday that the Pacers re-signed James Wiseman, who ruptured his left Achilles in October and has been rehabbing with the team. Wiseman inked a two-year minimum deal that's partially guaranteed, a team source told The Athletic. The second season is a team option.
Pritchard hinted that the team would also like to re-sign Isaiah Jackson, the Pacers' No. 22 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, who tore his right Achilles in November and has been rehabbing with the team as well. Indiana extended a qualifying offer to Jackson worth $6.4 million for the 2025-26 season, a team source told The Athletic. The Pacers also have the right to match any offer Jackson receives from another team, but unless a franchise forks over more money for a largely unproven player coming off a major injury, Jackson will likely remain in Indiana.
In addition to discussing Turner's departure on Monday, Pritchard also spoke at length about Haliburton. Pritchard declined to share how his franchise player took the news of Turner joining the Bucks, but Pritchard praised Haliburton for his toughness and selflessness. When Haliburton initially sustained a right calf strain in Game 5 of the finals, Pritchard said the team and Haliburton went through '20 hours of calls and discussions' with doctors and were told that there was 'a low probability' of him rupturing his Achilles.
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Haliburton totaled 14 points and five assists in 23 minutes to help Indiana roll to a Game 6 victory. He followed that up by scoring nine points in the first seven minutes of Game 7 before rupturing his right Achilles.
'How do you tell a kid you can't play in Game 7 after you played in Game 6 and didn't (get injured)?' Pritchard asked rhetorically. '… He's told me many times, and this just shows you what kind of kid he is, 'I would do it over and over.' And if you're asking me if I would have him do it over and over? I would not. If I knew he was gonna get hurt, I would sacrifice that game because I care for the kid so much and I want him to have an incredible career.
'That being said, I have no doubt that he will be back better than ever.'
(Image of Myles Turner: Trevor Ruszkowski / Imagn Images)