Myles Turner explains why he left Pacers for Bucks: 'Ultimately, it was about just staying competitive'
The Pacers' all-time leading shot blocker and 10-year veteran held his introductory news conference with the Bucks on Friday in Las Vegas with much of the NBA media in town for the NBA Summer League. Turner was asked if Pacers All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton's Achilles tendon tear — which will keep him out all of next season — led him to leave Indiana.
"That was an amazing thing," Turner said in the news conference, which was live streamed on the NBA's website. "Not a lot of players get to get in this league and get to be in the NBA Finals. It's something that was one of the greatest experiences I've ever had. You just realize how hard it is to get there, how hard it is to win. How mentally exhausting it is, physically, everything. It's one of the best experiences of my entire life. The only thing that went into this decision was getting to get this experience once again. I saw a favorable opportunity here to make that happen."
"Ultimately, it was about just staying competitive," Turner added. "... I saw a chance to remain competitive here."
Turner said it was still a tough decision to leave the Pacers as it was the only NBA team he'd ever known. He noted he never transferred in high school and he played just one college season at Texas before entering the NBA draft. He'd never left a team when he was staying at the same level.
"I spent 10 years of my life in one place," Turner said. "I was a teenager when I first got to the Indy market. When I just sat back and started to evaluate things and just saw where I was in my career, saw where I was in my life and what I wanted for myself, I saw what the Bucks were putting together. I was excited about the opportunity. ... I decided this is where I needed to be."
Turner said as soon as the news broke he made a point to text the Pacers group chat to let everyone know it was true and has tried to connect with as many ex-teammates as possible.
"I wanted to make sure they didn't have to find out through social media or anything like that," Turner said. "I hit them. A couple of them hit me back."
Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard said he found out about Turner's departure via social media.
Turner's signing was shocking in part because of what had to be done to make it happen. The Pacers had reason to believe there wouldn't be many challengers for Turner's services because few teams had enough room under the salary cap to offer more than the $20 million in salary Turner averaged over the past two seasons and those teams didn't need a center. However, the Bucks got under the cap by waiving and stretching seven-time All-NBA point guard Damian Lillard, who will also likely miss all of this season with an Achilles tendon tear. Waiving and stretching means the Bucks will be paying the $113 million remaining on Lillard's contract over five years rather than two, so for the next five years they'll have a dead salary cap hit of about $22 million per season which puts their annual investment in Turner of just under $50 million.
Turner appreciates the investment, but is trying to make sure he doesn't view it as a burden.
"I hate when they say the grass ain't greener on the other side," Turner said. "I'm confident enough to say that the grass will be greener wherever I go. I truly believe that. Being on this side of things, yeah, I understand what was done to bring me here. But I'm in the prime of my career, still on the young side of the prime of my career. More focused than ever, I'm obviously more motivated than ever, getting to the very last day of the season and not being able to see it through. I'm very confident in my ability and this roster and this group to make some things happen."
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