What are the Bucks doing?
That was the question racing through everyone’s head after ESPN’s Shams Charania announced that they were waiving and stretching Damian Lillard’s $113 million contract in order to clear enough room to sign Myles Turner from the rival Pacers.
Turner is a good player who will make the Bucks better. They needed a center after losing Brook Lopez to the Clippers in free agency. Turner is a younger, improved version of that player.
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The Bucks won’t miss Lillard much. He was going to sit the whole year as he rehabbed from a torn Achilles and had no trade value. They got stronger in the immediate future by making these moves.
Waiving him in order to make those improvements, though, is the equivalent of the team taking out a payday loan. It will make them slightly better in the immediate future in exchange for long-term consequences that are nothing short of disastrous.
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Waiving Damian Lillard is a mistake
The Bucks didn’t have cap space to sign a player like Turner. If they wanted to make it happen, then they needed to offload Lillard’s salary.
The cost they incurred in order to do so is massive. By waiving and stretching his salary, they will be stuck with over $22 million of dead money on their salary cap over the next five years. It is by far the largest waive-and-stretch in NBA history.
Given how tight finances are on championship teams and how they are already out several of their tradeable picks, that makes it unbelievably difficult for them to get into the category of true contenders during what’s left of the Giannis Antetokounmpo Bucks era. He is signed with the Bucks for the next two seasons and has a player option for 2027-28.
The only possible justification for sacrificing that future spending power would be to make Giannis happy and potentially quell the trade rumors surrounding him. It’s unclear if they accomplished that goal.
According to reporting by NBA insider Chris Haynes, Giannis was “not pleased with the team’s decision” to waive Lillard. That somewhat contradicts reporting by Charania, who wrote that “Turner and Antetokounmpo both valued the opportunity to partner together on the court during the process.”
Giannis may or may not be happy in the immediate aftermath of the move. He certainly won’t be happy if the Bucks continue their three-year streak of first round playoff exits. The Turner move was made with the intent of immediately fixing that problem. But the Bucks roster is still not scaring anyone, even after the addition of Turner and Gary Harris, who was signed later in the day.
The Bucks right now. pic.twitter.com/1NzjwbOuh3
— HoopsHype (@hoopshype) July 1, 2025
This looks like a team that is capable of winning one playoff series at best. Kyle Kuzma was a disastrous trade acquisition last year. They do not have a starting-level point guard on their team. Their bench is thin. And they have very few avenues to improve in the future.
Even after waiving Lillard, Milwaukee still needed to offload more salary. That was accomplished shortly after the Lillard move when they traded Pat Connaughton and two second-round picks to the Hornets for Vasilije Micic, who averaged 6.6 points per game last season.
This may have delayed Giannis’ trade demand for a few months. But the Bucks dramatically lowered their ceiling, and it’s more unclear than ever how they actually build a great team around him during the remaining few years he has left as an MVP candidate.
What comes next for Damian Lillard
As for Lillard, this is a great outcome for him. He will clear waivers in 48 hours, then be free to sign wherever he wants as an unrestricted free agent.
Lillard had been trying to engineer a path to the Heat before the Bucks made a trade for him. That becomes an option if he wants it. So does a return to Portland. He could sign anywhere in the league, if he is willing to take a minimum contract. Given that he’s getting every penny promised to him from the Bucks, taking a huge pay cut no longer seems like an unreasonable option.
Lillard isn’t going to play this season, but he should still draw interest on a multi-year deal across the league. He’s turning 35 in two weeks, and he may not return to the All-Star level that he was at with the Bucks this past season. Now, he doesn’t have to. He should find a landing spot with a contending team where he can be a guy instead of the guy.
