The Indiana Pacers’ summer has hit plenty of peaks and valleys. And it’s just July.
After they pulled off a Cinderella run to the NBA Finals, the Pacers exhibited stunning resilience in notching a blowout Game 6 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder to force a surprising Game 7 clash and a shot at Indiana’s first-ever title.
Then, two-time All-NBA Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton tore his Achilles tendon in the bout’s first quarter, ultimately dooming Indiana’s championship bid.
This summer, 3-and-D Pacers center Myles Turner ditched Indiana for Central Division rival the Milwaukee Bucks, for a four-season, $107 million free agent contract.
Now, Pacers general manager Kevin Pritchard has revealed that, despite rumors to the contrary, team ownership would have been happy to hold onto Turner — no matter the price.
#Pacers president of basketball operations Kevin Pritchard on Myles Turner signing with the Bucks:
“Herb Simon and Steven Rales and the Simon family were fully prepared to go deep into the tax to keep him, and we really wanted to do that.” pic.twitter.com/Et8zTQUcHN
— WISH-TV News (@WISHNews8) July 7, 2025
“I don’t want to get into the specifics of Myles because the truth is he gave 10 great years here, I loved having him be here. I hope I’m friends with him for a long time,” Pritchard said. “I know this… Herb Simon and Steven Rales and the Simon family were fully prepared to go deep into the tax to keep him, and we really wanted to do that. And we were negotiating in good faith.”
A two-time blocks leader in the league, the 6-foot-11 Turner averaged 15.6 points on .481/.396/.773 shooting splits, 6.5 rebounds 2.0 blocks and 1.5 assists across 72 healthy contests in 2024-25.
“But what happens in this league is, sometimes you’re negotiating, but because a guy is unrestricted, he has the right to say, ‘That’s the offer I want, I’m going to take it, and that’s best for my family.’ Again, we were in good-faith negotiations. It was a little surprising, how Milwaukee created that,” Pritchard added. “We always say in our conference room, there’s cap teams that have cap space, and there’s shadow teams that have cap space… Hat tip to Milwaukee to do that.”
Ultimately, Milwaukee had to stretch-and-waive the two years and $112.6 million remaining on nine-time All-Star point guard Damian Lillard’s contract to carve out cap space for Turner.
“We were deep in conversations with Myles, and then we saw that he’d accepted an offer with Milwaukee,” Pritchard said. “Again, that’s part of this business that is challenging.”
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