Fresh off an appearance in the 2025 NBA Finals, the world was the Indiana Pacers’ oyster. Alas, the fairytale did not last very long for the Pacers. They soon had to grapple with the reality that Tyrese Haliburton was going to be out for the entirety of the 2025-26 season and as a result, the upcoming season will end up being more of a gap year.Here is the Pacers’ biggest mistake thus far in the early goings of the NBA’s free agency period in 2025.
Pacers let Myles Turner walk… and to a rival at that
But in an instant, Turner was no longer a Pacer. And it’s difficult to blame Turner for deciding to go for a big payday, signing a four-year, $107 million contract with the Milwaukee Bucks to be their new starting center. The Bucks went above and beyond in showing Turner how enamored of him they were, as they even parted ways with Damian Lillard via a stretch-and-waive just to bring in the 29-year-old center.The Pacers have long operated as a small-market team, refusing to dive deep into the tax even if it means parting ways with a beloved member of the roster. But this decision to let go of Turner, and to the Bucks of all teams (a team they’ve built some bad blood towards after matching up against each other in the first round of the playoffs in two consecutive years), won’t be any less painful for the Pacers fanbase to deal with.
Something has to be said for the Pacers’ conviction not to bend over their own rules of operation for anyone, instead choosing to move on and take things in stride even if it meant saying goodbye to a beloved, decade-long member of the team. But what Turner does for the team is not so easily replaceable, even if he did end up struggling in the 2025 NBA Finals.
Turner is a rare stretch center who isn’t a defensive liability. Sure, his agility and mobility on the perimeter is on the decline, but he can still protect the rim with the best of them. He did bother Chet Holmgren quite often during their matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder.Even against the New York Knicks, he was quite a valuable piece on offense, making over 56 percent of his shots from the field and taking advantage of New York’s soft interior defense whenever Mitchell Robinson was off the court.
Some may knock Turner’s lack of efficiency when it mattered the most and his lack of rebounding prowess which forced head coach Rick Carlisle to deploy Tony Bradley (or Thomas Bryant) whenever the opposing team had a bruising offensive rebounding big man on the floor. But Turner never lacked in effort, and he seemed to come up huge for the Pacers over and over again, and after such a magical playoff run, the 29-year-old’s biggest wish was to get the opportunity to run it back — which he won’t be getting now that he’s with the Bucks.
There may be not much room for sentiment when it comes to building a contending team. But Turner, after surviving plenty of Pacers roster changes, finally was getting a taste of the playoff success that was ever so elusive during the greater part of his stint with the franchise. They looked poised to sustain that contending level of theirs (provided Haliburton recovers swiftly from injury) — with Turner playing a huge part in the unflappable, unfazed, breakneck style of play that the Pacers took pride in.It was his offensive production that fell off a cliff during that series. He averaged just 10.6 points and 4.4 rebounds per game while shooting 37.7 percent from the field and 21.4 percent from deep. If he was more on point offensively, then the Pacers may have had enough to get over the hump.
But the Pacers would not have reached the NBA Finals in the first place if they didn’t have Turner to be a matchup problem for the Eastern Conference teams they defeated on their way to the big dance.
He was especially problematic to deal with against the Cleveland Cavaliers; during their upset over the East’s one-seed, Turner averaged 16.2 points and 7.2 rebounds per game on 51/56/78 shooting splits. Yes, that was not a typo: he shot over 56 percent from three (he went 9-16 in five games) against the Cavs.However, his exit from the franchise ended up being swift and sudden, coming out of nowhere as the Pacers decided to be frugal for the nth time. Only time will tell if this decision proves to be the best in the long run. But one thing’s for sure, not only does Turner’s departure hurt for a fanbase that has grown to love the person and player the 29-year-old has become in his decade-long stay with the team, it will also hurt a Pacers team that has gotten so used to receiving floor-spacing and rim protection from its longtime five man.
