Myles Turner leaves Indiana Pacers for Milwaukee Bucks. Why? What happened? What do Pacers do now?

Myles Turner leaves Indiana Pacers for Milwaukee Bucks. Why? What happened? What do Pacers do now?

A stunner. Miles Turner is leaving the Pacers and heading to their division rival Milwaukee Bucks. What? How? Why? We definitely need more information. We have a lot to talk about on an emergency locked on Pacers podcast. You are Locked on Pacers, your daily Indiana Pacers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day.
What’s up everybody? Happy Tuesday, Wednesday, whenever you’re getting to this. And welcome in to another edition of the Locked On Pacers podcast where we of course talk about the Indiana Pacers. As always, my name is Tony East. I cover the team for Forbes and today Miles Turner is no longer a member of the Pacers. I’m stunned. Many fans are stunned. This is not what any suggested or indicated. Even if you thought that the reporting of what his value could be or should be was too high, very very very few people thought this would be the resolution. And even fewer thought that Miles Turner would leave the Pacers for nothing. Nonsign and trade. and even even fewer thought he would leave to go to perhaps their biggest rival in the entire NBA right now, the Milwaukee Bucks, who were signing Turner to a 4-year contract, $107 million with a player option. Miles Turner either gets $107 million or more if he has a good three seasons and is eligible uh for a bigger deal at that time if he opts out. So, not quite 30 million per year, but could end up being more depending on how the next three years goes, depending on how the cap grows. You just never know. So, slightly less than the 30 million projections many had. And yet, could be more. We never know with these player options. Like 27 million per four miles Turner. And I I can’t believe it. And I have wait, it is 2:45 p.m. right now as I’m talking into this microphone. I waited a long time to start doing this recording because I was hopeful for more clarity because it’s very complicated and confusing to me that this would happen like this because they lost him for nothing and I did not think that was anything that made any sense for them even if the tax was some barrier for them. Miles Turner is good enough to trade away someone else to me to try to get under and keep their moves close. Every Cap guy I talked to thought that was the case. Everyone not with the Pacers NBA in the NBA thought that was the case. All the reporting today suggested that Turner did have interest or wanted to even return to the Pacers. Shamstrania has said that many times. And yet here is the reality where Miles Turner is walking walking away from the Pacers and they get nothing in return. That’s bad. Even if you think this is an overpay for Miles Turner at 27 million per year, they are a worse basketball team without him. Unless you think he is worse than a free agent mid-level exception center making half as much as that 14 million per year, maybe 15 or 16 depending on the length of the deal. That’s worse. They in theory have two years to get a great center on their team for when Tyres Halburn returns. They will not have cap space in those two years. It will require a trade to get someone as good as Miles Turner at the center spot now. Right. So again, e even if you think he’s overpaid, they are left in a new conundrum, even if their immediate conundrum of salary cap flexibility is less of an issue now. So some reporting out there has suggested the luxury tax was a part of this, which I understand after Halurn’s injury. I’ve talked many times about other players who could be moved or other things that could happen with that tax line in mind, even though I didn’t think this is how they would be under it. Okay, if that’s the case, Jake Fischer reported a Pacers potential offer or something close to like three for 60 or something like that. Greg Doyle and the Indie Star had four years 95 million. Um, call whatever of those whatever you want. The Bucks beat him and you wonder if the Pacers would have countered and gotten to that if they would have considered other things. That’s why I was waiting for details all day, right? I wanted to know if the Pacers would have offered that if they did and he left anyway, you know, because I don’t Here’s the thing, and I always have to remind people of this when transactions happen that may seem unfavorable to the team or aren’t at the value people expect. These front office people are not stupid, right? They’re not dumb. They they they don’t just like do some they don’t intentionally do something to tank the value of their own situation. And that is why I I wonder if they had a hard limit. I wonder if some of the reporting on the offers they made is wrong. If they weren’t willing to do this or that and the Bucks were because the Bucks, this is so aggressive from them. I mean, I don’t want to talk too much about them, but waving and stretching Dame over five years, two seconds to dump Pat Coneton. They might have to lose Ryan Rollins. Like they to get the cap space to do it. Like they they did a lot to get Miles Turner from a division rival. and that that you know I yesterday I ran through why there’s no cap space left there’s no exceptions left oh maybe there’s no spots for Miles Turner the Bucks made one by doing all that and so you wonder if the Pacers had a chance to counter if they would have countered if they would have gone to this number and moved other stuff because this 4-year deal starts at about 24.8 million for the Bucks right for the Pacers if they had started at 24.8 20 million. They would have been less than 10 million over the tax after filling out their team. Like they could get under from there. Uh did they would have had to probably pay assets to do it or maybe come out asset neutral. But you know, I would have assumed personally that that would be preferable to them than this reality where they now lose Miles Turner for nothing in what everybody including Shams who reported it called a stunner. Including I’m calling it a stunner to you right now. Right. No one indicated to me that this would be a possibility. Um, and I think a great deal for Turner to be clear. I mean, he he could make up to 30 plus million per year across this deal. And if he doesn’t play well or if it doesn’t age well, then he gets $107 million over four years. That’s good work from him. At least over the three years, it’s going to be something close to 70 plus to 80 million. Like, it’s good stuff. That was my initial projection of what he’d make. Then he played good. Then he had a bad finals and not so great conference finals. I’m kind of rambling here because I have a million thoughts ping- ponging in my head around this and I’m just so so so surprised by it and everybody is saying one thing or the other about what I’ve said or how people feel and all stuff like that. But man, I mean this is just a big thing for the Pacers to pick up because so to keep going on why again I’m I’m pretty stunned by this year. Right now they’re over the cap already. The salary cap’s 154.6 million with the 11 players the Pacers currently have under contract. They’re at 168 million. They’d have to trade players to get under just to have resources to sign someone else. That doesn’t make a lot of sense. Next year, even if you go a year from now and Tyres Hallebertton will presumably be healthy again and playing Hallebertton, Seakum, Nemhard, Toppenhen, Nesmith, McConnell, Walker, Shepard, and Fury. That group of nine has the Pacers over the cap. That’s with no money for Matherin. That’s obviously with no money for Miles Turner on another team. No Tony Bradley. No other players like what if Cam Jones has a deal by then? No one they signed this year is involved in that. They’re over the cap then too. So they won’t be able to use cap space to get a center then either. And Hallebert will be playing by then. Presumably they’d like to be competitive at that point with Seakum under contract with Halurn under contract. And so I go back to the Pacers not being dumb to say I wonder if this if they didn’t get a chance to counter if they if they weren’t willing to go that high if they didn’t think they could get off of other money to get under the tax. But then you get to the tax and you say, “Man, if they weren’t willing to pay the tax, like I guess I get it with how burned out, but you’re making yourself worse with that restriction in place.” If that’s the case, I wanted more details before recording this because I’m saying a lot of if this, if that, I don’t know. I don’t know. I haven’t gotten a lot of clarity today from other people. Unfortunately, obviously, a lot of people are very, very busy now given that this change of expectation has happened to the Pacers, but they are they will be worse. Miles Turner is a good player. He is a good shooter. He is a rare form center in an NBA where centers like him are becoming more and more valuable where the market suggests this is about what he should be paid in the high 20s to 30s million and now he is on a different team including one that the Pacers will play four times a year and a team that they’ve played in the playoffs the last two years and very crucial in season tournament games many times just stunning stunning stunning stuff that the Pacers now have to figure out what to do about it and I don’t know what the immediate short-term answer is right I don’t know many pe I might talk about that today. I might not want to move on to the next thing so fast just like after the finals. I think it’s important to kind of sit in this stuff and figure out what’s going on. Like they have the mid-level exception. There is maybe I don’t even think DeAndre Aton is a $14 million player myself. He took 10 million in a buyout with the with the Blazers per reporting. That would suggest he’s probably going to get 10 million on his next deal, wherever that may come. Okay. Like he’s a I the Pacers had interest in him before. I guess he’s a good player. There’s certainly trade candidates that I’ve already written down in a sheet of paper to talk about at some point when I look at what they could pivot to at center, but the actual free agent centers right now, right this second are like Marvin Bagley, Larry Nance, Presua level players, right? Beyond the guys the Pacers have in house, obviously the starter level group and if you think Aiden’s a starter, okay, maybe. But the starter level group is like gone. There’s no one left. They’ve all been moved around to this point and that’s why maybe it’s a you know maybe it’s a trade something next year you know who knows what this year looks like in fact probably now next year looks much more like development but the available centers list is like Mo Vagner Al Horford obviously Thomas Bryant but like it’s all backup level centers unless you’re high on those guys right and so it will be hard for them to immediately replace Miles Turner without a trade so now they have to lose assets instead of having Turner and if Do you think Turner would have been overpaid? Great. They lose those assets to dump Turner in the future instead of this route. That that’s obviously I I have my own opinion in a lot of this stuff, but my opinion matched a lot of people’s because of the way that everybody felt in the situation and the way the cat made sense and I get that the Pacers might have this constraint. It’s just all very confusing. Um there will be an element of this that is pointed at ownership and should be, right? Um, if the tax becomes a barrier for an NBA Finals team, now this is not a usual situation for a team coming off a finals run. I totally get that. If they were completely healthy, no-brainer, get it done. Shams was reporting during the finals standing on the court that the Pacers were willing to go into the tax to keep their team together, right? It made all the sense in the world. Hallebertton Achilles, that is a huge material change. I again understand if now the tax is a barrier the Pacers are not willing to cross. They have not paid it since I can’t remember if it’s 2004 or 2005, right? That’s a long time. That’s 20 years. I understand why that would become a barrier, which is why I’ve talked so much about shedding money with other players because I did not think Miles Turner leaving would be the way that they eventually changed their course financially. Alas, that is what has happened. Um, but even if it is a barrier, right, you pe people are going to call them cheap for one reason or another because they were just in the finals. Like it’s a it’s a hard argument to push back against. And even if you say they shouldn’t be willing to do it, okay, be cheap. I I think you’d be cheap with worse players than your starting center. Personally, I understand other people disagreeing with Turner’s valuation being as high as it was. Clearly, another team thought he was worth, you know, I think without the player option, he would have gotten 30 million per year from the Bucks. They had their own cap space constraints involved in what they could offer him. Again, I’m so rambly right now because I wanted more clarity to actually talk about this. Some stuff does make sense and some stuff doesn’t. Let’s continue talking more about Miles Turner, his departure, and what on earth happens at center now for the Indiana Pacers. But first, everybody got to talk about Monarch Money. Ever wish managing your money felt easier with Monarch Money? It can. Whether you’re growing your savings or planning for a big purchase, Monarch puts you in the driver’s seat. It’s like having your own personal CFO, giving you full visibility and control over your finances. Monarch Money is more than just a budgeting app. It’s a complete financial command center. You can track all your accounts, investments, and spending in one place. So, in addition to managing your money, you’re also building wealth. There’s so many features that are helpful on Monarch Money, like tracking your spending. There’s specific categories like takeout and subscriptions that you can see that might be more than you expect. Everything in one place is super easy. You can share finances with somebody in the app. If you have a financial goal that you need to get serious about, Monarch Money is the way to do it. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code lockdown at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. That’s monarchmoney.com. code lockdown NBA for half off of your first year back here on Lockdown Pacers. Thanks for making us your first listen today and every single day. Your second listen should obviously be locked on Bucks. They have Miles Turner now. How’s that going to look? Brook Lopez replacement. How about perfect? Better than Brook Lopez at just about everything at this stage of his career. The Bucks might be pretty dang good next year. They’ve had quite a good couple first days of free agency. Lot of reporting going on here from everybody. Again, we’ve seen various reports of offers and starting in the low 20 million range for Turner that would scale up and that’s how you’d get to like 3 for 80 or whatever. Um I I saw that again Greg Doyle had 4 for 95 as the Pacers offer in his story about this. Uh that would have started at 21.2 million with 8% raises for the Pacers and then scaled up to 26. That 21 million number would have put them a little over the tax, but they could easily have gotten under uh in that case if that’s how close you are, right? Like I understand them thinking that’s a reasonable offer. The Bucks offer 12 million more with the player option. You probably take that again. You wonder if the Pacers countered? You wonder if $12 million ends up being the difference here. I don’t know that. Right. And we need again more information is needed to cast stones at any one person. Right. Did Turner give the Pacers a chance to offer? Did he want to? Would the Pacers have counter offered at a higher number? Were they not willing to go a fourth year? There’s so many ways that this could have ended the way it did, which is why it’s hard to officially say this one person set a limit that was impossible. This group of people made this impossible. This one player’s desires were the driving factor. We need to know more to truly get to the bottom of that. But a lot of the reporting just makes me very curious about what the Pacers actual offers were, how they got to this point. Did they realize that the Bucks became an option when they did? How did that change the tenor of their stuff? And maybe this should have been more clear that this was a possibility when nothing got done on the first day. Like I said, after that, I didn’t have a reason why. I assumed negotiation was going on, but I assumed something would get done because he was by far the best unrestricted free agent available. Now, the best unrestricted free agent left is not nearly as good. Um, as as Miles Turner, right, the next best unrestricted free agent right now, I have no idea. Uh, Duncan Robinson perhaps. I don’t know. It’s hard to say. Chris Paul maybe. Uh, so just stunning. Just stunning. I’m 15 minutes in and I literally have not looked at any notes besides salary cap numbers. Just rambling and it’s all just kind of shocking and confusing to me. So there will be people who think the Pacers did the right thing here, right? They let him walk at a number that was too high. They should not have tied themselves in to the Mile Turner business as he ages into his 30s where maybe he ages not gracefully, right? And this contract doesn’t look quite as good in the out years of it. And that I I totally understand how that’s possible. Like aging for centers does eventually happen at some point and that gets a little tougher uh if he becomes an overpaid player. But you know, if you’re the Pacers, your goal is to be as good as possible two years from now. Uh right when Tyres Hallebertton returns, even like if you view this year as a gap year, perhaps they want to be as good as possible this coming year, too. I don’t perfectly know their goals, although I’d imagine having, you know, 45 half million tied up in dead money for an Achilles tear this this next year will come with some development goals certainly. Uh, and now actually almost more certainly. Man, this is so rambly. I feel very bad about how this might turn out. So then two years from now, you have to think about that year again. How are they getting a better center than at the time entering that season, 30-year-old Miles Turner is a question worth asking. Are they really worried about his decline this one coming season if the tax is such a barrier to that part of it that they’re worried about that? Okay. Well, if if you don’t have a plan at center, what’s your plan with everybody else? Because you have other players in your team. I have the same question I had when I talked about another part of resigning Turner, which is let’s pretend a superstar player who wants to come to the Pacers is now available for trade in the future. How the heck are they going to trade for him? They don’t have their third highest salary right now is an $18 million player. Like you’d have to stack three or four players to get to that. you’re gutting your whole team now for that. It’s just it’s all very very very peculiar to me, which is why I need to know so much more before I cast any stones about blame, if that’s even the right word. Right? Blame is only the right word if if somebody truly screwed up. We don’t know that yet. We’ll see how this goes. Um I would not have had this be the outcome as the Pacers. Um, but you know, knowing more details about who wanted what, what offers were there, when, how quickly this came together for the Bucks will be very revealing when it comes to knowing that kind of stuff. And that leads to the present. I will do way more on this probably later in July when the Pacers roster for the the coming season is set. But man, a 10year run in a city, unheard of. I actually had prepped notes for the opposite of this, but they are still somewhat relevant. Uh, here’s a list of players who have been with their current team for longer than Miles Turner because Kevon Looney just left the Warriors in free agency. Chris Middleton got traded in February. Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Giannis, Embiid, Joic, and Dwight Powell. That’s it. I suppose you could say Deon Booker because he got drafted one pick earlier. So either seventh or tied for seventh or eighth, whatever you want to say. Was Turner with one franchise? You don’t know about the future of Giannis. Embiid is not what he used to be. Dwight Powell is somehow hanging around the mass for forever. Like he could have got to the top five within a year pretty easily. It would have been pretty hard to to get rid of the Yitch or the Warriors guys of this, but like he had built that kind of legacy, right? My next door neighbor kid the last two Halloweens, first kid in our house trick-or-treating, decked out head to toe, full Miles Turner uniform, the shorts, the socks, the everything headband one year, not the other year, right? Like 10 years. And and we heard a lot from Turner at at his warm event foundations that I went to in the past couple years in general hearing from him yelling to Indie after the conference finals trophy about how much he realized in the last couple years Indie was a huge part of his life of his journey uh and and of how it shaped him as a person. Like 10 years of his 30-year existence has been in almost 30 year existence has been in the city. A third of his life think about a third of your life if you’re way older than me. If you’re way younger than me, that probably won’t hit the same. But that’s crazy. That’s very formative and has played through tons of eras, right? There’s that hilarious picture of him as a rookie playing against Tim Duncan. He played with Paul. He played with Vic. He played with Domas. He played in all these transition years for Vogle, for McMillan, for Borker, and for Carile. He played with Tai and Pascal obviously and evolved as a player and said he could do stuff that people thought, can you really do that? If you would, you could. Or if you could, you would. And then he did. He eventually did do it and played well in the playoffs, albeit not the finals, and two straight conference finals teams, maybe with some rough series along the way. What a journey it was for him. What a draft pick that was at 11 for the Pacers. And it just ends very very unceremoniously with him heading to a division rival. And that’s the other part that hurts, right, is that he’s going to the Bucks. The Pacers will play him four times a year. Two times he will come to Indie next year. Yaka Pearl earlier signing for four years $104 million although there it’s really three years 80 something with a player option being opted into but like I personally think Miles Turner is better than Yaka Purle right Naz Reed gets 25 million a year. Miles Turner gets two and a half million more than that. Clearly teams value Turner over N O N O N O N O N O N O N O N O N O N O Reed who also got a player option. Daniel Gaffford got in the low 20s I believe from the Dallas Mavericks. The Pacers offer per reporting starting in the low 20 millions. I get why their tax constraint would start their offer there, but I am so surprised that it would never get higher and nothing could get agreed to. Maybe I just don’t know this team this team’s situation as well as I thought. There’s always so many dynamics you can never know. I hope the Dunning Krueger effect hits me hard because what I thought their off seasonason would look like has not particularly happened so far. Uh, and now they have to pick up the pieces. It’s very peculiar to me. Um, I’m sure there’s something I don’t know. I’m sure there’s some negotiation part of this that is surprising. We’ve heard nothing from the Pacers in terms of reporting on what they could do now, but they will be worse next year. They might be worse the year after. We will have to see what they can do instead with their limited resources. They do have lots of trade stuff. They do have their draft pick the following year. We’ll see where this goes because there’s a chance in two days if they make some genius move. And here’s the other part of this that I think is true. Well, I personally would have done this differently if I were running the Pacers. I I think I’ve made that very clear on this podcast. This front office has proven to be very good and very sharp at pivoting very quickly at making very very shrewd trades. one of the best trading if in the top five certainly for no offices in the league, right? Better at drafting the last couple years. They’re awesome at player development. Rick Carile has headed a great system in that way. The leaders and leadership position players with this franchise have been very sharp, right? I hope I have praised them the correct amount. Even if I they do things that I disagree, that doesn’t mean they’re not smart or they, you know, did something so stupid. They’re not dumb. that that’s why I have to wonder what I don’t know and how that played into everything. So, of course, it’s totally possible that they could pivot and be more financially flexible and get a great center and be awesome in two years from now, but it’s it’s hard to figure out how that happens when you lose a starting level center for nothing. Uh, and they now have to pick up the pieces and pivot. I was probably too harsh in my initial one minute short video where I called it, I believe, a disaster. Um, however, I it is not what I would have done and I am very, very surprised that this is the outcome. All right, I’ll talk a little bit about what they can do, I guess, at center now coming up to close out this shocking Lockdown Pacers. We’re back here on Lockdown Pacers. Thanks for making a short first listen today and every single day. Our second lesson, man, locked on Raptors because the Yaka Purle just happening. Uh, lots of trades involving the Bucks. Pat Coneton to the Hornets, that one. Damn Lillard might go somewhere else. Lots of teams might be interested in him. locked on heat. It’ll obviously be one there for your second listens today. Okay. What now happens at the center position? Well, I’m going to project what I would think about as if I were running the Pacers, but clearly I have gotten so many things wrong with their off seasonason after last year when I feel like I pretty much nailed everything down to predicting Thomas Bryant could be a trade candidate and all this. That’s just I feel so off. I feel like I’ve lost a lot of trust from listeners and should. Um, however, what can they do now? Because here’s the the part that people have now asked about. That’s correct. They do now in theory can use or have the ability to use the non- tax pyramid level exception which is a deal that can be up to four years in length and would start at um 14.1 million I believe. Let me see I typed this down in my caption. Yes, 14 million 104,000 is the year one value of the non-ax mid-level this season. The Pacers do have that right now with Tony Bradley at his current level. Uh they are 19.7 million shy of the tax. they could do basically the full mid level and two other minimums and Cam Jones at a cheaper minimum and they would be you know relatively safe from the tax perhaps they would you know not use quite the full non- tax maybe like 10 to 12 million of it that would get them really clear of the tax for this coming season which now by the way with Turner gone I am counting that as a barrier right they are not there’s no way they’re clearing the tax with a non-title contending team without Miles Turner right so what can they do well I already ran through the center free agents, right? Spo has the uh the list of centers available. I’ll read the 14 that are listed straight up as centers. There’s some power forwards that I think are centers. It’s Mo Vagner who is quite good uh at 28. He will his option was declined by the Magic. We’ll see if they bring him back. Al Horford, Tristan Thompson, Taj Gibson, DeAndre Jordan are the next four players, all 37 and older. Then it’s Thomas Bryant, Tristan Vukovich, Jackson Hayes, Charles Bassie, Alex Len, uh, Fun Fun Times, the one time I did a podcast about him. Bismbo, Brandon Carlson, who I believe is now restricted, Christian Koko, who I believe is also restricted, and Micah Potter. Not a great group of players there. More so all in the backup range with those groups. I quite like Movagner as a player. You never know with someone coming off of a season ending injury, what they’re going to look like this year. That’s what one of your deals or things like that are for. There are some players listed as power forwards on spot track that I would consider centers like Marvin Baggley. He’s okay. Like Larry Nance. Larry Nance is pretty good. Uh he’s 32 and a half years old. Chris Buchet, he’s 32 and a half. He’s a decent player. Um can Trey Lyles play small ball five? Maybe not. Precisa is an okay player. I guess he’s a center. Isaiah Jackson is on the power forward list for some reason. I mean I think they have to keep him now. uh give themselves some sort of future-f facing thing going on at the center position, but everybody else is basically a four, just like an unproven five. If you view any of those player names I just said as a starting center, perhaps that’s where the Pacers go. Not on that list, obviously, is DeAndre Aton because he has not cleared waiverss yet. I’m talking it’s 310 right now. If he clears waiverss as a free agent, he will be on that list and he would immediately become the best player on that list. I’m not as high as others. I wasn’t as high as Aton when the Pacers signed him to a max deal four years ago, but he is like a serviceable player. He averages a double double every year. Perhaps that would be an option. Lakers have been connected to him a lot. Any team that needs a center would be connected to DeAndre Aiden as he hits free agency. I always assume when players get bought out that they have the money made up somewhere in their new home in mind. Uh like Jordan Clarkson with the Jazz already with the Knicks. That happens basically with every player. Like Daniel Ty with the Pacers to the Clippers a few years ago. Perhaps the shifting market dynamics would change things for Aiden. But um he could be one. Then you could pivot to trades. Is there anyone I think available that could make sense for the Pacers. And something that’s new in the CBA uh is that the mid-level exception can be used, and I kind of explained this yesterday talking about that Nick Richards rumor as a trade exception. You can take a player into the mid-level via a trade. Uh so far, no one’s ever done it with like a good player. teams have done it be to like take in money in a dump or to create a trade exception of their own or something like that, but it’s not an unreasonable way to add a player. So, ironically, I believe the player who has the highest cap hit who fits into that this coming season is Victor Wyama. Obviously unavailable for a million reasons. There are some good players who will have their deal be in I believe the mid-level exception for the coming season. Mitchell Robinson with the Knicks, they just signed Yabule. Mitch Robinson’s descending expiring deal would fit in. I don’t even know if he’d be available, but he’s there. Like Yonas Valenunis would have been a name I said here. He just got traded to Denver from Sacramento today. Um, sorry, I I got distracted there. Um, one that I think actually could make a lot of sense, although there’s less of a crowded front court now with this team because they bought out Aton is Robert Williams. His deal fits into mid-level exception range out in Portland. I I believe he’s at about 12 million for the coming season. That is less than the mid-level. the Pacers could take him instead of the tax and not send out any salary in return. That could perhaps be one that they look at. Walker Kesler, I think, is now going to be a popular link to the Pacers kind of name because he’s on a rookie deal, right? And that is uh kind not a Pacers special necessarily, but they’ve been good at developing young talent, bringing them in and making them better. And his contract is not particularly high on that rookie deal. It would be 4.5 million this coming season. they’d have to pay him the year after that. Um, he’d be extension eligible the second they got him. But on a rookie deal now, and Cheap would provide them some flexibility. Those three names jumped out at me as the submidlevel centers that I’m like, I guess I could see how you’re available right now that the Pacers could pursue. There’s many more, right? People could look down that list and say, Tony, you forgot about this or that guy. And yeah, I probably did, but those are the ones that immediately jumped out as me as like it would not shock me if they were, oh, Nick Richards. Obviously, I don’t consider him quite starter level, but he’s a good player. Certainly, um the other three guys I said I I do consider starter level, even though I don’t think they’re as good uh as Miles Turner myself. Uh there’s other guys that are good players that are in this list in theory, but like Wendell Carter got extended. He’s too high. Rashawn Holmes fit well with Hallebertton before, but he’s not quite starter level to me. And then everybody else, I believe, is above the MLE this year in terms of salary. Now, there’s some guys who like are in theory available. What are the Mavs doing? Like is Daniel Gaffford available? Clint Capella is going to the Rockets now? Like is Steven Adams available? I doubt it because they just extended him. Is Isaiah Stewart available in Detroit? Like is that something that’s on the table? I’m very curious. This is a very Pacersy move to me even though I highly doubt this player is available as well. And Yaka Okangw is really young and probably backing up Porzingis this year. Like is there a deal to be made with the Hawks for him? This is just me spitballing about players. I hate doing this. I hate just guessing, right? I like to use reports to figure out what the Pacers could be thinking, but I’m just looking at players that I maybe think are good or on teams that I think could potentially make them available for some reason or another. Uh, and that’s basically everybody that I could immediately come up with. We’ll talk more about this tomorrow in theory. I hope we get some more reporting as the day progresses about where this is going and where this is headed because the Pacers, as it stands, do not have a starting center for this year or next year. They lose Miles Turner. I have no idea where this goes next. You’ll get more on Lockdown Pacers from me and perhaps a guest very soon. Thank you all so much for listening. You can make fun of me for being dumb at Tony East on Twitter and Blue Sky. This podcast is at Lockdown Pacers on Instagram and Twitter. Back tomorrow with more. Till then everybody, thanks for listening. See you soon.

Myles Turner will reportedly leave the Indiana Pacers for the Milwaukee Bucks in a stunner. How did this happen for the Pacers and Turner? What comes next for the Pacers? Host Tony East breaks it all down.

Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…
🎧 https://link.chtbl.com/LOPacers?sid=YouTube

Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More
🎧 https://linktr.ee/LockedOnNBA

📲 Follow Locked On Pacers on Twitter
Locked On Pacers https://twitter.com/lockedonpacers
Tony East https://twitter.com/TonyREast

#Pacers #IndianaPacers #NBA #PacersPodcast #IndianaPacersPodcast #TyreseHaliburton #BennedictMathurin #MylesTurner #PascalSiakam
Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!
Monarch Money
Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code LOCKEDONNBA at monarchmoney.com/lockedonnba for 50% off your first year

Gametime
Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNBA for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime.

FanDuel
Right now, new customers can get ONE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS when your first FIVE DOLLAR BET WINS! Download the app or head to FANDUEL.COM to get started. Bet with FanDuel—Official Partner of the NBA.

FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)