Given Milwaukee’s new path, Myles Turner’s place on the team is clearly up in the air. Do they start him to put the best team on the court and win as many games as possible, while also rehabilitating his trade value? Do they bring him off the bench because starting him might impact Kel’el Ware, who you assume the Bucks see as their centre of the future? Or do they cut (trade) him before the season starts because there is no point in delaying the inevitable, and if he plays worse than he did last
season, they may never be able to get any value for him?
It’s a really tough question—at least for two of the options—and frankly, the results of this week’s Reacts poll reflect that: a very slight majority (47%) voted to start Turner, while 44% want him traded before the season starts, and just 10% voted to bring him off the bench.
Our wonderful Brew Hoop community chimed in with the reasoning behind their votes, with a surprising number of fans believing not only that Myles Turner should start, but that he should start with Kel’el Ware, theoretically killing two birds—boosting Turner’s trade value and developing Ware—with one stone.
retired janitor: I have no problem trading Turner if the price is right, but I voted “start”. Bam Adebayo, Kel’el Ware had a +8.8 net last season. While Turner is no Bam, Ware has successfully paired with another big. Ware helps balance Turner’s biggest weakness (rebounding). Bucks might be shockingly good at rim protection: Turner 4th in blk%, Ware 11th in blk%. Bucks would have the best combo of centers from deep. Turner was 3rd in 3pt% for centers, and Ware was 1st this past year. This should give great spacing for our guards and wings.
Knuckles: I am a little torn: on paper, we should trade Turner, but I have long said we are not worse off for having him on the roster, and we benefit greatly if we can up his trade value at all by the deadline, and we don’t want to trade him for literally nothing. One article I read a couple of months ago said the Bucks should trade Turner to the Bulls (this was before the Claxton deal, of course) for Pat Williams and a second round pick. That is so much worse than just paying Turner, which again, in my opinion, is less about his ability and more about how he is on a very different timeline. As for Ware: start him too. We need to get him minutes, and I believe in him as the 5 of the future for this team, and Turner can reasonably play the 4 given his skillset. Who knows- maybe they both click and gives Ament some extra time to develop if we don’t need to rush a trade or take it into next offseason. Just because some players don’t fit the timeline doesn’t mean we should be making hasty decisions.
Armon Hammer: I chose start him. I think he’s probably the de facto vet and leader on the team. I think Kuzma and Herro, on their expiring contracts, are likely being moved, so Turner will probably be the leader. I think Turner is probably a good mentor for a stretch, shot-blocking big like Ware. I think they can play together. Ware is actually a good contested rebounder, so maybe pairing the two can work. Either way, I think there are plenty of minutes available at Big spots. I think it’s possible he’s traded midseason, but I think it’s more likely next season, and I’d like to see him in this environment vs Giannis/Doc disaster. Not saying he’s untradable, but there are a lot of pieces and players we’ve got to move first IMO. If you get a Poeltl and some FRP, I can live with that too.
Overall, the prevailing notion was that if Turner is still on the team by game 1, he should start. Other than that, there’s a well-founded debate over how everything else should play out.
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