Myles Turner enters his second season with the Bucks and lands at number five in our Ranking the Roster series. Ever since Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals, Turner has been on something of an Odyssey. After scoring just six points and grabbing four rebounds, he drew the ire of Pacers fans who felt he didn’t do enough to secure the championship after Tyrese Haliburton ruptured his Achilles in the first quarter. It is impossible to know what might have happened without that injury, but Turner had to focus
on free agency. The Pacers offered the veteran big man a three-year, $66m deal, which, in his eyes, was far too low. Therefore, he accepted a four-year, $107m deal from the Bucks after Jon Horst’s historic waive-and-stretch of Damian Lillard’s contract. While those offers look massively different at first, the average annual value is $22m and $26.75m, which isn’t that much. For context, Brook Lopez’s final year with the Bucks saw him make $25 million, so the Bucks saw an opportunity to pair Giannis with “young Brook Lopez” and steal a player from a rival. The Pacers, meanwhile, believed Turner wasn’t worth going into the luxury tax for (or committing an extra year to). Were the Pacers right, or did the Bucks welcome in a wayward hero?
The answer, like many about this team, is a little murky. Last season, Turner was brought in for a very specific purpose: to play next to Giannis and space the floor. And despite last season’s injuries, Turner wasn’t asked to deviate from that game plan; he attempted three-pointers more frequently than ever in his career while also taking by far the fewest two-point attempts of his career. This is partly because Turner needed to rely on others for shot creation; last season, 87% of his made field goals were assisted, on par with the rest of his career. Despite Ryan Rollins emerging as an exciting player, the Bucks lacked a steady creator who could feed Turner adequately. As a result, his player efficiency rating (PER) fell to 14.2, the lowest in his career. So then: how is the answer to the original question murky when it appears that Turner’s tenure has been a disaster in Milwaukee?
That is because, quite frankly, it has not been nearly as disastrous as some want to make it seem. Offensively, yes, Turner had a down year, but he still shot 38.3% from deep on a high volume. Defensively, however, Turner is still solid; last season, he ranked sixth overall in blocks per game. His defensive on/off numbers were very good as well: with MT on the court, the Bucks were significantly better in opponent shooting, accuracy, transition, and half-court defence, with the veteran ranking in or near the 90th percentile in impact, according to Cleaning the Glass. Taken together, Turner is best viewed as a high-impact role player who needs a functioning offensive system around him to thrive. Going back to the idea of the down offensive year, the fix seems simple: feed him more in the paint. Last season, Turner averaged 11.9 PPG—technically the lowest since his rookie season—but not terribly different from the first half of his career. The biggest drop came around 2022-2023, when he averaged 7.8, 7.6, and 5.8 two-point attempts per game and 18.0, 17.1, and 15.6 PPG over the next three years. Last season with the Bucks, he averaged just 3.7 two-point attempts per game, the lowest of his career by a long shot. To say he was being misused would be an understatement.
Of course, the question for Turner now is, “Where do we go from here?” Ultimately, MT is a good player on a reasonable (if not good) contract. Contending teams around the league will likely still be interested in adding him. Should the Bucks be hoping to trade away their starting center, though? The common thinking is that Turner does not match the timeline, which is accurate; however, during a rebuilding season, Milwaukee will need veteran leadership, and MT has shown plenty of that. Turner is clearly a leader off the court and likely a strong locker-room presence. Regardless of where he ends his season, the Austin native comes in at number five on this list because he is a known quantity on both ends. How well he pairs with Kel’el Ware and others this season may determine the Bucks’ course of action, but regardless, Turner seems determined to make the most of his Milwaukee tenure, and for that, I am grateful.
Who’s next at four?
