NBA free agency appears to be slowing down now, just three days into the process. Yet, several players, including Myles Turner, have already changed teams. Few expected the Milwaukee Bucks to be major players in free agency, yet after securing Turner to a four-year contract worth $107 million, they’ve been one of the biggest spenders this offseason.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota Timberwolves have been busy taking care of their own, getting Julius Randle re-signed on a three-year, $100 million contract and retaining former Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid on a five-year, $125 million contract.
However, the Indiana Pacers, the reigning Eastern Conference representative in the NBA Finals, failed to get Turner back under contract after possibly underestimating the free agency market for their 29-year-old center. The crazy part about it all is that the Timberwolves may have been partly to blame for the Pacers losing their top free agent.
According to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps and Jamal Collier, the Pacers’ negotiations with Turner became more difficult after he saw how much Reid, a bench player, got from the Timberwolves.
“No one saw the Bucks creating salary cap space to sign Turner. And once they did, they could then outbid Indiana. Minnesota signing center Naz Reid to a five-year, $125 million contract last week already had complicated the Pacers-Turner negotiations. Turner, a starter on a Finals team, justifiably had reason to believe he was worth more than the $25 million annual value for Reid, a backup big man for Minnesota.”
ESPN on Myles Turner contract negotiations
Turner did end up getting more than Reid, but not by much. Still, Turner’s new contract calls for him to earn an average of $26.75 million per season, but there’s no word on how much the Pacers were offering. Since he left for Milwaukee, the assumption is that Turner accepted a bigger payday from the Bucks, but just how much is up for debate.
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