{"id":148270,"date":"2025-07-01T12:27:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=148270"},"modified":"2025-07-01T12:27:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T16:27:50","slug":"desperate-bucks-damian-lillard-myles-turner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/07\/01\/desperate-bucks-damian-lillard-myles-turner\/","title":{"rendered":"Desperate Bucks Attempting To Right Their Wrongs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps it\u2019s just purely coincidental. Nevertheless, timing is everything. With that being said, just a day after ESPN senior insider Shams Charania reported that there\u2019s still a sense <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/antetgi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> is <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ohnohedidnt24\/status\/1939838813435748840\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">still mulling his future<\/a> with the Milwaukee Bucks (h\/t Oh No He Didn\u2019t on <em>X<\/em>), the former MVP\u2019s team\u2019s made a couple of stunning decisions.<\/p>\n<h2>Bucks Release Damian Lillard, Sign Myles Turner<\/h2>\n<p>The Bucks \u201care waiving\u201d All-Star guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lillada01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Damian Lillard<\/a> \u201cand <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/45630759\/sources-free-agent-myles-turner-bucks-reach-4-year-107m-deal\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">stretching the remaining $113 million<\/a> on his contract in order to acquire\u201d Indiana Pacers free agent center <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/t\/turnemy01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Myles Turner<\/a>, per Charania.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Damian Lillard INJURED \ud83d\ude22 Helped to Locker Room vs Pacers in Game 4\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xIxynT80U50?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Turner, an exceptional floor-spacer and elite rim-protector, \u201chas agreed to a four-year, $107 million deal\u2026 plus a player option for year four in 2028-29 and a full 15% trade kicker,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<p>This deal allows the Bucks to replace <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/l\/lopezbr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brook Lopez<\/a> with a younger version of himself. Lopez, who spent the past seven seasons with Milwaukee, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/06\/30\/brook-lopez-los-angeles-clippers-free-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">agreed to sign a contract<\/a> with the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday. His departure marked the end of an era for the Bucks; Antetokounmpo is now the last core player standing from their title team.<\/p>\n<h3>Gift Or Curse?<\/h3>\n<p>Lillard landed in Milwaukee only because the Bucks opted to trade <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/h\/holidjr01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jrue Holiday<\/a> to the Portland Trail Blazers. Holiday was eventually re-routed to the Boston Celtics, where he won his second NBA championship. In that same time span, Milwaukee was struggling to get the on-court chemistry right between Lillard and Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually, the two did <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/19\/giannis-and-dames-growing-chemistry\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">finally start to click<\/a>. However, the Bucks then traded three-time All-Star <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/middlkh01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Khris Middleton<\/a> for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kuzmaky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyle Kuzma<\/a>. Now, Middleton\u2019s injury history left no doubt about why he was moved. However, he wasn\u2019t exactly chopped liver. Indeed, he had just averaged 24.7 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game in the 2024 NBA Playoffs.<\/p>\n<p>When the 2025 NBA Playoffs rolled around, Kuzma was nowhere near Middleton\u2019s level. In five games, the 29-year-old averaged 5.8 points, 2.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. That series also saw Lillard <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/27\/death-knell-in-bucks-season-after-damian-lillards-achilles-injury\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">tear his Achilles<\/a>, a potentially career-altering injury, especially at his age (34).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_148274\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-148274\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-148274\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/IMG_7251-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/IMG_7251-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/IMG_7251-1024x683.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/IMG_7251-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/IMG_7251-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/IMG_7251-2048x1366.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/IMG_7251-600x400.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2025\/07\/IMG_7251-1200x800.jpeg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-148274\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">May 30, 2025; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; NBA player Damian Lillard sits courtside during the Las Vegas Aces and Los Angeles Sparks game at Michelob Ultra Arena. Mandatory Credit: Candice Ward-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Fast forward to today and Lillard will now be paid not to be on the team. At least the Bucks were able to replace Lopez, though.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 Benny Sieu-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps it\u2019s just purely coincidental. Nevertheless, timing is everything. With that being said, just a day after ESPN senior insider Shams Charania reported that there\u2019s still a sense Giannis Antetokounmpo is still mulling his future with the Milwaukee Bucks (h\/t Oh No He Didn\u2019t on X), the former MVP\u2019s team\u2019s made a couple of stunning [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":148273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,1608,62,3],"tags":[233,187,306,239,324,1128,637,297,4774,1382],"class_list":["post-148270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bucks","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-brook-lopez","tag-damian-lillard","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jrue-holiday","tag-khris-middleton","tag-kyle-kuzma","tag-myles-turner","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-rumors","tag-nba-trade"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148270"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":148275,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148270\/revisions\/148275"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}