Bucks GM Talks 'Risk and Reward' of Waiving Damian Lillard to Sign Myles Turner

The Milwaukee Bucks sent shockwaves through the NBA when they waived star point guard Damian Lillard to make room for the signing of free-agent center Myles Turner.

However, Bucks general manager Jon Horst told The Athletic's Eric Nehm that he stands by the decision to get Lillard's salary off the books as he recovers from a torn Achilles.

"I think every decision, every move that you make, has risk and reward, so there’s nothing unique about that in this case," Horst said. "We looked at the opportunity to acquire a highly productive, elite free agent, who is in the prime of his career, and who is an incredible fit next to Giannis, as an opportunity for these next two seasons in particular, instead of what would have been Dame on our books at a full salary, as really opportunistic, more than anything."

Turner, who spent his entire career playing for the rival Indiana Pacers, joined the Bucks on a four-year, $108 million deal. Rather than waiting for Lillard to return to the court in 2026-27, Milwaukee opted to let him go and to stretch the nearly $113 million remaining on his contract over the next five seasons at $22.5 million per year.

Horst acknowledged that the financial component could be difficult to navigate, but it wasn't enough to deter the Bucks from making the move.

"The carry for the following three years, there’s no question that if you want to call it an impediment or another hurdle, that’s fine," he said. "But we were dealing with a really big hurdle and complication that we had to figure out how to deal with now, and the now matters more than anything. Maximizing Giannis’ prime, our opportunities to win, I feel like that’s our responsibility always. So it was really a now versus future decision."

The Bucks have been eliminated from the playoffs in the first round in each of the last three years. Horst added that he's confident that the addition of Turner will help get the team back to the pinnacle.

"That being said, Myles is an incredible player in the prime of his career for four years. So four of those five years, we have Myles Turner, so it wasn’t like we just did something now and then we have to take four years of risk beyond this year and four years of carry without any production," Horst said. "We have four years, at least, of Myles Turner at elite production while that’s on our books. And there (are) other things that we did, there (are) other moves that we made, other players we’re able to acquire because of this move now that I believe will outweigh the carry of the 20-plus million dollars that we have."