I love the signing of Myles Turner by the Bucks. He's been a well above-average NBA center for a decade now, and plugging his skillset into the Bucks frontcourt next to Giannis will provide a lethal inside-outside combination. Turner shot nearly 40% from 3-point range last season and was No. 2 among all centers in total made 3-pointers. That's a great weapon for the Bucks to have in the wake of Brook Lopez' departure after seven seasons.
Like Lopez, Turner will be a pick-and-pop, rim-protecting big man. But unlike Lopez, who was flanked by numerous great playmakers in his tenure with the Bucks — Khris Middleton, Jrue Holiday, Damian Lillard — Turner won't have the luxury of a top-end roster around him. Gone are the days of the Bucks center could average about 12 points per game, protect the rim all night and contribute to winning.
Instead, Turner will be asked to be a consistent scoring option on this team. Maybe the No. 2 scoring option behind Giannis. While also being an elite shot-blocker. That's a pretty huge responsibility for Turner; I know he's on a $109 million contract, but he's not there to create offense for himself or score 20 points a night, and the fact that he might need to do that is not really a fair ask of a guy who has played essentially one role his whole career. It also points to a much bigger problem with this Bucks roster.
Playmaking is not the strength of this Bucks roster
Again, Turner is awesome. But his role in Indiana was clearly defined, and his duties every night stayed mostly consistent. An expanded role isn't suddenly going to make him a bad player, and he's still going to be a positive force in MKE, but the lack of playmaking around him is going to make it tough to maximize his skills.
In Indiana, Turner was part of an elite ball-movement unit. The Pacers finished No. 3 in assists per game last season, while the Bucks finished No. 21 — and that was with Damian Lillard. This year, that number is likely to drop even further. Positions that Holiday, Middleton, and Lillard once occupied are now served by Kevin Porter Jr, Cole Anthony, and Kyle Kuzma.
If Turner could join this roster and play a slightly higher-volume version of the role Brook Lopez played so well for so many years, that would be fantastic. But Turner can't do that; instead, he's going to be expected to morph into a player he's never been before, and the fault of that falls mostly on the Bucks front office.