After a number of this year’s top free agents came off the board on Monday or in the days leading up to June 30, the Bucks nearly singlehandedly made sure there was still plenty of NBA news to talk about on Tuesday.
Milwaukee agreed to terms on two-year deals with big man Jericho Sims and veteran wing Gary Harris. They also agreed to a deal that will send Pat Connaughton to the Hornets.
But the main event for the Bucks was reaching a four-year, $107MM contract agreement with Myles Turner, the starting center for the division-rival Pacers for the past decade. After the deal between Turner and the Bucks was reported, we spent about 10 minutes wondering how the over-the-cap club was going to pull off the move before another bombshell dropped: Milwaukee was waiving injured star Damian Lillard with two years left on his contract and stretching the $112.6MM owed to him across the next five seasons in order to help create the cap room necessary to sign Turner.
It’s a shocking move that will allow the Bucks to land one of the summer’s top free agents in the short term while potentially creating major cap-related complications in the long term.
Given that the front office is dead-set on building a contender around Giannis Antetokounmpo, it wasn’t ideal that one report referred to the two-time MVP as “not pleased” about Lillard being waived just over two months after tearing his Achilles.
But Lillard, at least, didn’t seem to mind, with another report describing him as “elated” to get to have control over his future while still getting paid by the Bucks.
Here are several more of the major headlines from July 1, along with links to our stories:
Free agent deals
- Duncan Robinson, Pistons agree to three-year, $48MM contract to be completed as a sign-and-trade deal sending Simone Fontecchio to Heat (story)
- Dennis Schröder, Kings agree to three-year, $45MM contract (story).
- Tre Mann, Hornets agree to three-year, $24MM contract (story).
- Guerschon Yabusele, Knicks agree to two-year, $11.7MM contract (story).
- Sandro Mamukelashvili, Raptors agree to two-year, minimum-salary contract (story).
- Josh Minott, Celtics agree to two-year, minimum-salary contract (story)
- Eric Gordon, Sixers finalize one-year, minimum-salary contract (story).
- Tim Hardaway Jr., Nuggets agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract (story).
- Larry Nance Jr., Cavaliers agree to one-year, minimum-salary contract (story).
Other top headlines
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Thunder agree to four-year, super-max extension (story).
- Jakob Poeltl, Raptors agree to extension that will add $84MM over three new years after 2026/27 opt-in (story).
- Grizzlies‘ Jaren Jackson Jr. to undergo procedure on turf toe (story).
- Mike Brown reportedly considered frontrunner for Knicks‘ head coaching job (story).
- Kings to trade Jonas Valanciunas to Nuggets for Dario Saric (story).
- Clippers to waive Drew Eubanks, who will sign with Kings (story).
- Mavericks expected to sign head coach Jason Kidd to contract extension before season (story).
- Nuggets to hire J.J. Barea as assistant coach (story).
Haynes is close with Dame and a relative of Giannis’ wife. It’s a uniquely awkward situation for him. He may have had to make it seem like neither of them wanted this to help them save face.