If you force yourself to earn tens of millions of dollars, is the future of the Bucks dangerous?

The Bucks signed Miles Turner with a four-year, 170 million contract. The purpose of this move is obvious, to use him to replace Lopez and become an space-based center around Antetokounmpo.

seems to be a pretty critical reinforcement, but from another perspective, the Bucks seem to be in a gradual despair, with neither starting point guard nor starting center.

After demolishing the east and west walls, the Bucks solved at least one of the problems. In order to clear out enough salary space to recruit Turner, the Bucks chose to cut Lillard, which is equivalent to paying him 22.5 million a year in the next five years, rather than paying 113 million a year in the next two years. Although this choice is a little difficult to understand, if the Bucks can still win or even get a chance to compete for the championship in the future, then there will naturally be no problem with this decision.

But from the perspective of conventional thinking, the Bucks are still a team that revolves around super players but has serious flaws, not just because they don’t have point guards. Even though Turner is above the league average in his position, he cannot stay on the court safely at critical moments of many games on the Pacers’ magical road to the Finals this season.

Speaking of this, we have to admire the Bucks' persistence towards Antetokounmpo. Since winning the championship in 2021, the Bucks have only won one round of the series, but they have been making mistakes in order to please Antetokounmpo, but in fact they are making the team backwards.

Referring to ESPN's Shams report, Antetokounmpo supports the team's introduction of Turner, but he is not happy with the decision to sack Lillard. He knew very well that this choice would undermine the Bucks' long-term flexibility and the ability to regroup around him.

Perhaps Antetokounmpo put pressure on the Bucks behind the scenes and was unwilling to endure the low stage; but in fact, if there is no Lillard and an additional expensive version of Daluo, it is not necessarily a reasonable choice in the long run.

There is no doubt that Turner is a big man with strong offensive and defensive skills, but he is not a player who can attack independently. He has shot 39.6% from three-pointers when Halliburton is present in the past two seasons, but when Halliburton is not present, the figure is only 29.9%.

partner Halliburton is still like this, who can play pick-and-roll with him in the Bucks? Is it Kevin Porter Jr.? Trent Jr.? Or Kuzma? Even Antetokounmpo?

The lineup adaptation alone is not enough to prove the value of this contract, let alone the extreme means chosen by the Bucks for this signing.

Before the situation was completely out of control, for those who care about salary details, the Bucks' first few days of offseason operations were still understood. The Bucks signed Portis, Prince, Trent Jr. and Porter Jr. with reasonable prices, and these contracts came with player options for the last year.

But such smart operations are not enough to truly improve the team's strength, because they may still fall into the play-offs. Especially other operations that occur later, there are more superficial things than actual content.

Of course, these contracts may be put together to package deals during the season, but these players were initially signed because their technical characteristics are more suitable for the combination of Antetokounmpo and Lillard. Before Lillard was cut off and signed Turner, the Bucks could actually use the middle-class contract to strengthen the original team.

From the most optimistic perspective, if they use this space to Horford or other free agents, they will not have to bear such a long-term burden on their salary books at all. Unfortunately, such a thing did not happen, and Lillard eventually left Milwaukee with a lot of money.

Then look at it from the Pacers' perspective. Although Turner was criticized by the outside world for letting go of Turner because he did not want to pay taxes, especially after the team reached the finals, it was naturally difficult to convince the public of destroying the Great Wall. But after calming down, most criticisms are based on the emotional level, rather than starting from the actual situation of the team.

Turner himself has no problem. He is a key link in the team's success. He can stand up on defense at critical moments, and there have been times when the offense feels hot. But he will turn 30 in March next year. In the first year of signing a new contract in the new season, there will be no Halliburton around him, and it will be difficult for the Pacers to return to the championship ranks. In this situation, Turner's value is naturally greatly reduced.

Even in this season's finals trip, Turner's shooting percentage was terrible when facing the Thunder, only 42.6%, and he suffered repeated losses when defending the Thunder ball holder on the periphery. Although this is not surprising, the opponent is an MVP-level offensive player; and when defending Towns one-on-one in the Eastern Conference Finals, Turner also cannot limit the opponent.

Judging from the above cases, although the Pacers will be very strong with Turner, losing him does not mean that there is no chance at all.

And back to the Bucks, there are several key questions in the end:

After losing the main defender, what should they do when Antetokounmpo sit on the bench? Or, how many teams in the East are more competitive than the Bucks? The Cavaliers, Knicks, Magic, Hawks, Pistons and other teams may all be on this list. Even on the optimistic point of view, the Philadelphia 76ers may be considered.

In short, from the perspective of the Bucks, they may think that Turner can become the team's savior, but the risks and rewards behind this choice are still a bit worrying, and Antetokounmpo may even apply for a transaction one day in the future. And if that day really comes, a salary of 22.5 million yuan per year is likely to become the key to ultimately restricting them.

For this layoff decision that is shocking in NBA history, it is really difficult to evaluate whether it is right or wrong.