Lillard was cut and Antetokounmpo s third MVP was waving after Turner joined!

When you wake up, Turner joins the Bucks, Lillard can be cut! What else is impossible in the NBA?

What impact will this have on Antetokounmpo's future?

Squads have been waiting for Antetokounmpo to choose to leave Milwaukee since 2020, when Bucks general manager Jon Horst made his first big deal for an influential player — the acquisition of Jerelu Holiday from the New Orleans Pelicans — to help convince Antetokounmpo to stay, a move that helped the Bucks win the NBA championship the following season. Three years later, Horst made Holiday a major part of the acquisition of Lillard from Portland.

Now, Horst seems to have succeeded in doing this for the third time, and he gets Turner, who will continue to provide the necessary floor spacing and basket protection next to Antetokounmpo, which is necessary to maximize his talent, as Antetokounmpo has $54.1 million in the upcoming season contract and $58.4 million in the 2026-27 season, and then he has $62.7 million in the 2027-28 season with a player option.

At the end of the regular season, Antetokounmpo was basically as the team's point guard, and Lillard was dealing with the calf blood clot that caused him to fail in the final month of the regular season, and it was obvious that Antetokounmpo will be in the role again this season. This has attracted Antetokounmpo in the past, especially when he compared himself to other great players who could be the center of offense.

"I always felt that would be my last stage," Antetokounmpo said in April after losing the Bucks' playoff series. “As someone who can organize the offense and build a team, it’s like a legitimate forward.”

In the final weeks of Lillard’s absence, Antetokounmpo averaged absurd 33.4 points, 15.6 rebounds and 6.6 assists per game, shooting 60% from the field – given the frequency of his possession in his hands, it’s possible that he will replicate those numbers with the Bucks next season.

This could have allowed Antetokounmpo to compete for the third MVP award—provided that he can help Milwaukee win enough and be able to stay on the court with a huge amount of work, even by his usual standards. Still, sources told Shams that Antetokounmpo and Turner were happy to have the opportunity to play together.

What should I do if Lillard is laid off?

It was a rather unceremonious ending for Lillard’s two-year term in Milwaukee and his partnership with Antetokounmpo, the star duo never really reached the heights they had predicted when they joined forces in the summer of 2023. The Bucks had a 73-43 record in the regular season, when Antetokounmpo and Lillard were both in the same game, but they only played three playoff games together – the last of which left Lillard ripping the Achilles tendon.

But while this doesn't seem like a suitable end for Lillard's tenure in Milwaukee, it arguably provides the best results for his career to move forward. Sources said while at least the current expectation is that Lillard won’t sign with anyone in the 2025-26 season, he will now get all the money he owes him and will have the chance to recover from injury within the next 12 to 18 months before choosing his next destination for the first time in his career as an unrestricted free agent.

Although Lillard is now a free agent, no team is now in a hurry to sign him—or he hasn't had many reasons to seek a deal now. Yes, any team can sign him now, but they only have his non-Bird rights, which means they can only give him a small raise without using the cap space or the salary cap exception next summer. Unlike other sports where teams have greater flexibility in how to build contracts, the year-on-year increase in multi-year contracts is extremely limited, under the NBA’s labor-management negotiation agreement, which prevents teams from offering Lillard a minimum wage this season and then paying him for the 2026-27 season when he is healthy.