Bucks GM Jon Horst on bold Damian Lillard move, Myles Turner acquisition

LAS VEGAS — The Milwaukee Bucks went through one of the most dramatic offseasons of any NBA team by pulling off a move no one expected heading into the summer.

With nine-time All-Star Damian Lillard expected to miss much of the 2025-26 season recovering from a torn left Achilles tendon, the Bucks made the difficult decision to waive Lillard and then stretch the nearly $113 million remaining on his contract over the next five seasons. While the move puts roughly $22.5 million of dead money on their salary cap books each of those five seasons, it also helped open up enough cap space for the Bucks to sign Myles Turner, one of the biggest free agents on the market, to a four-year, $108.9 million contract.

But for Bucks general manager Jon Horst, there is one guiding principle behind all decisions.

“Maximizing Giannis’ prime, our opportunities to win, I feel like that’s our responsibility always,” he said in an exclusive interview with The Athletic this week. “So it was really a now versus future decision.”

The rest of the offseason was a bit less dramatic as the Bucks have only added three new players from outside the organization thus far and brought back six of their own free agents who played in Milwaukee last season, but that combination of moves was still one of the most surprising roster shake-ups of the summer.

To discuss everything that happened this summer, The Athletic sat down with Horst at NBA Summer League for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on each move and some of the larger philosophical ideas behind the team’s offseason. Below, you will find Part 1 of that conversation, focusing on big-picture topics for the franchise.

On Friday, we will post Part 2 of that conversation that goes deeper into each move and the impact Horst believes those players will have for the Bucks next season.

Highlights from Part 1 include Horst explaining:

• How improving the team for next season outweighed the future risk of dead money on the salary cap books: “We were dealing with a really big hurdle and complication that we had to figure out how to deal with now.”

• When the organization started contemplating using the waive-and-stretch to acquire Turner: “This was (an avenue) that we were always exploring. And Myles has always been a target.”

• Why the team has decided to lean into Giannis Antetokounmpo’s playmaking even more: “He truly is becoming a real point guard.”

• Why he believes in Doc Rivers: “He’s a championship-level coach. He’s the right coach to get us to where we want to go.”

• Whether the organization has done enough this offseason: “I’ve done everything within my human possible power this offseason.”

(This interview was lightly edited for clarity.)

Let’s start with the biggest move of the offseason. You had the chance to talk about Myles Turner already in his introductory news conference, so I wanted to talk about the move itself. At The Athletic, we called it a risk, a gamble to put $22.5 million of dead money on your books for the next five years. That impediment, that dead money, how do you feel like you will be able to work around it to once again put the team in position to contend in the Eastern Conference?

I think every decision, every move that you make, has risk and reward, so there’s nothing unique about that in this case. 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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

You mentioned the move being opportunistic. I’d guess two weeks before free agency got underway as the Indiana Pacers were playing in the NBA Finals, you didn’t imagine that Myles Turner would be available to you or anyone else. When did you feel like you might have a chance to add Turner?

I think the strategy existed for us in a very honest way. It’s unfortunate what happened at the end of our season. So the strategy was something in consideration for us, amongst many other different strategies that we were exploring and internally navigating and vetting to create cap space. And there were different ways you could do it. You could do it via trade. You could do it via the waive and stretch. You could utilize our really beneficial position relative to the tax this year, as compared to past years.

We went into the offseason saying that, besides Detroit and Brooklyn at the time, we had as much flexibility as anybody else, and we actually had tradable draft picks and we had tradable contracts, and so this was not an offseason where we were completely up against the wall. It was an offseason where we had a lot of different avenues to pursue and explore. And so this was one that we were always exploring. And Myles has always been a target.

But their unfortunate circumstance, the timing of ours, the timing of theirs … as we started thinking about it internally, I’m like, this could be a reality. So we should drill into this path a little bit more. What does this look like? What are the other moves we’d have to do subsequently to make it work? The strategy itself was kind of always there, something we’ve been always looking at, but I think him as a target and a realistic target culminated with the (Tyrese Haliburton) injury that they suffered. And that’s the unfortunate thing in our business. That happens, and then you have to look for opportunities to pivot and address the needs that you have because of it. And that’s what we did.

Because of Turner’s age and ability, it feels like you should be able to do things differently from a play-style standpoint next season. How do you feel like Turner can be an agent of change in that regard?

One of the things that I love about the acquisition for us — one of many things — is there’s no question that it opens up things for us to do differently. But, largely, it allows us to be the same in the ways that we’ve been really great also. We’ve been a team because of Giannis’ style of play and Doc’s style of play and the way that I love the game of basketball, we’ve always spaced the floor, we move the ball, we shoot a lot of 3s, and Giannis thrives in that.

And so Myles is a great floor spacer. We love to be big and physical and defend the rim, and Myles does that. He’s elite at defending the rim. And I think that we needed to grow in our perimeter speed and our perimeter ability to navigate the pick-and-roll game, which is such a big part of the NBA now. To have multiple switch defenders on the floor. To play faster offensively and defensively in transition. And I think Myles adds that, as does Bobby (Portis) in a bigger, more important role for us than I think that he’s ever been in.

I think that is one of the things that’s a little bit undertold is keeping Bobby and letting Bobby play in the way he played near the end of the season. He’s really increased his shot speed. I mean, he really gets rid of the ball quicker. His shot quality has really improved. He understands he can dominate around the rim, rebound the basketball, shoot the ball on the perimeter.

Jericho (Sims) was one of the best switch defenders in the playoffs. He’s got a limited, limited sample, but I believe that he can do it. He’s an elite rim protector. He’s big, he’s physical, he’s athletic. I think the core four of those guys as a frontcourt is as good as anybody. And I think that it’s largely the way that we’ve been dominant in that space over 10 years. But I also think it gives us a chance to modernize and catch up in some of the other areas as well.

Doc Rivers has been very public about his desire to play with Giannis Antetokounmpo in the point forward role. After Game 5 against the Pacers, Antetokounmpo talked about how that was the role he saw for himself moving forward. How do you feel about Antetokounmpo in that role and how did that change how you tried to build a roster this offseason?

I feel like we’ve always played with a certain type of guard. Typically a guard that’s willing to catch and shoot, a guard that is capable of being a primary playmaker, but doesn’t need to be a primary playmaker. And I think some of our best teams that we’ve ever had — and we’ve had a lot of great teams — we had guys at the guard spot in that mold. They can really shoot. They’re capable and willing defenders, and they could go five, six, seven possessions and just play off Giannis, or they can go five, six, seven possessions and they can initiate our offense.

And that’s what we’ve tried to do. We tried to build a team like that this offseason. Take the opportunity for Giannis to go even more down that road. I would say we’ve always doubled down on it, maybe we’re tripling down or quadrupling down on it now. He just continues to grow at such a high rate in generating 3-point shots for his teammates. It’s elite. His decision-making is elite. His turnover game is reducing. He truly is becoming a real point guard — or a real point forward, like Doc calls it — so I think that allows us to dive even deeper into it than we have in the past, but I think those have always been some of our most successful lineups and groups. Putting him out there with a bunch of shooters and ball movers and let him just dominate. You stop him, he passes it. You don’t, he dunks it. And I feel like we’ve got a number of those guys.

Last year, we were the best 3-point shooting team in the NBA efficiency-wise, average at best in frequency. I think we were probably like 15, 16, 17. I think if we get that number into the top 10 and we stay in the top two or three percentage-wise, it’s going to have a big impact on our productivity throughout the season. And our style of play will allow us to do that, and the talent we have will allow us to do that.

You’ve worked with Doc for two years. The results have not been what you have wanted and there are myriad reasons for that, but I’m curious how you have viewed working with Doc and why you believe he is still the right coach for this team.

I’ve enjoyed my time with Doc immensely. It’s one of the least established relationships I had prior to making a hire of anyone in my career so far, but he and I just continue to grow closer and closer each day.

He’s a big-time collaborator. He has the exact same views that I do on culture building and professionalism within the organization, how you treat people, how you communicate honestly. He is a great partner in that he’ll have any tough conversation that you need to have with a player or players, and I think that’s essential in this business. And it gives you a real chance to win when stuff gets tough.

He’s a great basketball guy. I learn from him every day. I love being around him. He’s very well-connected. So when it comes to recruiting and networking and just the different things that you can do with a roster that are necessary, he’s amazing at that as well. And so I’ve loved working with him, and he’s a basketball junkie. I’ve been amazed. No one takes more notes. I sit right behind him on the plane, and he’s watching film as soon as the game’s over. It’s the first thing he does. He’s got a video guy with him, and he just really grinds. He really works at it. He still loves the game at a high level, and he’s a champion.

I think the reason why I still love working with Doc and I’m excited to work with Doc is because I think we have a chance to win with Doc. I think he’s a championship-level coach. He’s the right coach to get us to where we want to go.

We haven’t had the results yet in our two years together that we wanted. But it’s been two of the most adversity-filled seasons that I’ve been part of. And we’ve had two really successful regular seasons. To go through the things that we went through, if people actually look at the facts of what we went through over two years — we still finished with a fifth seed and a third seed. Near 50 wins in both seasons. And then we lost to the team that lost in the conference finals two years ago and the team that lost in Game 7 of the finals this year. We lost to a really, really good Indiana Pacers organization that deserves everything that they’ve got. I mean, that team had an unbelievable two-year run and they beat everybody; they didn’t just beat us.

So I’m really proud of the last two years with Doc, and I think we’ve learned a lot. And I think it’s going to help us get to where we want to get.

In your introductory news conference for Turner, you said when it comes to Giannis, your job is to put together a plan to build the best team possible to, present that vision to him and then “go kick a– in the next season.” Do you feel like you’ve done enough in that regard this offseason? And where do you think you stand among the Eastern Conference’s top teams?

So, two-part question. Have we done enough? We’ve done everything, I’ve done everything within my human possible power this offseason. I feel like our group works our butts off. I’ve got to shout out Dave Dean, Ryan Hoover, Milt Newton, Pat Haneman, Samer Jassar, David Mincberg, and Arjun Mahendroo, the whole group, we do everything we can to get better. We do everything we can to put the next version of this thing out there, to give Doc and Giannis and Bobby and Scoot (Kevin Porter Jr.) and the guys on our team every chance that they can to win every night.

And so have we done enough? I don’t know. We’ll find out. Have we done everything that we possibly could? Absolutely. And have we done more than anyone else could possibly do? I believe we have. And that’s not an arrogant thing to say. In a very humble way. I think we’ve done as much or more than anyone else could possibly do, and I’m proud of that.

It’s a really tough Eastern Conference and it’s a really tough NBA and that’s what makes it fun. I think there are other teams that have had great offseasons. But we took our set of circumstances, we evaluated everything we possibly could to have the best possible chance that we could at the upcoming season. And I think we’re in that spot right now.

The thing that I’m as excited about or more excited about is that we’re not done. That was just the offseason. Then we’re gonna have a training camp, and we’re going to be evaluating our roster. We’re going to be evaluating our talent, and we are going to build up toward a trade deadline and we’re gonna evaluate every single thing we can. And we’re going to try to have an amazing trade deadline also. It might be that we do nothing because we have the best team in the NBA, or it might be that we do a bunch of things because we need to, but I just think we’ve left nothing on the table.

As executives and coaches, you look at your team and all you want is for the guys to give everything they have and leave it all on the floor. We feel like we’ve done that to put this team together, so I’m proud of that.

(Top photo of Myles Turner and Giannis Antetokounmpo: Andy Lyons / Getty Images)