The GM of the Pacers found out that Myles Turner was leaving... because of Shams Charania's tweet!

During a press conference held on Monday, when asked about the loss of the free agent center Myles Turner to division rivals Milwaukee Bucks, the President of Basketball Operations for the Pacers, Kevin Pritchard, stated that they had engaged in good-faith negotiations with Turner's camp and that the team ownership was willing to delve into the luxury tax to retain the starting center from Indiana, as reported by James Boyd of The Athletic and Dustin Dopirak of The Indianapolis Star.

"If we kept Myles at the number we were negotiating, or in that range, because we felt there was still some flexibility, and with the moves we were thinking of doing, we were not going over the tax threshold," Pritchard said. "We were above the second threshold." Pritchard clarified that the Pacers would not have operated above the second tax threshold, so the second threshold he referenced could allude to the luxury tax tiers: the tax penalties become increasingly severe for each $5.7 million a team spends over the tax threshold. Indiana also might have exceeded the first threshold if Turner had re-signed his contract.

There were conflicting reports on what exactly the final offer from the Pacers was, but most suggested the team had not exceeded a three-year offer worth between $22 and $23 million annually. Turner eventually signed a four-year contract worth nearly $109 million with the Bucks. "I felt we were working towards an agreement," Pritchard admitted. "But when you're an unrestricted free agent, as soon as you hear a number that sounds good to you, I think he felt he had to accept it. It's his opportunity; it's his right to say, 'Hey, that's it, and I'm going to go a different direction.' It was never bitter, it was always pleasant the exchange. I think there was a number he was trying to reach. I think we were close. But that's my opinion. It must not have been the same for him."

Pritchard Found Out via Social Media

Pritchard admitted that he learned Turner was leaving Indiana for Milwaukee the same way most fans did. "We would have been open to a sign-and-trade because it's mutually beneficial, but, unfortunately, we didn't get there," Pritchard lamented. "I saw Shams' (Charania) tweet, and that's how I found out Myles had accepted the Bucks offer. Honestly, I was surprised. I thought we were negotiating openly. We've done great business with that agency; they're great people, and we'll continue to do business with them. But Myles must have smelled something in that Bucks offer that made him say, 'I'm going to accept this right now.'

While a sign-and-trade deal could have put the Pacers in a position to acquire something valuable in return for Turner, the Bucks were able to create the necessary salary cap space to sign him outright by making a series of moves within their roster that included waiving Damian Lillard and allocating his remaining $112.6 million salary over five seasons.

Pritchard acknowledged that he was surprised by Milwaukee's aggressiveness, although he mentioned that the team management was aware of the possibility of a team above the salary cap finding ways to create cap space. "We always say in our conference room, there are teams with cap space and shadow cap-space teams," he stated. "You can get it done, but it becomes a big challenge buying (players) or making trades. You have to congratulate Milwaukee for doing it. I can't tell you we fully expected it."

This news is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, El GM de los Pacers supo que Myles Turner se iba... ¡por el tuit de Shams Charania!