Turner is showing the type of leadership this rebuilt Bucks team needs before camp opens.
Myles Turner did not wait for the league calendar to bring his teammates together.
The center hosted a late August minicamp in Austin, Texas, about three hours from his hometown of Bedford, and nearly every player on the Milwaukee Bucks roster made the trip.
The group worked out at St. Edward's University and then filled the rest of the trip with boat rides, golf and even an armadillo race that Turner said on his podcast he hosted.
Kyle Kuzma shared photos from the trip on social media last weekend and wrote, "Training camp about a month out. Vibes coming out of Wisconsin."
That post said more about this group than anything else out of Milwaukee all summer.
Roster Turnaround
The trip is more than a normal summer get-together because so little of last year's team is left.
Milwaukee traded Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bobby Portis to Miami in June for Tyler Herro, Kel'el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakucionis and draft picks, then took Brayden Burries and Nate Ament at No. 10 and No. 13.
Taylor Jenkins was hired in the spring to replace Doc Rivers, and this week Thanasis Antetokounmpo signed with a Greek club, so another familiar face from the Giannis years is gone too.
Herro is the biggest name in the return, and he put up 20.5 points per game in 33 games for the Heat last season before the trade.
There is a real argument that he has an All-Star case in his first year, but that only happens if the new pieces fit together quickly.
Why Turner Is the Right Voice
Turner has been open about what went wrong last year, as he said on his Game Recognize Game podcast in May that Rivers did not fine anyone for being late during a 32-50 season, and he pointed at Giannis as the player who showed up late most often.
He was blunt, but it explains why he wanted a different tone before Jenkins ever ran a practice.
His own numbers were not that good in his first year in Milwaukee, as he averaged 11.9 points, 5.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in 71 games while shooting 38.3 percent from three.
The Bucks do not need him to be a star, but they do need him and Kuzma to be the veterans who set the standard for a young group, and getting his teammates to Texas in August does more for that than any podium speech.
What It Means for Training Camp
Veterans cannot report until Sept. 28 and camps open on Sept. 29, so the Bucks got their chemistry work done almost a month early.
That should help Jenkins spend the first days of camp on his system instead of introductions, and it should help Burries and Ament even more, because there is a case for both rookies to start right away, and rookies who already know their teammates settle in faster.
Turner said when he signed last summer that staying competitive was the biggest factor, and then the roster changed almost overnight.
He could have sulked, and plenty of players would have, but he became the one holding the new group together, and I would take that over any stat line he puts up this year.
