NBA free agency: Worst contracts of 2016

2. Evan Turner – Trail Blazers (4 years, $70 million)

Market value would dictate that a quality veteran wing that has had a bit of success in the NBA (especially in a contract year last season) should probably get somewhere in the four-year, $70 million range—though it might be just a bit less depending on the impact of the player. Regardless, that’s still too much money for any logical NBA franchise to be paying Evan Turner to play basketball for them—and even more wild is the fact that he landed on the Portland Trail Blazers.

When you look at what made the Trail Blazers so much fun last season when they weren’t expected to come even remotely close to making the postseason, the first thing that ultimately comes to mind is that they surrounded Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum with role players willing to slot into their position, not do too much above their heads, and simply just buy in. And even though Turner did that under Brad Stevens for the most part, he’s shown before that him doing that isn’t a foregone conclusion.

As such, paying a player that truly doesn’t have one great skill and rather just has a few things he’s quite good at $70 million just seems a bit ludicrous to me. Obviously there were some huge numbers thrown around in NBA free agency, but I’m not sure an NBA where Turner is worth that much money is ultimately a good thing.

Next: No. 1 Bradley Beal