Turner was stunned by Blazers' huge offer

It's never a good sign for a franchise when a player has a good chuckle at a contract offer - not because they feel they were grossly undervalued, but because the dollar amount was more than they thought they'd ever get.

That's apparently the case for Portland Trail Blazers forward Evan Turner, who managed to land a four-year, $70-million deal over the offseason after putting up pedestrian numbers in his final season with the Boston Celtics.

Upon learning of Portland's generous proposal, Turner's agent told his client not to tell anyone about the offer until he signed on the dotted line, the player told ESPN's Zach Lowe. Too overjoyed and giddy to keep the news to himself, the seven-year pro immediately called Golden State Warriors veteran Andre Iguodala, whom he considers a mentor and close friend.

"'Yo, Dre! They offered this!'" Turner recalled saying, laughing to Lowe. Iguodala told him to take the deal right away, perhaps knowing that he wouldn't get anything similar elsewhere on the open market.

Early on, at least, the Turner experiment in Oregon has been a disaster. Primarily a ball-handler, the 28-year-old has failed to establish any chemistry with stars Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum, who have the rock in their hands more often than not (with usage rates of 32.1 and 27.5 percent, respectively).

Turner isn't much of a threat as a shooter, converting under 30 percent of his 3-point attempts each of the last three seasons. Unless he's free to control the offense as a point forward, Turner provides little value in that facet of the game. To top it all off, his real plus-minus (measured in net point differential per 100 offensive and defensive possessions) of minus-5.41 is dead last among 416 qualified players.

Portland doesn't have a game-changing big in the frontcourt, and the money used on Turner - who shares minutes with the likes of Maurice Harkless and Allen Crabbe - could have gone toward rectifying that issue.

As Lowe notes, if the Trail Blazers become a middle-of-the-road playoff team with little shot at hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy over time, Turner's contract will look worse and worse, restricting management from making a push to improve the roster in free agency.