Boston Celtics Ink Evan Turner To Two-Year Deal

The Boston Celtics have a big decision to make with their star free agent next summer, but for the time being, they’ve locked down another free agent. According to ESPN’s Marc Stein, the Celtics have finally signed Evan Turner to a deal, inking him for two years and $6.7 million.

The Celtics had planned on signing Turner this summer, but they certainly took their sweet time in doing so. The signing of Turner to the taxpayers mid-level exception moves Boston ever closer to the salary cap. They’re actually in luxury tax territory with all of their non-guaranteed deals, but once they make a few cuts at training camp, they should be just fine.

“Just fine” is a phrase most Celtics fans probably wouldn’t use to describe locking in Turner for two years after the last season he had, however. Turner averaged 17.4 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game in 54 games with the Philadelphia 76ers last year, but he was a major stat sheet stuffer on one of the league’s worst teams. He also only shot 42.8 percent from the field and a putrid 28.8 percent from three-point range on an irresponsible 2.4 attempts per game.

In a midseason gambit to position his Indiana Pacers above the Miami Heat in the East, Larry Bird opted to trade long-time Pacer Danny Granger to bring in Turner and Lavoy Allen. While Granger’s prime is probably behind him because of all his injury troubles, Turner wasn’t quite the force off the bench that Bird envisioned. Turner averaged 7.1 points and 3.2 rebounds in 21.1 minutes per game. In the postseason, his minutes dropped to a meaningless 12.4 per game and Indiana’s bench was once again a problem.

Whether it was the curse of Danny Granger, Evan Turner’s presence or the toxicity of adding Andrew Bynum, the Pacers fell to pieces. To be fair, Indiana was already in mid-collapse before Turner got there and Roy Hibbert‘s confidence was a much bigger culprit behind what we saw from the Pacers in the second half of the season. But Turner has never seemed to fit in anywhere during his four seasons in the league.

As the No. 2 overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, Turner has never lived up to the hype. Holding career averages of 11.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game, Turner needs the ball in his hands a lot to be effective, and he’s only a career 42.7 percent shooter.

Turner elected not to accept Indiana’s $8.7 million qualifying offer. That made him an unrestricted free agent and he agreed to sign with the Celtics back in July before officially doing so Monday.

Does Turner have anything to offer the rebuilding Celtics? It’s unclear right now, especially since his style of offensive play doesn’t really seem like it’ll mesh all that well with what Brad Stevens is trying to build in Boston. Turner’s flaws on the defensive end are noticeable and the move to bring him to Boston is already confusing before you consider they gave him two years.

From an individual standpoint, this is probably good news for Turner. He’s make a lot less money than he would have if he had taken Indiana’s qualifying offer, but now Turner will once again have the chance to stand out on a team of role players and young talent. Rajon Rondo might be able to help him be a little more efficient by getting him open looks, but for the most part, this is still a somewhat perplexing deal for a guy who seems destined for a journeyman kind of NBA career.