Off-Day Open Thread: Hedo Turkoglu's Disappointing Season

By giving Turk the responsibility of initiating the offense about 30-40% of the time, SVG kept Turk engaged with the game and mostly accountable to his teammates. One of the things I noticed earlier this season in Toronto was that Calderon facilitated the offense roughly 90% of the time, so Turk was left dangling with little to do. Plus the fact that Toronto plays no defense, Turk has very little responsibility for a good chunk of his actual playing time

Still, I honestly don’t know if Turk would mail in this season with the Magic if he had that same contract as he does in Toronto. When Turk did the Dante & Galante show this season, he was pretty straightforward in saying that he went to Toronto for the money. I remember thinking at the time that I liked his honesty, but I would have been ticked if I were a Toronto fan. Everyone knows that is the reason for most free agent signings, but I would still like the player to at least pay lip service to actually wanting to be there.

All in all, I’m disappointed he seems to be mailing it in since he is still one of my favorite players.

I can’t imagine Dwight or Jameer taking this sort of attitude from a player. “Dude, we’re trying to win a title here, sort yourself out.” And SVG wouldn’t put up with a half arsed effort either.

He can pass, drive or shoot when he does, but he is not a spot up shooter. He is not a good fit for Triano’s offense (or defense). His lack of effort is surprising and disappointing but he is in a position where his abilities don’t mess with the style Toronto plays. Agreed, he is not a superstar, but don’t blame him for taking the money. Remember, Otis offered him $9 mil a year for 4 years, which would have been too much, but who among us would turn down and “extra” $17 million?

Stan was a huge reason for Hedo’s success. Turk’s defense was never really great, but Stan certainly would make sure that he made an effort. I’m just thinking from my perspective, Stan Van Gundy is not a man I want to look lazy in front of. Case in point, take a look at the defensive effort you’ve been seeing out of Vince Carter lately. I can’t remember ever seeing Vince focus on defense as much as he has this year with the Magic.

Turkoglu is now playing for the worst defensive team in the NBA. There is no accountability. Toronto doesn’t even say their defense is a problem. And lets just say he doesn’t help the situation.

Additionally, They don’t need him to score. Toronto’s offense is pretty damn good. His shooting percentage is only 41%, and the Raptors have more efficient scorers. His usage rate has plummeted to 17.8%, his lowest since 2003-2004.

What is motivating Turk now? Not money, because he is now set for life. Not a championship, because the Raptors aren’t contenders. And not the coach, because it’s pretty clear he’s tuned Triano out.

It’s no wonder he’s having such a shitty season.

I say its Turkoglu, and no we should not have.

I am disappoint.

Still a Turk fan…still wear my Turk #15 jersey proud…BUT…I have a feeling we might be better of this season at least. I think that killer instinct was missing last year and the team was happy to just be successful. At the same time, I think Turk harbored that behavior and sentiment. He was such an important part of the team ability to close games that his easygoing nature set a poor example. This season accountability lies all around that locker room. What’s upsetting the Raptors about Hedo’s personality might be the one aspect of Hedo’s game/personality that I am sure Otis and Stan are happy is gone. He’s too much of nice dude, and honestly nice dudes finish second.

I have never been a big fan of the guy. I don’t like tall guys that aren’t aggressive at attacking the rim, going in hard for dunks, or so pathetic on D that the player needs to put up 20 points just to break even on the night with the guy he’s guarding. I always thought because he occasionally knocked down some game winners (only 1 I can recall in the playoffs) most fellow fans loved the guy. I wasn’t one of them. It doesn’t surprise me in the least hearing these things about him. It wasn’t like the guy followed the “my body is a temple” philosophy when he was here. I truly believe that he would have regressed even further had Orlando paid him. Glad they didn’t.

but, not the management. They deserve what they got. They clearly did not do enough research about him. Otis knew what he was getting when he made the offer to Turk. I do like Turk and it’s sad that this has happened, but he did not make the right choice for himself. When you settle for money instead of happiness, this is what happens. He is clearly unhappy, but he really should make the best of his situation. I mean it’s not like he’s not paid enough to care! This is also a leadership issue too. Who think SVG would take this nonsense? It’s one thing to go out on a night off, but when you left the game, you do not go out. Hope they can turn it around for his sake.

Last year some Magic fans were already complaining there was a huge drop-off in Turkoglu’s game after his career season in 2007-2008. He did redeem himself during the playoffs… but even then, there were lots of fans complaining about his lackadaisical drives and such.

I’ll never be one to bad-mouth a former Magic player (unless it’s Shaq!) but I think Otis and the Magic did the right thing, and passed on breaking the bank for Hedo and instead went after VC/RA/Barnes.

But even to this day there are people that insist the Magic were better last year because they had Turkoglu… most of them people are Orlando Magic detractors.

A goofy looking guy who could do a lot of different things on the basketball court. But I agree with the others and say SVG should get 10% of Turk’s contract. He definitely put his game to another level. With Brian Hill, he looked lost and would be the reason many a remote got thrown. I have not watched many Raptor games this season, but it sounds like Raptor fans are pretty frustrated with him and sounds like the Hill era all over.

I think it can still work in Toronto and he can be an effective player. But they need a new coach and some other personnel changes.

At the beginning of the season, everyone was talking about Carter not being a better fit than Hedo. I still love Hedo for what he has done in Orlando but, we don’t need him. Carter has shown more effort, this season, than the rest of his career. He loves it here, and we love him here in Orlando. Carter has really gelled with this team, he knows where to find Dwight after a pick & roll, he finds Matt Barnes on the hard cut, he even finds Sweet Lew, and Nelson on the perimeter. Plus he’s scoring, when we need it, clutch. He has filled in as the Hedo role, and like I said at the beginning of the season, Hedo will fall, and regret leaving this team, and watch us win the championship,

in Orlando as well this year. I liked his game, but as others have said in previous posts, he needs to be the PG and initiate the offense. LAst year when Nelson was playing all star caliber, I remember Hedo not playing well. Toronto should really be playing with him as the PG and running pick and rolls. Hedo was in a better system in Orlando, so his drop off would not have been as significant, as he could still create for three point shooters and lob to Dwight, as well as have his defense actually be valued with his size because all he had to do was cover the jump shot, and let Dwight cover the rim.

Part of the reason the Kings dealt him to SA is because he sulked and didn’t always give effort when they brought in Jim Jackson. Eventually Jackson left after Hedo anyway, but I’ve never really heard it mentioned that the organization missed Hedo at any point. (A big part of that was that the Kings got Brad Miller in that trade.)

I thought it was a curious move that Bryan Colangelo made at the time. I agree with what funny said up top that keeping Hedo engaged is a big part of the deal with him and why Colangelo didn’t think of that was something I don’t quite understand.

Oh well, TO is stuck with him until the end of his contract. The Magic have gotten very lucky they have a competitive environment with their players that requires players to compete and earn for minutes. Yes, the Magic have a crapton of talent that virtually only the Lakers have (even the Lakers don’t have a deep roster like the Magic). Otis Smith will likely end up having to deal Gortat or Bass (or both) to be able to get them minutes because they aren’t happy here. Even saying that, it’s not like the Magic have to deal either at this point.

But my point is simple: I thought the Magic got everything they could out of Hedo but found an improvement in VC. (Unlike last year, Shard hasn’t carried an extra part of the load. More teams gun for the Magic because they went to the Finals. Yadda yadda yadda…)

Even if the Magic don’t win the Finals (hopefully they do!) the trade for VC vs Hedo was essentially justified because of how VC has played and how Hedo hasn’t.

As others have said, this was a guy who had and has a ton of potential and impressive skill set, but it needed the right system to work in, and I think Stan willingness to let him shoot 3’s and be a ballhandler (which is unusual for a guy his size, although nowadays maybe it isnt unusual anymore). Now Im sure Toronto wants him to do that, but its already loaded with smaller shooters and ballhandlers and they dont have as flexible a system as Orlando’s and so he’s gonna stuck with limitations.

@4.1 apg with a top-5 a/t ratio for SF’s in the whole league (sorry to use ESPN, it was easily sortable).

On the Raptors, Hedo is 3rd in both APG and AST% (after PGs Calderon and Jack)
His TOV% is lower than Jack and nearly equal to Calderon.

On rebounding, he has the highest TRB% of the wing or guard players on the team. He’s 18th in the league in SF RPG (ahead of Paul Pierce and Ron Artest).

All that to say, he’s still a pretty good (albeit overpaid) SF this season.

Nobody expect Reggie Evans plays defense on the Raptors, so why bust Hedo for that?

Yes, his shooting % is down and he doesn’t seem to care as much as we’d want, but imo, Triano is under-utilizing. I think Triano ought to make better use of keeping Hedo focused by putting the ball in his hands (as mentioned above) rather than using the “motivate-through-benching” tactic.

But with his contract I’m still glad he’s in TOR instead of ORL.