Might Hedo Turkoglu be traded this season?
From Brian Schmitz's Basketblog at orlandosentinel.com on Tuesday evening:
Six days before the opening of the Magic's training camp, small forward Hedo Turkoglu, the league's most improved player last season, talked about heading into perhaps his last season with the team.
Turk indicated he will opt out of his contract --- which runs through 2009-10 --- after this season. He'll explore free agency if the Magic don't re-sign him.
"It's hard to tell if I'm staying or leaving," he told me Tuesday.
More from Schmitz:
The Magic will take 16 players into training camp next week, adding small forward Jeremy Richardson and power forward-center Dwayne Jones to the roster.
Jones, 6 feet 11, 250 pounds, finished last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, participating in five playoff games as a backup.
Jones, 25, has played 74 NBA games over three seasons.
Richardson, 6 feet 7, has played 33 NBA games since 2006, finishing last season with the Atlanta Hawks. He has played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs.
The 25-year-old out of Delta State is a scorer, averaging 25.3 points in 12 games last season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Developmental League.
Richardson and Jones join point guard Mike Wilks, point guard Anthony Johnson and shooting guard Mikael Pietrus as the Magic's new players.
Six days before the opening of the Magic's training camp, small forward Hedo Turkoglu, the league's most improved player last season, talked about heading into perhaps his last season with the team.
Turk indicated he will opt out of his contract --- which runs through 2009-10 --- after this season. He'll explore free agency if the Magic don't re-sign him.
"It's hard to tell if I'm staying or leaving," he told me Tuesday.
More from Schmitz:
The Magic will take 16 players into training camp next week, adding small forward Jeremy Richardson and power forward-center Dwayne Jones to the roster.
Jones, 6 feet 11, 250 pounds, finished last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, participating in five playoff games as a backup.
Jones, 25, has played 74 NBA games over three seasons.
Richardson, 6 feet 7, has played 33 NBA games since 2006, finishing last season with the Atlanta Hawks. He has played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs.
The 25-year-old out of Delta State is a scorer, averaging 25.3 points in 12 games last season with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Developmental League.
Richardson and Jones join point guard Mike Wilks, point guard Anthony Johnson and shooting guard Mikael Pietrus as the Magic's new players.
posted by Mike from Illinois @ 12:48 AM
7 Comments:
At 2:08 AM,
Mike from Illinois said…
Magic are in a pretty tough spot regarding Turk. If they re-sign him, they will go well over the NBA luxury tax; if they don't re-sign him, they risk losing him without getting anything in return unless they trade him during the season.
Tough decision for the Magic organization and Otis Smith to eventually make.
What do you guys think would be the best thing to do in this situation?
At 12:25 PM,
Big Figure said…
To me its not that tough. Just like the darko situation,the magic/otis will get an idea of what hedo wants money wise from his agent. At that time if the salary asking is to much you gotta trade him which will give you a player in return to finish out the season. If turk asks for something reasonable then you work a contract thats pays him well but bases some of it on performance to keep you close to the lux tax. Like matt has said many times if you have to go over the lux tax for a player with hedo's skills they should do it,but not to the extent that you over pay for him.
At 1:05 PM,
Matt said…
That is a no brainier guys. Big Figure is right. If Hedo plays as stellar as he did last year his value will go up to the point of becoming a starter-quality SF, at which case we should trade him for a starter-quality, or there about, PF. It is hardly the same since PFs are not equal to SFs in supply but a smart GM can pull off something as close as possible. There is no point in tinkering with it since we need to put Rashard in his natural position of SF.
At 11:33 AM,
Big Figure said…
I completely agree matt. If the only option becomes moving hedo,then we might as well get used to the idea of not getting equal value. At the same time getting equal value would mean trading for a starting quality small-forward,but is that what we need? No. Like matt said,upgrading the PF spot would be the logical choice which would allow rashard to go back to his normal position. As much as i like hedo,to me losing him wouldnt be that big a deal. We'd instantly become tougher at his position with rashard moving over and we'd also be adding depth/skill to our starting unit and bench at the PF spot. The only thing we'd miss is hedo's play-making ability,but if jameer is gonna play more minutes and with the money we've invested in him,he has to show that he can take on/handle those responsibilties,and if not lets remember jameer has a very trade-able contract.
At 4:00 PM,
Mike from Illinois said…
There's a lot of validity to what Big Figure and Matt are saying; but suppose that the Magic get off to a blazing start and Turk has similar numbers to what he had last season, do the Magic still risk trading Turk before the trading deadline, and maybe upset the team chemistry as a result?
I will admit, though, that common sense dictates that Turk will not approach the numbers he had in his career year last year, though he still would be a solid contributor. If that's the case, that his stats are considerably down from last season, then it would be a lot easier to trade him and get something in return, namely a power forward that would add depth to the frontline so Lewis could be placed at his natural small forward postition, as Matt and Big Figure have mentioned.
At 8:29 AM,
Anonymous said…
To me he is a little prick that should'nt be asking for the money he's asking for. He has to get used to not being a Rashard Lewis or a Dwight Howard. He is not the best player on the team, so the magic should do one thing. Keep him if we can keep his salary at a solid pace, or try to trade him during the season, for a valuable profit. If we cant do that, I dont know what we are gonna be able to do when we have to resign Rashards contract.
But I do agree with big figure, and matt. not that hard.
At 7:23 AM,
Diogens said…
damn,can somebody really tell me rashard lewis s better than hedo?,if so why hedo shoot at the bazzers all the time instead of lewis,guys all we gotta do is accept that lewis get the money that he doesnt deserve,he wasnt a real all-star at Seattle,and he ll never be in magic, its tough 2 believe he earns much more than D-child..But at this time sorrily trading Hedo might be a good thing if Magic get a PF like Boozer,Odom or even Randolph,but if there a chance like tradin Lewis for Pf instead of tradin hedo i ll choose it immediately,cos hedo what this team need right now,look at how fake PG nelson is and tryin to understand..
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