Greatest free agency signings in NBA history: 27. Hedo Turkoglu- Orlando Magic, 2004
The Sacramento Kings’ dissolution in the mid-to-late-2000s meant the rest of the league had a chance to benefit from the fruits of those great Rick Adelman-led teams. One such team was the Orlando Magic when they signed Turkish combo-forward Hedo Turkoglu prior to the 2004-05 season.
Turkoglu’s first three seasons in Florida saw him improve his scoring numbers from 7.9 with the Kings and the Spurs to 14.1 with the Magic between 2004-2006, though his uptick in playing time contributed greatly to that increase in production. After all, his advanced stats didn’t change much between those two periods (15.7 PER and .115 WS/49 in those three years with the Magic, 13.3 PER and .128 WS/84 with Sacramento and San Antonio).
After years of flashing his versatility in slightly smaller sample sizes, Turkoglu reached his peak during the 2007-08 season. There, Turkoglu finished with career bests in points (19.5), rebounds (5.7), assists (5.0), PER (17.8), win shares (9.0) and WS/48 (.143) en route to winning Most Improved Player. Most impressively, Orlando’s net rating skyrocketed from +1.1 to +7.3 when he was on the floor, making Turkoglu a vital element in Orlando’s 52-win concoction (with 56 Pythagorean Wins).
Following that breakout season, Turkoglu’s traditional and advance numbers dipped, but he still remained a valuable floor spacer that feasted off of the attention defenses paid to Dwight Howard.
Anyone who watched Turkoglu in Sacramento knew he had potential as a switchable wing who could shoot and facilitate the offense as a point forward. Those skills became fully realized in Orlando, even if the best version of him only manifested in that one season.