All season long, Orlando Magic forward Hedo Turkoglu was essentially paid to stay away from the team, as he was clearly not in the team’s future plans.
The now 34 year old point forward was once a match-up nightmare that opposing players hated to play against, especially during his first stint with the Magic when he and Dwight Howard helped lead Orlando to the NBA Finals during the ’08-’09 season.
But after being traded to Toronto, Phoenix, back to the Magic, then forced to sit out 20 games due to testing positive for a banned substance early in 2013, Turkoglu was officially released a few days ago on January 3rd, 2014.
Although he hasn’t played in an NBA game in nearly a year(February 2013 to be exact), Hedo apparently still has some interest from teams and has stated that he wants to play for a contender after clearing waivers.
Fitting in with that sentiment, the LA Clippers have emerged as the team with the most interest, holding an individual workout with Turkoglu on Monday.
With PG Chris Paul out at least 6 weeks with a shoulder injury and 2nd year floor general Maalik Wayns released from the team yesterday, the Clips will be rather thin behind Darren Collison at the point going forward.
With Wayns released, it does open up a roster spot on a potential 10 day contract or end of the year veterans deal for Turkoglu, who has played as a point forward at times in his career.
With their own point guard issues, there was a credible report over the weekend that the LA Lakers also have interest in Turkoglu.
Hedo was once a beast early on with the Kings then with the Magic. Does he have anything left in the tank?
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen has also provided content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, Cleveland.com, CSN Philly.com, Buckets Magazine, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
