Hedo Turkoglu Continues To Show His Versatility

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During Hedo Turkoglu’s first stint with the Orlando Magic, versatility was one of his biggest assets.

Having a ball handler that is a more-than-capable 3-point shooter who stands 6’10 is extremely rare. In fact, it’s nearly unheard of but that’s exactly what Turkoglu brings to the Magic.

During his second stint with the Magic, Turkoglu is showing that nothing has changed.

During Monday night’s victory over the Golden State Warriors, Turkoglu had one of the finest all-around statistical performances of his career. Turkoglu posted his third career triple-double, scoring 10 points, dishing out 10 assists and grabbing 14 rebounds to go with 5 steals.

“He certainly made some big plays tonight,” Magic Head Coach Stan Van Gundy said following Monday’s victory. “His versatility is showing.”

Turkoglu’s versatility has already helped the Magic in several different ways but the biggest improvement he’s brought to the club has to be his ability to pass the ball.

“His passing on the pick-and-rolls is outstanding,” Van Gundy explained. “He’s able to get the ball in to Dwight [Howard] and he’s able to look people off and make passes to guys for 3.”

The team has had a problem making solid entry passes to their franchise player. Although they had some turnover issues in the paint during the first half of Monday’s game, Howard still shot 7-of-9 from the field and got to the free throw line 12 times. He finished with 22 points.

Howard Is going to have continue to have production like that for the Magic to meet their ultimate goal of winning a championship this season. And Turkoglu makes doing so much easier.

Not only has Turkoglu made better entry passes down low to Howard but he has been able to open up the paint for his big man but running pick-and-rolls with him, penetrating the defense and getting into the paint. That in turn, has allowed the Magic to space things out offensively.

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(Andrew Melnick is Howard the Dunk’s lead blogger, co-host of CB Sports Radio from 5-7 pm week days (1420sports.com) and ESPN 1080′s Magic Insider (http://espn1080.com). Subscribe to his RSS feed, add him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter to follow him daily. You can download the HTD app here).

Tags: Dwight Howard, hedo turkoglu, Orlando Magic, Stan Van Gundy