Despite doing close to nothing the last two years with the Los Angeles Clippers, Hedo Turkoglu is still trying to keep his NBA career alive.
Turkoglu is not considering playing overseas at the moment, which hasn’t happened since 2000, his last season in European basketball. He’s trying to get some team to give him a training camp invite.
Will he get it? At 36, after averaging 3.5 points per game over one and change seasons in Los Angeles with the Clippers, it’s highly doubtful.
He’s slow, he can’t defend, and his overall usefulness has almost disappeared. He did shoot 43.2% from beyond the arc last season but that included a lot of garbage time minutes.
He’s had a great NBA career, spanning 15 NBA seasons, including making the finals once with the Orlando Magic in 2009. That was probably when it all peaked for him, because after leaving the Magic in 2009 his ability to dominate as a point forward disappeared. He played for the Raptors, Suns and went back to Orlando, pretty much getting kicked out by the Magic in the end.
I’m not sure he even has a lot to give in Europe at this point considering how little time he’s actually able to do something on the floor. But players coming back from the NBA tend to find a home, even at his age, even with his numbers in recent years.
Turkoglu isn’t giving up, and maybe a training camp invite will fall into his lap. But even with a veteran’s minimum salary (which might bloat up to something bigger depending on the luxury tax you’re paying), he’s not worth keeping around and filling a roster spot for a team that’s thinking about going places next season.