When the Orlando Magic made the trade to bring Hedo Turkoglu back to Orlando, there was a lot of talk from the Magic that Hedo was really good at passing the ball to Dwight Howard and setting him up for easy opportunities. Most people (including myself) kind of chuckled at that, considering how poorly Turkoglu has played during the past two years. You know what though? They were right, and the numbers right now prove it.
Despite Turkoglu’s usage rate dropping from 17.03 to 16.51, Turkoglu has seen his assist rate nearly double from 19.47 in Phoenix to 30.14 in Orlando, with maybe some of his best passes going to none other than Dwight Howard.
It has been said that Turkoglu’s success comes from the ball being in his hands more with Orlando, but the drop in his usage rate from Phoenix to Orlando proves that this isn’t entirely true. The difference between Orlando and his two other stops over the past two years is WHERE Turkoglu handles the ball. The Magic let him initiate the offense from the top of the key, and it has been successful, just like in the clip above.
Here, Turkoglu has the ball up top as Dwight comes to set a screen for him. The Knicks switch, and Turkoglu immediately knows that he wants to go to Dwight, who now has the mismatch. Turkoglu pump fakes to draw Stoudemire to him and then dumps it down to Howard, who is able to finish.
It is the same thing here in this clip, except this time the Knicks don’t switch and instead try to hedge. Turkoglu reamins patient, keeping his head up, and when the defense tries to rotate back, he is able to slip a pass into Howard (over the returning hedge man, and in front of the rotating help defender), who finishes with a dunk.
This shows the key difference in Turkoglu’s passing in my opinion. He always seems to be keeping his head up, looking for Howard. In previous stops over the last two years, Turkoglu might give up on the roll man and take a jumper himself in that situation. With Dwight, he knows to stay patient and wait for a passing window.hese next two clips also show Turkoglu’s ability and willingness to find Dwight Howard anywhere on the court. In the first clip, Turkoglu makes a move and looks like he is going to take a jumper, but then at the last second, he hits Dwight Howard with a pass on the block. Passing up a good shot for a better shot. In the second clip, it is pretty obvious that Turkoglu was looking to make this pass the minute he caught the basketball.
The final thing to take away from all of these passes is that Turkoglu always seems to get the ball to Howard in a way that makes it easier for him. What I mean by that is when Turkoglu passes him the ball, Howard is always catching it in a position to make his next move. You never seem him bending down to catch a low pass or reaching out to catch a pass off target. Everything always seems to be on target.
The last clip is a perfect example of this. Many players would make a mistake of making that pass in transition a bounce pass or a pass down low. Turkoglu gets the pass up high, allowing for Howard to simply make the catch and rise up for a dunk. There is no extra motion, and Howard is able to go up quickly and draw the foul.
