Hedo Turkoglu

Here is the thing about Hedo, he really is not that good.  In fact, I am relieved that the Blazers are going to sign him.  To me, this cements their fate of losing in the first round next year.  Now, I realize Hedo made the finals, but I would argue this is a function of every good team missing a player to injury which led to Hedo overachieving on the big stage.  Think about it.  This was really a mediocre finals.  The Celtics were missing Garnett.  We were missing Manu.  Houston was missing half their team and still pushed the eventual champion LA Lakers to seven games.  That's our champion this year?  A team that was pushed to the limit by Brooks, Battier, Artest, Hayes, and Scola?  Seriously?  It sounds like a D-League team.  This year, the healthiest team won the championship, not the best team.  That's why Denver made it to the conference finals.  They really were not that great.  They overachieved because they ran into a Dallas team that was essentially missing Josh Howard.  The healthiest team won.  

Hedo was once a Spur.  We chose not to resign him because it became apparent that the guy was just not that good.  Take a look at his stats.  This past season, arguably his best, he shot 42.8% from the field and 38% from distance.  When you factor in that he is a horrible defender and needs the ball to be effective offensively, he does not help, he hurts.  If Michael Lewis studied him, he would be the anti-Battier.  As a 6'10" two guard, shouldn't he be shooting just under 50% from the field and getting around 8 boards a game?  He plays against guys half a foot shorter than him.  The problem is that Hedo is too slow.  He cannot blow by shorter players because he lacks speed.  This means that he shoots that funky midrange step-back jumper all too often and makes it 40% of the time.  If Dwight Howard had any kind of offensive game or if Rashard Lewis learned how to drive, Hedo takes 5 to 8 fewer shots a game.  Now he is scoring around 12 ppg and that is about where he should be.  

So congratulations on winning the Hedo sweepstakes, Portland.  You just shot yourself in the foot.