A Royal Pain
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Is Hedo Turkoglu Coming Back To Sacramento?

By Ti Windisch

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Although Vlade Divac seemed to imply he was done signing players this summer, there may be a move or two left before the Sacramento Kings start their training camp. According to national writer Adrian Wojnarowski, free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu has some interest in finishing his career with the Kings.

As Wojnarowski mentioned, Divac and Turkoglu are friends going back to their playing days together on the Kings in the early 2000’s. Turkoglu could very well end up occupying the roster spot left after Sacramento chose to place Eric Moreland on waivers, which would bring the team back to 15 players under contract for the season.

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As I’ve written before, whoever ends up as the 15th man isn’t going to have a huge role on the team (hopefully), and Turkoglu is no exception. He’s a bench body who won’t see much more than the eleven minutes per game that he got with the Los Angeles Clippers last season, but he’s still got some game after all those years spent away from Sacramento.

Turkoglu didn’t make any huge contributions in his limited minutes, averaging just 3.7 points and 1.6 rebounds per contest, but when he did score he did it efficiently. Turkoglu shot a smooth 44 percent from the field and a very strong 43 percent from three-point territory.

For the low price of veteran minimum or somewhere around it, having an ace shooter like Turkoglu has been over the last two seasons (he shot a career-high 44 percent in 2014) is a steal. Floor spacing will be very important to the Kings this season, seeing as they have three huge forward/centers in DeMarcus Cousins, Willie Cauley-Stein and Kosta Koufos who cannot space the floor at all.

Having bench players like Turkoglu, Omri Casspi, Duje Dukan, Caron Butler, Seth Curry and David Stockton who can knock down their threes will help open room for those three big men inside, which in turn should help open up the Kings’ offsense.

The one thing tying all of those players together–aside from their marksmanship–is that they were all signed for very little by Divac. It’s clear Vlade values shooters, but also that he understands that it’s possible to snag some potentially talented players at very low cost.

Marco Belinelli is one exception to this rule and may have been overpaid for his long-range ability, but to his credit he’s the only one out of the group to win the three-point contest and has the most proven record as a shooter from deep, so he might have earned that money.

There’s no guarantee Turkoglu becomes a King at this point, but I don’t really see any strong reason for him not to rejoin Sacramento. He clearly knows his role after two seasons of limited minutes with the Clippers, and his ties to Vlade Divac could help a deal get done that brings Turkoglu back to the Kings.

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