6 Sacramento Kings Draftees Who Had Better Careers Elsewhere

#4. Hedo Turkoglu

Hedo Turkoglu was a member of the Kings during the franchise’s glory years in the early 2000s, and he was a dependable scoring option off of the bench during their deep playoff run in 2002. That season, the second-year small forward averaged 10 points in 24 minutes per game.

The next season, a handful of Tukoglu’s minutes were given to Jim Jackson, and he began to fall out of favor in Rick Adelman’s rotation. During the summer of 2003, he was traded to the San Antonio Spurs.

He spent one average season under Gregg Popovich before signing a free agent deal with the Orlando Magic, which is when his career really took off. Turkoglu upped his scoring average to 14 points per game in his first season in Orlando and got all the way up to 19.5 per during the 2007-’08 season. He was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player that season.

In his final season with the Magic, he made his only NBA Finals appearance.

Turkoglu bounced around the league during the final six years of his career as his numbers diminished, but he was able to stretch his playing time all the way up to the 2014-’15 season. He is fondly remembered in Sacramento mostly for nostalgic reasons, but his best days came after his days in black and purple.