5 Players the Sacramento Kings gave up on too soon

4. Hedo Turkoglu

Hedo Turkoglu may have had some rather productive seasons during his time in Sacramento, but we don’t think there are any doubts that his best seasons came right after he left the Kings in favor of the Dwight Howard-led Magic.

After being selected 16th overall in the laughably bad 2000 NBA Draft, Turkoglu would put together three decent seasons with the Kings, averaging 7.5 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.4 assists in just 19.9 minutes a game. Despite the upside Turkoglu showcased during his tenure, Sacramento would still opt to trade him in the summer of 2003.

While the trade that sent Turkoglu away to the Spurs did net the Kings Brad Miller, who would go on to make an All-Star game in his first season with the team, it still sucked to see Turkoglu go and be a very productive player on a contending team following his signing with the Magic.

It didn’t take Turkoglu very long to showcase the full capabilities of his talent in Orlando, averaging 13+ points per game each of his five seasons with the time while also showing off some playmaking talent that was not fully realized in Sacramento.

With Turkoglu, at least we can say the Kings got a pretty darn good player in return for him. However, it would have been nice to see what he would do on a rebuilding Kings team with his all-around offensive prowess.