Orlando Magic Shooting Month: Top 20 shooters in Orlando Magic history
Top 20 Shooters in Orlando Magic History
6. Hedo Turkoglu
By Coby Leibowitz
At the sixth spot, Hedo Turkoglu was another one of those players who was a big part of those late 2000s playoff runs.
He played eight seasons on the Magic and was a terrific three-point shooter through all his years.
In his eight years in Orlando, he shot 37.9-percent from three and made 794 three-pointers which is fifth in Magic history. That means he made a little more than 99 threes per season and he averaged about 1.6 threes per game.
He was another Magic player who was unstoppable from the corner as analytics began to spread throughout the league and prove the effectiveness of this shot.
He shot 41-percent from the corner with the Magic. He has 47 games with four or more threes, 17 with five or more threes and two games where he made seven threes. In games where he made at least four threes, he shot a jaw-dropping 74.5-percent.
He had two seasons for the Magic where he shot at least 40-percent from three and in one of those seasons he made 166 threes which was his career high for a season and is tied for 13th for single season threes in Magic history.
He also had another career high with the Magic in 2008 when he made two threes per game.
He was clutch too, of his eight game-winners with the Magic, five of them were three-pointers including one of them being in the playoffs. Turkoglu’s clutch performances are the stuff of legends for Magic fans.
He made four playoff appearances with the Magic including the Finals run in 2009. He was another big shooter in the playoffs for the Magic.
He made 55 threes in the playoffs for Orlando, seven of them coming in the Finals where he shot 43.8-percent. He also had several big shots including the game-winning three in Game 4 of the first round series against the Philadelphia 76ers and a clutch three to give Orlando a (brief) lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Not to mention the block he had in Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Kobe Bryant that sent the game to overtime (if Pau Gasol had not goaltended Courtney Lee’s layup attempt).
Turkoglu is eighth in most threes in a single playoffs in Magic history when he made 55 in 2009. He is also seventh in total three-pointers made in the playoffs in Orlando’s history.
He is another big man who could shoot the rock. He was a 6-foot-10 forward who could shoot at an extremely high rate before it was normal for big men to be able to shoot as he could.
Turkoglu could shoot the ball from anywhere at any time, whether it was the playoffs, regular season, fourth quarter or first. He was a high-volume three-point shooter who was always there in the big moments.
He helped the Magic go on numerous playoff runs and should be remembered as one of the greatest shooters the Orlando Magic franchise has ever seen.