By SAM GARDNER
FOXSportsFlorida.com Magic writer
Jan. 3, 2011
ORLANDO, Fla. -- If anyone is looking for evidence that a player can be the product of the system he plays in, they easily could have found it Monday night at the Amway Center.
Magic forward Hedo Turkoglu, who became a household name during a five-year stint in Orlando before struggling mightily during a season in Toronto and 25 games in Phoenix, was the Turkoglu of old against the Golden State Warriors, scoring 10 points, pulling down 14 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists in a 110-90 victory.
The triple-double was the third of Turkoglu's career and his first since a 23-point, 10-rebound, 13-assist night in March 2008 during his first stint with the Magic.
"It's always special," Turkoglu said of the accomplishment. "It's really huge after like a year and a half, coming back and playing this kind of level. It's just special, and I hope I'll keep it up and have more throughout the year."
Many wrote off Turkoglu as an overpaid, overrated bust after his numbers dropped off with the Raptors and Suns, but he's shown during his resurgent return to Orlando that he hasn't lost the skills that made him a fan favorite during his first go-around with the Magic.
"I'm not really making a comparison to where he was, (but) he's playing well," Magic coach Stan Van Gundy said. "I think he's a guy who does thrive with the ball in his hands. He gets energetic when the ball is in his hands. Off the ball, he tends to just sort of stand around and not do a whole lot. When the ball gets to him and he's involved, he's a whole different player."
During the 2008-09 season, Turkoglu's last in Orlando, he averaged 13.3 shot attempts per game. Those numbers dropped drastically to 9.1 attempts per game in Toronto and 7.7 attempts per game in Phoenix.
"It's easy for me to ... catch and shoot, but that wasn't making me happy," Turkoglu said.
His shots per game have risen back to almost 10 in the eight games since the Magic reacquired him, but even at only 10 shots a game, he's a far more integral part of Orlando's offense than he was at either of his past two stops.
Turkoglu is averaging 12.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 5.6 assists since returning to his old stomping grounds, and during Orlando's current six-game winning streak, he has averaged 13.8 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5.7 assists.
"When I have the ball in my hands, I'm able to do the things that I'm good at," Turkoglu said. "It's not like I want the ball in my hands all the time or (to) run everything through me. I'm just using my strength, and my strength is to be a facilitator, creating (my) own shots or for my teammates too. As long as I do those kind of things and we win games, I'm really happy about it."
Turkoglu went into the fourth quarter with seven points, eight rebounds and six assists, and he quickly reached the 10-rebound plateau with 8:03 left in the game.
Monday was just the fifth time in Turkoglu's career that he reached the 14-rebound mark. He did it once for San Antonio in 2004, twice for Orlando (once in 2006 and once in 2007) and once for Toronto, when he pulled down a career-high 19 boards in a loss to Chicago.
"They bounced from Dwight (Howard), and I was in the right place," Turkoglu said.
Turkoglu assisted on back-to-back Ryan Anderson 3-pointers in the first two minutes of the quarter, and his ninth assist came on a Howard dunk with 6:24 to play, but the 6-foot-10 veteran's numbers stayed stagnant for a stressful next few minutes.
It wasn't until a Magic timeout with 3:24 left in the game that Turkoglu said he found out how close he was to a triple-double.
"I talked about it to the guys, like, 'Listen, I'm going to pass it, you shoot it,' " he said. "A couple guys, they passed it out and really pissed me off, but J.J. (Redick) made it up for me."
With 1:55 to play, Turkoglu hit a 3-pointer to give him 10 points on the night, but his 10th assist didn't come until the last Magic field goal of the night when he hit Redick for a fast-break 3 from the right wing.
"I was wondering why he was yelling at us to shoot every time he passed the ball, even when we weren't open," Redick said with a smile. "That was really selfish on his part."
Van Gundy said he didn't mind Turkoglu urging teammates to help him reach the milestone, but noted that he didn't know Turkoglu had gotten the triple-double until after the game.
"I only care about how they're playing, so if they're playing well I guess it doesn't bother me," he said.
The throwback performance from Turkoglu -- who also had five steals -- was good, but Van Gundy isn't about to name him MVP.
"He makes a lot of good plays, (but) he also makes some crazy plays; I just want to qualify that," he said. "It's a little bit a roll of the dice, (but) I feel like the odds are pretty good (when he has the ball)."
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