Hedo Turkoglu and Vince Carter not living up to the hype:
Turkoglu has been decent offensively but nothing better, with a league-average Player Efficiency Rating (15.06), a high assist rate and middling shooting numbers (42.8 percent after slumping to 41.3 percent last season). Meanwhile, his aversion to defense has become far more glaring without Dwight Howard around to erase his mistakes, playing a role in Toronto's plummet to last in defensive efficiency.
Moreover, the Raptors are on the hook for four more years after this one at $11 million a pop. For a soon-to-be 31-year-old who basically is an average starter, that seems a highly questionable expenditure.
Yet, in Orlando, many observers seem to yearn for the halcyon days of last spring when Turkoglu directed the offense. Carter has been more productive than Turkoglu in terms of sheer numbers (22.9 points per 40 minutes, 16.98 PER), but he's getting his numbers in a different way. Carter is shooting only 39.3 percent from the floor after Tuesday's 2-for-15 stink bomb in a 97-90 loss to Indiana, and despite all the weapons around him, his assist rate threatens to set a new career low.
In part, this probably is a sample-size issue. Carter is shooting only 31.5 percent on 3-pointers, but it's unlikely that rate will stay that low all season, given that he has shot 37.3 percent for his career and has more clean catch-and-shoot looks in Orlando than he ever saw in New Jersey or Toronto.
However, his inability to create as many open looks for teammates as Turkoglu did requires him to be a more effective scorer. So far, it's tough for him to declare victory on that front -- he's scoring more often than his predecessor but less efficiently.
Moreover, the Raptors are on the hook for four more years after this one at $11 million a pop. For a soon-to-be 31-year-old who basically is an average starter, that seems a highly questionable expenditure.
Yet, in Orlando, many observers seem to yearn for the halcyon days of last spring when Turkoglu directed the offense. Carter has been more productive than Turkoglu in terms of sheer numbers (22.9 points per 40 minutes, 16.98 PER), but he's getting his numbers in a different way. Carter is shooting only 39.3 percent from the floor after Tuesday's 2-for-15 stink bomb in a 97-90 loss to Indiana, and despite all the weapons around him, his assist rate threatens to set a new career low.
In part, this probably is a sample-size issue. Carter is shooting only 31.5 percent on 3-pointers, but it's unlikely that rate will stay that low all season, given that he has shot 37.3 percent for his career and has more clean catch-and-shoot looks in Orlando than he ever saw in New Jersey or Toronto.
However, his inability to create as many open looks for teammates as Turkoglu did requires him to be a more effective scorer. So far, it's tough for him to declare victory on that front -- he's scoring more often than his predecessor but less efficiently.
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