Implications Of Hedo Turkoglu's Broken Hand In Magic's Season Opener

By Danny Nicks
Kim Klement – US PRESSWIRE

Hedo Turkoglu suffered a broke left hand in the Orlando Magic‘s upset of the Denver Nuggets Friday night that will require surgery, essentially leaving the team without a true small forward.

Turkoglu’s injury now pushes the Magic’s injury list to five. That list includes Maurice Harkless (sports hernia) Gustavo Ayon (thumb), Al Harrington (staff infection), and DeQuan Jones (strained abductor muscle).

While Harkless would be the obvious replacement in Turkoglu’s absence, he was only just cleared for full-contact practice last week, following his sports hernia surgery.

It’s very doubtful that Harkless make an appearance on Nov. 4th against the Phoenix Suns, as he should need at least a week to ease back into the rotation. This will. in turn this will force head coach Jacque Vaugh to try some creative line ups.

Arron Afflalo played major minutes at small forward Friday night. Although his stat line was understandably sub-par, he still managed to have a sound presence on defense.

His migration to the three also paved the way for J.J. Redick’s 21 point outing Friday night, as he saw significant minutes as a combo guard.

Obviously, a line up of Jameer Nelson, Reddick and Afflalo would pose a major size disadvantage defensively; that said, they could prove to be a very opportunistic group offensively as well, as they combined for 14 of the Magic’s 24 assists on the night.

It’s clearly going to be an unorthodox look for the blue and white the next few weeks. But if Friday night was any indication, it’s getting the job done.

 

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