Orlando may miss the playoff in this case.

brightlee

The Orlando Magic signed former UCF guard Mark Jones Tuesday to replace forward Hedo Turkoglu, who will miss the rest of the season with a fractured left wrist.

Jones, 29, was playing for the Great Lakes Storm in Birch Run, Mich., of the Continental Basketball Association, averaging 20.8 points per game. The 6-foot-6 Jones signed a 10-day pro-rated contract for $42,000.

"Mark's ecstatic. He's some kind of excited," said Jones' agent, Jermandolan Nash, by phone.

The Magic, reeling after losing eight of nine games, have no hopes of Turkoglu returning this season, including any playoffs.

Turkoglu was injured Monday night in the Magic's 102-97 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats at Charlotte Coliseum. It's a six- to eight-week injury.

"He's done," Magic interim coach Chris Jent said.

"No need for us to talk about it [Turkoglu returning]. In six weeks, he gets the cast off. Then he has to get back in basketball shape."

The Magic face a rematch with Charlotte on Thursday without two of their three top scorers.

In addition to Turkoglu (14.0 points per game), point guard Steve Francis -- the Magic's leading scorer (21.4) -- will serve the last of his three-game suspension for kicking a league photographer on last week's road trip.

Jent said he'll turn to veterans Pat Garrity and Stacey Augmon, along with Jones.

"We have to find it [offense] in other ways," Jent said.

Turkoglu took a vicious fall late in the fourth quarter against the Bobcats. He was in the air on a drive defended by Bobcats guard Bernard Robinson. He said that Robinson "undercut me," but Jent disagreed after watching the replay.

"It was not malicious," Jent said. "It ended in a bad way ... a very bad way."

X-rays were taken of Turkoglu's wrist after the game, but Jent said they were negative until doctors got another look Tuesday in Orlando.

Turkoglu, 26, a 6-10 swing man, signed a six-year, $39 million free-agent deal last summer. He had his hot and cold shooting spells, shooting 42 percent for the season.

After the Magic traded Cuttino Mobley and saw Garrity struggle, Turkoglu emerged as the club's top 3-point shooter, making 38 percent (93-for-245).

Turkoglu's injury was just the latest blow in a week of upheaval for Orlando.

The Magic fired Johnny Davis and replaced him with Jent, an assistant. Francis was suspended. Garrity left the team Sunday to return to Orlando to be with his pregnant wife, Paula, who rolled her SUV in an auto accident near Clermont.

Paula Garrity is home and in good health, according to club officials.

Since leaving UCF in 1998, Jones has played professionally in the CBA and overseas (Venezuela, France and the Philippines).

He ranked 29th in the NCAA in scoring (20.8 points per game) his senior season with the Golden Knights.

He scored 40 points in the Great Lakes Storm's recent playoff game before the Magic signed him.


who could be their shooter nowadays?!
As I said, it was a silly trade for Mobley...........

They don't have any shooter now..
how could they run offense now?!