Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw to Toronto – Jose, Hedo, and Evans outta here
Posted by Moondoggy | Posted in Raptors, Sports | 2 Comments » | Posted on July 12th, 2010

UPDATE: Jose and Reggie Evans are goners. Say this for Bryan Colangelo, he might make the odd mess, but he cleans up very well.
The Raptors general manager is on the verge of removing his two ugliest contracts from the books, though nothing is yet official.
The Arizona Republic first reported late Sunday that Hedo Turkoglu would be heading to Phoenix in exchange for guard Leandro Barbosa and that Charlotte forward Boris Diaw would also be Toronto-bound, but it was a far more advanced transaction than that.
The Raptors will also ship its longest-serving member, Jose Calderon, along with Reggie Evans for centre Tyson Chandler.
The Raptors take back almost $5 million US extra right away in the deals than they send out, but the numbers work under the CBA and they save substantially long-term.
Evans’ contract expires next summer, like Chandler’s, but Turkoglu and Calderon were owed more than $73 million (four years left for Turkoglu, three for Calderon). Diaw makes $9 million both this season and next, while Barbosa is owed $7.1 and $7.6 million.
The arrival of Chandler and Diaw would create a logjam up front. They are both capable of playing centre, which would push Andrea Bargnani – now the longest tenured Raptor – to his natural power forward spot, but that would cut the minutes available to play Amir Johnson and promising rookie Ed Davis.
Chandler has been hampered by injuries for several years, but maintains his bothersome toe is fully healed. He confirmed his move to Toronto to Yahoo! Sports, while Steve Nash confirmed Barbosa’s Phoenix exit via Twitter.
Barbosa is a shooting guard with the size of a point guard, but is not capable of running a team effectively. —

The Phoenix Suns are responding to the free-agent departure of Amare Stoudemire with two trades, according to multiple media reports.
The Arizona Republic reported on its website Sunday night that the Suns are acquiring Toronto’s Hedo Turkoglu and former Atlanta swingman Josh Childress in separate transactions that will dramatically change the look of a team that made a surprising run to last season’s Western Conference finals.
The Suns, according to the Republic, have agreed to send guard Leandro Barbosa and forward Dwayne Jones to the Raptors for Turkoglu, who badly wants a move after a rough first season with Toronto. The Raptors then plan to use the trade exception it created in their Chris Bosh sign-and-trade deal with Miami to acquire Boris Diaw from Charlotte, with Jones heading to the Bobcats.
Barbosa and Diaw are players who were brought to Phoenix by current Raptors president of basketball operatons Bryan Colangelo.
In the second deal, Phoenix will acquire Childress in a sign-and-trade with the Hawks, who still hold Childress’ rights after the restricted free agent spent the last two seasons in Greece. The Republic reported that Childress has agreed to a five-year, $34 million contract with the Suns, who will use a portion of the trade exception created in Friday’s Stoudemire sign-and-trade with New York to absorb Childress’ contract.
The Hawks, who had no financial flexibility to even consider matching offers to Childress after signing Joe Johnson to a six-year deal worth nearly $120 million, will get a 2012 second-round pick from Phoenix to complete the transaction.
The moves are intriguing for a variety of reasons, starting with the fact that Turkoglu will serve as a very different starting power forward than Stoudemire, with ballhandling ability that could potentially lessen the wear-and-tear absorbed by Steve Nash in running the Suns’ offense.

Another reason: Turkoglu is a current client and Childress is a former client of longtime player-agent Lon Babby, who appears destined to replace Steve Kerr as the Suns’ new head of basketball operations.
ESPN.com’s Marc Stein reported Saturday that Suns owner Robert Sarver — increasingly interested in succeeding Kerr with a revamped structure that includes non-traditional personnel voices as well as traditional basketball executives — is giving Babby strong consideration to lead the Suns’ revamped basketball department.
Sources close to the situation told Stein on Sunday that Babby’s hiring has been agreed to in principle, with more hires to come to assist him.
Turkoglu wanted out of Toronto following a miserable debut season. It was the first year of a five-year, $53 million contract that Turkoglu received last summer after initially telling the Portland Trail Blazers that he’d sign with them.
The 10-year NBA veteran averaged 11.3 points last season on 40.9 percent shooting, his lowest scoring average and shooting percentage in six years. As recently as the 2007-08 season, Turkoglu won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award by averaging 19.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists with Orlando, then helped the Magic reach the NBA Finals in 2009 by averaging 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists.
According to the Republic, Turkoglu is waiving roughly $5 million of a trade bonus in his contract and reducing the guaranteed money in the final season — which was worth $12 million in 2013-14 — to facilitate his move to the Suns.
Childress had an NBA out in his contract with Greek power Olympiacos that he had to exercise by Thursday if he wanted to return to the States for next season. He signed a three-year, $20 million deal with the Greek team in 2008.
Drafted No. 6 overall in 2004, Childress averaged 11.1 points over four seasons with Atlanta, shooting 52.2 percent from the field and 36 percent on 3-pointers.
If Turkoglu starts, another recent Suns acquisition — free-agent signee Hakim Warrick — would likely join Childress, Channing Frye, Jared Dudley and Goran Dragic on Phoenix’s second unit. In addition to Barbosa’s departure, Phoenix is also expected to lose popular forward Louis Amundson this summer.
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Calderon is leaving too??? Nooo!! :(
Update: Calderon’s staying with Raptors :D