News
Turkoglu makes verbal commitment to Raptors
By: nba.comPosted On: 07/05/2009 12:16 P
An already crazy free agent period in the NBA got downright bizarre on Friday, with the supposed sure deal between Orlando free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu and the Portland Trail Blazers falling apart late in the afternoon, and the veteran, late Friday evening, making a verbal commitment to the Toronto Raptors on a five-year deal that will pay him in excess of $60 million, according to league sources.
Turkoglu's change of heart -- he was in Portland Thursday and Friday, meeting with team officials along with his agent, Lon Babby -- came after the Raptors decided to do what they had been reluctant to do until then -- renounce their rights to several of their own free agents, including forward Shawn Marion and guards Anthony Parker and Carlos Delfino, in order to create the more than $10 million in cap room necessary to make a superior offer to Portland's.
A league source divulged late Friday that Portland's offer to Turkoglu was actually $57 million over five years, not the $50 million that has been reported. But by deciding to renounce their rights to the free agents, the Raptors can give Turkoglu a deal averaging more than $12 million annually. They only have a little more than $48 million committed for next season, including the first-year salary of rookie swingman DeMar DeRozan, taken ninth overall.
The final amount of the deal won't be known until the league officially sets the salary cap figure for the 2009-10 season. The cap is expected to drop from its current $58.7 million, though perhaps not as much as teams had initially feared. A source with knowledge of the auditing process currently underway between the league and the Players' Association that will determine next year's cap figure said this week that the cap may fall by less than $1 million.
Latest VLogs
iLoveMakonnen "Loudest of the Loud Tour - On the Road Pt. 2"
Life With Ty Dolla $ign (Ep. 7)
