The decks have been cleared for Hedo Turkoglu, left, and Chris Bosh, right, to become teammates in Toronto.MARK BLINCH/Reuters
After a flurry of activity that not even he could have predicted, the president and general manager of the Toronto Raptors took off for Las Vegas.
Not for a bacchanalian celebration, though some might suggest it's well earned given Bryan Colangelo's recent efforts. Instead he'll be watching his team's prospects at the NBA Summer League.
He'll also be calculating the Raptors' next moves.
In Vegas, Colangelo will huddle with head coach Jay Triano and his coaching staff to assess how to fit together the pieces they have. Triano is, not surprisingly, thrilled about integrating Hedo Turkoglu, the 6-foot-10 Turkish playmaker.
"You tweak your offence to match the strength of your personnel," Triano said yesterday. "He's someone who has been successful with the ball in his hands, he can change your playbook absolutely."
Triano predicted the Raptors will adopt a lot of the sets that Turkoglu used successfully with the Orlando Magic, with Chris Bosh rolling hard to the lane on screen-and-rolls and the floor spaced with shooters.
Turkoglu "had a comfort level there so we'll look at using some of that," Triano said.
With Turkoglu in the fold along with new faces Devean George and Antoine Wright, Colangelo said he wanted to "let the dust settle."
He said yesterday he would be meeting with some free agents in Vegas, but more to lay some groundwork, though things can change quickly.
The Raptors are now committed to about $57.8-million (all currency U.S.) in salary for 2009-10 spread over 11 players. Given the luxury tax is $69.9-million, they have about $12-million to spend. They need some depth on the perimeter, which is why Carlos Delfino is a key target, especially now that Anthony Parker has committed to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Raptors can sign Delfino without using the NBA's mid-level exemption because they maintained his "Bird rights," which allow teams over the salary cap to sign their own free agents. The rights were kept in the complicated four-team transaction finalized Thursday.
That deal brought in Turkoglu and sent Shawn Marion to the Dallas Mavericks. The market for Delfino is expected to begin at about $4-million a season.
Another big man is needed, and former Raptors centre Rasho Nesterovic would be a good fit. But the Raptors will get stiff competition from European teams, who have offered the Slovenian big man between $2-million and $4-million.
Whatever moves the Raptors make will have a long-term view, however, as the salary picture in the NBA is expected to change significantly during a season. The luxury tax threshold - where teams pay a dollar-for-dollar penalty for going over the salary cap - may drop as low as $61-million, compared with $71.1-million last season or the $69.9-million it will be this year.
"You have to find a way to get the right pieces in this year and roll forward and keep below that luxury tax level," Colangelo said. "It's going to get tighter and it's something to contend with."
One strategy might be to sign players for one-year contracts, possibly at a premium, to retain flexibility for next season.
"Maybe on a one-year basis you overpay a little bit," Colangelo said.
The big picture includes convincing Bosh that signing an extension this summer is in his best interests, rather than waiting to become an unrestricted free agent next year. Bosh's willingness to participate in the recruitment of Turkoglu is one sign of his approval. Colangelo hopes the moves yet to come will also get the thumbs-up, and possibly pen on paper.
"Let's get to the point where we have a full complement of players we can point to and say: 'Chris, this is your future, this is who you're going to be with next year and beyond,'" Colangelo said. "That's when we'll talk about that."