By Andy Charles

I can remember when a trade used to be easy – one player goes to a new team, who send one of their own players to your team. Simple, right?

Well, the Raptors broke some new ground on Thursday with what looks like a four-team trade bringing plenty of new blood to the Air Canada Center, sending some bit part players away and ending the brief, and not particularly spectacular stay in town of Shawn Marion.

If you will bear with me, I think these are the final details (You might not want to place a basketball bet on it though!):

Raptors get: Hedo Turkoglu from Orlando, Devean George and Antoine Wright from Dallas.

Dallas gets: Shawn Marion, Kris Humphries and Nathan Jawai from Toronto, Greg Buckner from Memphis

Memphis gets: Future second rounder from Toronto, Jerry Stackhouse from Dallas and cash to waive said Stack!

Orlando gets: $7m traded-player salary cap exception that they can use within the next year.

The big news is obviously the Marion-Turkoglu trade, and the Raptors look to be in rude health after it, especially since the cost savings in having Turkoglu instead of the Matrix should mean they can re-sign Carlos Delfino, a ready-made defensive presence who allows Hedo to man the other wing.

Turkoglu is another star presence for the Raptors, and with Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani still in town for at least another season, 2009/10 is the time for this team to finally challenge for something special.

Basketball betting suggests that a starting five of Calderon, Delfino, Turkoglu, Bargnani and Bosh should be able to compete with most in the Eastern Conference, and don’t underestimate Wright’s value as well as he could be a fine sixth man – after that the questions increase, but at least there is always more Pops Mensah-Bonsu on the way and DeMar DeRozan to bring through.

More good news on the Bargnani front as well, with a new five-year deal in his pocket and a season ahead in which he should be able to raise his profile even more towards the sort of level you might expect from a No 1 pick, albeit a couple of years later than some fans might have hoped.

Popularity: 1% [?]

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!