by Marcel Mutoni / @marcel_mutoni
The rocky marriage between Hedo Turkoglu and the Toronto Raptors is on the verge of coming to an end. Prepare yourselves for Hedo, Arizona.
Late last night, the AZ Republic reported that a trade between Phoenix and Toronto will soon be completed, sending Leandro Barbosa and a few spare parts back to Canada for Turkoglu.
And oh yeah, the Suns are also going to land Josh Childress, who’s apparently decided that he’s had enough of Greece:
The Suns are on the verge of acquiring forwards Hedo Turkoglu and Josh Childress, swiftly rebounding from the loss of Amar’e Stoudemire with two impact players.
The Suns would send seven-year veteran guard Leandro Barbosa and late-season addition Dwayne Jones to Toronto for Turkoglu, a 6-foot-10 forward from Turkey with versatile skills to shoot from long range and be a playmaker. Toronto would then move Jones and its trade exception from the Chris Bosh sign-and-trade deal to Charlotte for former Suns forward Boris Diaw.
Phoenix will send a 2012 second-round pick to Atlanta in a sign-and-trade deal for Childress, who will leave Greece for a five-year, $33 million contract to play for the Suns. To come to Phoenix, Turkoglu is yielding about $5 million of his trade kicker and reducing the guaranteed money on the final year of his contract, which was worth $12 million in 2013-14. He also has an early termination option on that season.
It’s a tad confusing that Phoenix would willingly take on Hedo’s contract, when they were so adamant about not overpaying for Amar’e Stoudemire. That being said, Phoenix has been able to keep their team competitive since STAT’s departure.
The same thing, however, cannot be said for Toronto. That squad is going to be awful next season.
