Suns’ Use Amare Trade Exception to Nab Childress, Turkoglu
The free agent departure of Amare Stoudemire from Phoenix has prompted the team to affect two trades, media reports suggest.
The Arizona Republic reported that the Suns will be acquiring Toronto Raptor’s Hedo Turkoglu and Atlanta Hawks’ Josh Childress in separate transactions that will give the team a new look. The changes come in the wake of a surprising run to last season’s Western Conference finals.
According to the Republic, the Suns agreed to send guard Leandro Barbosa and forward Dwayne Jones to the Raptors for Turkoglu, who stated explicitly that he wants a trade after a poor first season with Toronto. The Raptors then determine to use the valuable trade exception acquired in their Chris Bosh sign-and-trade with Miami to acquire Boris Diaw from Charlotte, with Jones going to the Bobcats.
Barbosa and Diaw are players who have been shuffled to Phoenix by present Raptors president, Bryan Colangelo.
In a second deal Phoenix will obtain Childress in a sign-and-trade with the Hawks, who hold Childress’s rights after the restricted free agent spent the last two seasons playing in Greece. The Arizona Republic stated that Childress has agreed to a five-year, $34 million contract with the Suns, who will likewise use some of the trade exception created in Stoudemire’s sign-and-trade with New York to absorb Childress’s terms.
The Atlanta Hawks do not have the financial assets to consider matching offers to Childress after signing star Joe Johnson to a six-year deal worth almost $120 million. They will have to content themselves with a 2010 second-round pick from Phoenix to complete the transaction.
The shuffles are fascinating for a number of reasons, beginning with the fact that Turkoglu will serve a very different role as power forward than Stoudemire. His ball-handling could perhaps lessen the burden accrued by Steve Nash after seasons of running the Suns’ offence.
Turkoglu is also a client of long-time player-agent Lon Babby, who appears destined to replace Steve Kerr as the Suns’ new head of operations. These internal changes suggest an entirely different Phoenix team in the upcoming season.
ESPN’s Marc Stein reported Saturday that Suns’ owner Robert Sarver—increasingly interested in outdoing Kerr with a new internal structure that involves non-traditional voices as well as old-time basketball executives—is leaning heavily towards letting Babby lead at the helm.
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 probably won’t miss Toronto much, after debuting miserably with the club. The season was the first of a five-year, $53 million contract he received last summer, after initially indicating that he wanted to sign with the Portland Trail Blazers. The idea with Turkoglu was to open up Chris Bosh’s game, but the two proved to lack the expected chemistry.
Turkoglu, a 10-year NBA veteran, averaged just less than 12 points last season on a 40.9 shooting percentage, his lowest in six years. Just three years ago Turkoglu won the NBA’s Most Improved Player award, averaging 19.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists with Orlando, then helping that team reach the 2009 finals by averaging roughly the same.
Turkoglu is waiving a $5 million trade bonus in contract 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.
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