Toronto Raptors trade Belinelli for J Wright
The Toronto Raptors have traded 6’5” Italian forward Marco Belinelli to the New Orleans Hornet for 6’8” Forward Julian Wright.
Belinelli averaged 7.1 points and 1.4 rebounds in 17 minutes a game for the Toronto Raptors in 2009-10. He was brought over in a trade from the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Devean George in July 2009. Originally drafted at number 18 in 2007, Belinelli was considered a talented but inconsistent scorer, but has not reached the potential expected from him. He has two years left to run on his current contract for a total of approximately $5.7 million.
Julian Wright averaged 3.8 points and 2.1 assists for the New Orleans Hornets in 2009-10 12:48 minutes per game. He is considered a very athletic player, which is something the Raptors appear to be stockpiling as they move towards being more of a fast break team while they re-build after losing both Chris Bosh and Hedo Turkoglu during the offseason. Wright has two years left to run on his contract for a total value of approximately $6.8 million.
For the past few years, the Raptors were considered a middle-of-the-road playoff team; one that would likely make the playoffs, but with Chris Bosh as their leader, probably not make it past the first round. In fact, as superb as Bosh’s individual numbers were, the Raptors only won three playoff games in his seven years with Toronto.
With his departure, General Manager Bryan Colangelo feels he is freed from the shackles of building a team around Bosh and seems to be creating a new version of his old Phoenix Suns team, famous for their “seven seconds” offense where point guard Steve Nash would push the ball up the floor and get off the first good shot that came to his team, to great effect.
Colangelo does not appear to be finished his dealing, but so far he seems intent on bringing in long, athletic players to Toronto, and also focusing on a youth rebuilding plan. In these regards, Wright will fit nicely.
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