Brother Hedo a Portland

Hedo Turkoglu has reached an agreement in principle to join the Portland Trail Blazers, according to sources.Although a verbal commitment may be announced sooner, the terms of the contract cannot be finalized until Wednesday when the NBA informs teams what the 2009-10 salary cap will be.

The Orlando Magic’s recent trade for Vince Carter, who has a large salary and plays small forward — which is Turkoglu’s position — made it highly unlikely Turkoglu would be back in Orlando.The Toronto Raptors expressed interest in Turkoglu, but were constrained by their other efforts to keep Shawn Marion and Carlos Delfino.Turkoglu, a 6-10 forward from Turkey who played a prominent role in the Magic’s recent trip to the NBA Finals, had been looking for a five-year deal in the neighborhood of $50 million.Experts believe the cap likely will be somewhere between $57 million and $59 million. If the cap number comes in at the high end, the Blazers can offer close to what Turkoglu is hoping for.After having dinner with Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan in Florida on Wednesday, Turkoglu flew to Portland on Thursday to visit the the team and see the city.ESPN’s Ric Bucher reported that the Turkish star remained in Portland on Friday, where he and the team were working on a deal.The Blazers, one of the youngest teams in the NBA, had been intent on adding experienced players this offseason. They targeted the 30-year-old Turkoglu as a player who could take pressure off team leader Brandon Roy, who has carried the burden of creating most of the team’s scoring opportunities.

3 thoughts on “Brother Hedo a Portland

  1. Guai grossi non a Chinatown ma almeno nella West coast.Credo di non riuscire ad trovare(o almeno pensare ad) un giocatore più adatto di Brandon Roy per giocare con il Turco. Entrambi letali e sopratutto entrambi sanno “aspettare” il gioco. Non la cosa più facile nel mondo,molti accellerano e frenano ma andare in modo costante e molto più difficile..Poi aggiungiamo anche la marea di giovani che Portland ha, e magari Oden che inizia a far vedere qualcosa…Io dico almeno,ma almeno semifinale ad Ovest.( Ovvio sulla carta,poi il parquet è altro…thet’s for sure.)

  2. che colpo i BLAZERS! se solo ODEN, tornasse ad essere quello prima dell’infortunio, dovrebbero preoccuparsi anche i LAKERS…

  3. A quanto pare sembra saltata, coi Raptors di nuovo favoriti. Spero per Bargnani che vada ai Raptors, sarebbe un teammate ideale, e poi Bosh a casa possibilmente.