This is an update to today’s earlier post
Adrian Wojnarowski reports
The Dallas Mavericks have reached agreement to acquire Shawn Marion in a sign-and-trade deal with the Toronto Raptors, league sources said Wednesday.
The Mavericks and Raptors recruited the Orlando Magic and Memphis Grizzlies to help facilitate the deal. The Raptors will get Hedo Turkoglu in a sign-and-trade deal with the Magic rather than signing him outright. They also will receive forwards Devean George and Antoine Wright from the Mavericks.
Marion will receive a five-year, $40 million contract from the Mavericks.
Stackhouse will go to the Grizzlies, who will waive him. Only $2 million of Stackhouse’s $7 million contract for next season is guaranteed. The Grizzlies will receive cash, likely $3 million, to participate in the trade.
Toronto, which gets to keep its midlevel salary-cap exception, sends a trade exception to Orlando. The Mavericks also will receive forward Kris Humphries from the Raptors.
The Dallas Morning News first reported the Mavericks were nearing a deal for Marion, describing the trade as “on the lip of the cup.”
The Trade
You gotta love, and hate at the same time, four team trades. So many elements, and so confusing. I think I’ve gotten this trade straight now though (took awhile!)
Toronto Raptors
So, Toronto sign and trade Marion for around $8 million. Turkoglu comes back to them. The Raptors also trade Humphries to Dallas, along with Marion, and take back George and Wright from the Mavs.
The Raptors get to keep their exceptions because they never went under the cap, and never had to renounce any of their players. Just signed and traded Marion for Hedo, with other small parts.
Dallas Mavericks
The Mavs acquire Marion and Hump, and send out Stack (to Memphis) + George and Wright (to Toronto).
Update — The Mavericks also received Greg Buckner from the Grizzlies. He has a low buyout, and likely will be bought out, so this is more cash savings for the Grizzlies.
Memphis Grizzlies
The team below the cap takes Stackhouse which creates a trade exception and that trade exception goes to Orlando.
Memphis also gets $3 million from Dallas to buyout Stackhouse.
Update — The Grizzlies also took back Quincy Douby from the Raptors
Orlando Magic
Orlando sign and trade Hedo Turkoglu, who ends up in Toronto, with a trade exception coming back from Memphis.
A Round Of Applause
A round of applause to all GMs involved — Bryan Colangelo, Donnie Nelson, Otis Smith and Chris Wallace — for a highly creative trade, a trade which created benefits for each one of them.
This is quite simply a stunning trade for Bryan Colangelo. Regaining the Raptors trade exceptions, not having to renounce his own free agents, and moving Humphries two year deal for expiring contracts. Unbelievable!
Excellent trade for Donnie Nelson too. Picking up a talent like Shawn Marion for hardly any cost is a major coup.
nbaroundtable.wordpress.com 
Dave,
Here’s the first thing I’ll say about an aspect of this specific trade.
1. If a father abuses his children repeatedly those kids eventually begin to expect that sort of conduct from the man and learn to cope with that fear on a daily basis. Then, on a day when that father chooses not to hit those children, they feel relieved and express their gratitude for their father treating them … on that day … the way he SHOULD be treating them on a day-by-day basis, if he’s going to be considered a High End dad.
i.e. If you’re treated like a dog every day, and then on one occasion treated like a king, by the same individual, your sense of appreciation for that type of treatment becomes artificially inflated due to the low expectations you’ve now had developed in you day-by-day.
The actual facts of this matter might be best understood by this way of thinking instead:
* The Raptors SHOULD NEVER have had to renounce their own free agents, in the first place
* Shawn Marion should always have Signed & Traded in return for a player who was a legitimate #3/SF in the NBA … i.e. something which The Matrix has never been … and additional pieces to the puzzle, since his contract from last season was valued at approximately $17.0 M/yr which is the equivalent of 2 very good players in this league
* Kris Humphries, as the player who was acquired by the Raptors in return for Raffael Aruajo [a 1st Round bust, in the No. 8 slot of the Draft] was never worth very much to begin with, relatively speaking
Please do not make the mistake of being overjoyed at a transaction of this quality which was unnecessarily complicated … because things that SHOULD have been done at an earlier point in time were not done in a Top Notch way.
At firt-glance, it seems to be a solid deal for the Raptors, Dallas, Orlando and Memphis … but, quite possibly, nothing more and nothing less than that.
Dave,
The second thing I’ll say is this:
Remember when you wrote earlier this spring what you thought the worst case scenarion would be for this off season for the Raptors?
Although my memory might be off a bit … Did it not include the following,
– resigning their own free agents
– resigning players from their past teams
– resigning Shawn Marion to a sizable contract extension
– adding veteran players for above minimum contracts
in a futile effort to win a swack of games this season but without making substantial headway in the EC, as far as advancing in the playoffs are concerned.
If you substitute …
Turkoglu for Marion
Delfino for Parker
Wright for Graham
George for Douby
Mensah-Bonsu [keep] for Humphries [trade]
Evans for Kapono
hold onto O’Bryant & Jawai
then throw in the signing of Bargnani to a 5 year $50.0 M contract extension,
with the drafting of a 19 year old player like DeRozan [No. 9], with a solid upside but laregely unproven at the college level, when a 2-for-1 trade down was available, in addition to the possible purchase of a Lower 1st Round Draft Pick …
Do you really think a whirlwind series of personnel moves like THAT, this summer, puts the Raptors back into a position where they can become a legit contender for a top spot in the EC for years to come?
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If you think about it some … does this not echo back to the summer of 2006 when the Raptors made a similar series of seemingly terrific personnel moves which resulted in the team jumping up to have a 47 win campaign, but was then followed by successive years of decline [i.e. 41 and then 33 W’s]?
As I’ve said earlier, I am most interested to see what the Raptors roster will look like when the team breaks from training camp in the fall, in comparison with the other legitimate contenders in the EC.
Short term gain is of little consequence, in the grand scheme of things.
Let’s hope that this “new” path doesn’t lead back to a similar dead end.
Hey Khandor, lot’s great stuff in those two comments …
Colangelo’s Trade
I think this is an excellent trade. BC deserves a lot of credit for pulling this off.
Whether his previous moves were good or bad is immaterial, this move is excellent.
Colangelo’s Should-Have-Done Moves
I had no confidence in Colangelo being able to find a suitable sign and trade for Marion this summer. Finding a team willing to pay Marion the money he wanted, and also being able to get something valuable in return (more valuable then letting him walk) was incredibly unlikely. A hundred to one odds would be putting it mildly.
Therefore, I’m unwilling to say this is something Colangelo should always have done this summer.
Trading down — I would have quite happy to see Toronto trade down if they got a mid first round pick and another late first round pick. Anything less than that, and I was against it.
Worst Case Scenario For Toronto
Yes, you have that spot on. I thought the worst thing Toronto could have done was to give long term money to Shawn Marion, and then resign and acquire a bunch of role players and sign them to medium term contracts. It would tie up the cap and stop them from making more important moves.
My First and Second Preference
My first preference was for the Raptors to refuse taking on any contracts that lasted beyond the end of next season.
My second preference was to sign Hedo Turkoglu. It looked like the Raptors would have to renounce all their own free agents, and lose their exceptions, and be limited to minimum contract signings, but I was fine with that. Signing Hedo was still a good option.
Colangelo’s trade has allowed the Raptors to fulfill my second preference without losing the MLE, LLE, or his own free agents. That’s brilliant news.
The Difference Between Signing Role Players With Marion vs Hedo
It’s Bargnani … he signed a massive contract extension, which is already one of the worst contracts in the league.
This has robbed the Raptors of any financial flexibility, especially after Hedo is also signed. There’s no point in not taking on two year contracts at this stage, there’s no advantage to be gained.
The cap flexibility I initially wanted is now gone. Time to move on.
2011/12
This is the Raptors fail safe option. When they fail, and they will fail, they need to have this option open to them and then use this option.
This means no extra contracts that last beyond two years. I will dislike pretty much any contract that goes beyond two seasons. As long as the contract is than two seasons, spending that money doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
Dead End
The Raptors are going nowhere, and they need a miracle to happen for this plan to have any chance of working out. The Raptors are going to run into dead end.
Now, it’s time just to sit back and let things play out. Things will not improve until Colangelo figures out Bargnani isn’t a cornerstone of this franchise … until that happens, there’s nothing else that can be done to put the Raptors on the right road.
The Raptors can’t get out of the corner that they’ve boxed themselves into, until Bargnani is moved on. Any aspirations for a title are on hold until this happens.
Dave,
The hilarity of that possible reality for this franchise seems to be lost on the many die-hard fans in Raptorville who, today, are swept up in the initial euphoria of this specific transaction.
“… and they will fail …”
Classic stuff, my man.
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PS. There’s a good chance you’ve just provided me with a catchy title for an upcoming entry on my blog. 🙂