http://www.sportsnet.ca/basketball/...713_185403_5860

The revamped Toronto Raptors have reportedly added another new face.

The Raptors have worked out a sign-and-trade deal with the Philadelphia
76ers for guard-forward John Salmons, the Philadelphia Daily News reported
Thursday.

The 76ers will receive a second-round draft pick and a $2 million US trade
exception. Salmons, 26, has reportedly agreed to terms on a $23-million,
five-year deal with the Raptors.

Salmons chose Toronto over the Phoenix Suns, who could only offer a deal
averaging $3.7 million a year due to salary cap constraints.

"John had two great choices and chose Toronto based on a variety of
factors," Salmons' agent Joel Bell told the Daily News on Thursday. "He
wanted to think through all the possibilities before he reached a decision."

Salmons averaged 7.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 25.1 minutes
while playing all 82 games for Philadelphia last season. The six-foot-six
swingman is one of the more unheralded athletes in the NBA, a quality sought
by both the retooling Raptors and the run-and-gun Suns.

The 26th overall pick in the 2002 draft, Salmons has averaged 5.1 points,
2.1 rebounds, 1.8 assists and 18.4 minutes in 281 career games, all with
Philadelphia.

The move comes on the same day the Raptors announced the signing of former
Maccabi Tel Aviv star Anthony Parker to a three-year deal. To make room on
the roster, the Raptors waived point guard Andre Barrett, who averaged 4.6
points and 2.7 assists in 19 games with Toronto last season.

The Raptors also called a Friday morning news conference where they will
announce the re-signing of all-star forward Chris Bosh to a multi-year
contract extension.

Salmons had his chance last year, he came up small. He won't be missed.

----- Kurt Straub

"Tunnel ©" <rat@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:e96sod$v0e$1@news.datemas.de...

Salmons will never be more than a 7th or 8th guy at best. Not much of a
loss, but this does hurt the Sixers depth problems.

I'm rather shocked actually that the Suns had shown the kind of
interest in Salmons they apparently did. I guess they saw another Bell
in him, but even when Bell was on the Sixers, I liked him a lot more
than Salmons - especially since Salmons never proved to be a reliable
3pt shooter. I would say that between that potential move and how they
threw away their draft that the Colangelo defection is making itself
felt in Phoenix - but then it turns out to be Colangelo that goes and
gets Salmons himself. Weird.

A few comments on other news:

Randolph re-signs: I said somewhere else on the board that I wouldn't
be surprised if this happens. But again, it's a non-event. If he's
more than an 11th man, it just shows King's limitations and general
lack of imagination. I recently saw that Othella Harrington was let go
by Chicago. He sounds like a reasonable acquisition as a backup 4/5.
He may be a little short for the 5, but he could give some low post
scoring off the bench, and there should be possible enough to switch
assignments with Hunter, Webber, Dalembert as needed if there were to
be a real size mismatch for him among backup 5s. I'd say pick him up
once he clears waivers.

Green re-signs long term: Meh. It was a mistake to sign him to such a
contract before the injury and it is a mistake now. The indications
are all looking like Iverson is staying, and Green showed on many
occasions that he can't play in the same backcourt. I'd rather just
see Carney get the minutes, along with Williams getting the token 6-8
minutes Iverson might sit per game. Why not use the money to find a
decent 4/5? Between Green and Randolph, that's close to mid-level
exception type money.

As far as the continuing Iverson rumours go, it looks like Boston and
Atlanta are the only viable destinations left. Apparently, even King
won't take the usual Denver and Golden State packages; the Clippers
don't seem willing to give away Livingston; and Chicago doesn't have
the contracts/cap space to do a deal involving Gordon anymore. So that
leaves something like Telfair, Jefferson, Sczerbiak from Boston or
Harrington, J. Smith, and change from Atlanta. The Atlanta deal sounds
like a rip-off. The Boston one is somewhat interesting, though I've
never seen Jefferson play (so I can't affirm for myself how solid a
prospect he is) and it doesn't sound as though Boston has offered both
Telfair and Jefferson in a deal (it sounds like they'd prefer to send
Gerald Green). Again, it looks like Iverson's staying around - and
with deals like these, I can't say it's a bad thing.

I actually get the feeling that King has now bought into his own
platitudes from last year about how the team just wasn't playing hard
enough defensively and that the team will just turn around with some
cosmetic changes. While on a certain level, I think that if Dalembert
benefits from a full, injury free training camp, and Carney can play as
advertised, there's enough talent to make the 2nd round, it still
doesn't address the fundamental problems not only of the bench but also
the fact that Cheeks has never instituted a specific system to maximize
whatever effectiveness may be had. It looks like the team is
collecting fast, athletic players--in a good way--but how much is
Webber going to bitch about not being utilized when he can't keep
up?--and how fast will Cheeks give in to him and see the team fall into
the formless, disorganized sets that marked last year?

-IK


Chris Zabel wrote: