Linkage – June 12
Jorge Garbajosa may have played his last game for the Raptors.
According to Spanish media reports, the Raptors are trying negotiate a buyout of the final year of Garbajosa’s contract, worth $4.35 million US.
Earlier this week, Spanish national team coach Aito Garcia Reneses included Garbajosa in his pool of players for the 2008 Beijing Olympic team.
Colangelo made it clear the day after the Raptors’ season ended that they wouldn’t permit Garbajosa to play in Beijing, saying: “it’s a safe assumption that he will not be playing in the Olympics as long as he’s under contract to us.”
A Garbajosa buyout would keep the team further away from the dreaded luxury tax and provide Colangelo additional cap flexibility as he pursues trades, free agents and potential draft picks.
The Raptors reiterated last week that though offers are constantly being made for point guard Jose Calderon, the odds of him moving are nil since the club can match any offer. Now comes word that Calderon recently fired his American agent, while maintaining his European representation.
Connecting the dots, it appears Calderon, a restricted free agent, likely realized he would be returning to the Raptors, so paying considerable cash to a North American agent to promote him around the league made little sense.
If Jorge Garbajosa’s NBA career is coming to an end, one of his closest friends knows his passion for the game will never abate.
“He’s a great player, a great guy. He just wants to enjoy himself and play basketball and he didn’t feel like this year he was given the opportunity to play,” Pau Gasol said. “He was a little bit unhappy, frustrated, during the summer and in last year.”
“We’re still working on a resolution to the entire Garbo scenario,” Toronto’s president and general manager Bryan Colangelo said.
The “entire Garbo scenario” is a dicey one involving the Raptors, insurance firms and the Spanish basketball federation and it’s likely all are involved in any buyout talks.
There are still negotiations going on with the Spanish federation over insurance payments on a policy taken out to cover Garbajosa when he played for Spain in last summer’s European championship.
“He loves playing with the national team,” said Gasol, a teammate of Garbajosa’s for almost a decade on the Spanish national team. “I know the situation has been tough for Toronto because Toronto wants him to be at his best physically and be healthy so he can produce. His rookie year, he was so good. I guess they got a little bit upset with him after his injury that he played in the European championship.
“It’s hard to deny a player to … play for the national team. It’s such a great passion, an honour.”
Talking to a few folks around the final who have their ear to the ground, the thinking is you can take the Denver Nuggets off the list of teams that need a point guard and might make a move on T.J. Ford.
No way George Karl can feel comfortable playing the world’s smallest backcourt of Ford and Allen Iverson.
One down.
The decision to offer Garbajosa a buyout as part of an overall settlement reflected a couple of realities.
The first is Garbajosa wouldn’t be likely to pass an NBA physical in his current condition, meaning playing for the Raptors or elsewhere in the NBA wasn’t an option.
The second is Spain wants Garbajosa to play at the Beijing Olympics in August — as does Garbajosa — and Colangelo said after the NBA season had ended that the Raptors wouldn’t grant him permission as long as he was under contract with the club, holding on to one additional bargaining chip.
A buyout would likely save the Raptors some money and earn them additional space under the NBA’s luxury-tax threshold.
Presuming Garbajosa is healthy enough to play for Spain in the summer, it’s likely a Spanish league club would be willing to bring one of the country’s most popular players back from the NBA.
“The buyout would be part of an all-inclusive resolution,” a Raptors source said. “The amount would be enough that, combined with whatever he might be able to sign for in Spain, would leave Garbajosa whole.”
The attraction for the Raptors is easing their front-court logjam and gaining a little financial flexibility. If, for example, Garbajosa settled for half of the $4.25-million owed him, Toronto’s salary obligation would decrease by more than $2-million — money they could apply to other contracts.
Calderon will now be represented solely by Spanish-based agent Paco Lopez Costell.
Speculation in NBA circles is Calderon, confident he was going to re-sign with the Raptors, felt he didn’t need an NBA agent to stir up competing offers from rival clubs. Presuming his two agents were splitting the standard 4-per-cent fee most players pay their representatives, firing Bass could theoretically save Calderon $800,000 on a $40-million contract.
Whenever Toronto Raptors coach Sam Mitchell was questioned about the team’s struggles this season, he had a go-to explanation: injuries.
There were none bigger, he would say, than the loss of Jorge Garbajosa, who served as Toronto’s starting small forward for most of their Atlantic Division-winning season in 2006-07.
But if the Raptors should falter next season, Garbajosa likely will not be around for anyone to point to.
The move would give Toronto additional space under the luxury tax threshold and clear another roster spot, but it would eliminate the possibility of trading Garbajosa and his valuable expiring contract to another team for a player with a longer deal.
With Garbajosa almost certainly out of the picture, Toronto’s search for a scoring wing, already a priority before this news, will almost certainly intensify.
The Toronto Raptors and the Portland Trail Blazers will be the parent club teams for the NBA Development League’s defending-champion Idaho Stampede for the 2008-09 season.
The NBA teams can assign rookie and sophomore players to their D-League affiliate. The Seattle Supersonics and the Trail Blazers were Idaho’s parent teams last season.
“The D-League has become a very valuable resource for NBA teams to identify talented players and coaches who are ready to contribute at the next level,” said Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo. “We are pleased to be affiliates with Idaho as they have a stellar reputation for both their business and basketball operations.”
Three berths in the Beijing Olympics are at stake, and while the Slovenes could theoretically put five NBA players on the floor, the only one certain to play is Rasho Nesterovic of the Toronto Raptors.
Fellow Raptors centre Primoz Brezec is expected to retire from international play, and Sacramento Kings guard Beno Udrih and New Jersey Nets forward Bostjan Nachbar will both be NBA free agents in the summer and might not want to risk their health.
The Clippers — like many teams — have pinpointed Toronto Raptors point guard Jose Calderon as an attractive target this off-season.
Calderon is a restricted free agent but is also sharing point guard duties in Toronto with T.J. Ford. The Raptors can match any offer made to Calderon and have stated publicly that they intend to do so.
VIDEO – Raptors Draft Preview
Raptors fans have been dying to see Maggette in Toronto wearing the red and white but we don’t have much to offer financially. The mid-level exception is available but Maggette would be looking for close to two times that amount as his starting price. I’m not sure the Clippers would swing a sign-and-trade deal but they do need a point guard in case Shaun Livingston doesn’t regain his old form following that disastrous knee injury. T.J. Ford would be a pretty good fit there with Elton Brand, Cuttino Mobley, Chris Kaman, etc.
This is the idiocy you get when Peddie is allowed to lead a professional sports franchise, the idiocy that once enveloped the NBA Raptors before Bryan Colangelo was hired and Peddie was told to never again show his face in the basketball operations room.
So while the headlines today will note the fact that Cliff Fletcher will be GM of the Leafs through the 2008-09 season – oh gosh, aren’t we all shocked? – the truly important news is that Peddie will remain as team president.
Like a bad odour, you just can’t make this guy go away.
If the 6′7″ Shaun Livingston is capable of playing next season, Augustin might actually be an interesting yin to Livvy’s yang. But with Knight already signed for another year, I just have nightmare’s of teeny tiny point guards incapable of seeing over their defenders to make a post entry pass. Still, as I mentioned in a different post, I think I’d rather have Augustin than the similarly lilliputian TJ Ford, if it comes to that. Of the diminutive, initialized, Longhorn point guards, DJ is a lot cheaper than TJ, and comes sans congenital spinal condition. I’m just saying.
Idaho Stampede: Portland Trailblazers, Toronto Raptors- Raptors did well by landing this affiliate. This is a young, active, progressive, talented organization. The 2008 NBA D-League champs have great coaching and a good eye for talent. Lance Allred? Stampede. 2008 Draft prospect Mike Taylor? Stampede. 2008 D-League Dunk Champ Air Georgia? Stampede. And from what I’ve seen, Portland got it’s money worth sending Josh McRoberts down as well. We’ll see if he spends more time in Idaho, or heads back to the surging Portland. Toronto, on the other hand, in retrospect, should have sent Andrea Bargnani down. He would have built his confidence and gotten to play against guys with NBA size. Too late for that. Jamario Moon is arguably the biggest D-League signing in league history, but he won’t be coming back. Toronto is likely to use it’s affiliate, though, and with Colangelo’s progressive mindset, I have to wonder if he was the one pushing for this collaboration. Idaho will be back in the playoffs for the D-League. Book it. Amazing young coach Brian Gates will see to that.
I was eagerly looking forward to the return of “Garbo” this season as he brings a lot to the team, and the friendship with Calderon is also pretty important for keeping Jose happy - or at least everyone seems to think that anyways. One Point Guard is most definitely getting shipped out before the next season and everyone expects it to be TJ Ford, I wonder if this is a sign…
Jun 12th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Lemme guess. That Star article that talks about Peddie was written by Damien Cox — yup, I was right.
Weren’t there rumors recently that the Clips will buy out Shaun Livingston?