NBA toronto Raptors

For awhile Friday, it sounded like Hedo Turkoglu was trying to become an NBA double dipper, playing for two different teams at the same time. Or like one of those traveling salesmen who quietly kept different wives in different cities.

And maybe he thought since the teams -- Portland and Toronto -- are in different countries, he might be able to slip by. You could just imagine that sly smile of his as he nodded yes to both teams.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work like that. Either Turkoglu got cold feet or several news organizations got it wrong.

Despite Marcin Gortat's best efforts, magical Hedo Turkoglu has taken the 2009 free agency period by the sensitive bits. Five teams reportedly called Hedo's agent Lon Babby on Wednesday morning, inquiring about or begging for the Turk's services. The Blazers top the list, having dispatched coach Nate McMillan for a Wednesday evening rendezvous in Orlando. But don't count out the Raptors(!), who will reportedly offer Hedo $60 million over five years.

But it ain't all rose petals and champagne amid the Hedo saga. According to ESPN's Chris Sheridan, the Portland courtship of Turkoglu has left one Mr. Rudy Fernandez feeling a bit ... hurt. Hurt to the point he is allegedly attempting to quit the Blazers.

Not everyone is waiting for 2010 – the mother of all free agent summers – to try to improve their team by throwing big money at the seasoned veterans.

Even in hard economic times, the top players like Carlos Boozer, Hedo Turkoglu and Jason Kidd will leave teams and get their financial reward in other places. The squeeze will be on the lower-level free agents who must settle for minimum or various exceptions.

What hurts this class is that only seven teams really have major room under the salary cap to make something happen, and they usually aren't the NBA's biggest spenders. Unless the free agents stay with their current teams, only Memphis, Oklahoma City, Sacramento, Atlanta, Portland, Toronto and Detroit have major room.

Although there has been plenty of dancing and unofficial talks the last few days, the real dealings can't start until 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

Here is a breakdown by position of the five most intriguing – and unrestricted – free agents.

In the weakest NBA draft in years, sitting out might have been the best thing to do. All the fireworks were done before it even began. The Cavs traded for Shaq. The Magic added Vince Carter. The Wizards snagged Mike Miller instead of the No. 5 pick. Several teams showed little interest in getting involved.

Keep reading after the jump for the Eastern Conference rundown.

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With the trade of Vince Carter to Orlando, incumbent wing Hedo Turkoglu -- an unrestricted free agent come July 1 -- seems less likely than ever to remain with the Magic. The Carter deal, which according to ESPN's Chad Ford will send Courtney Lee, Rafer Alston and Tony Battie back to New Jersey, adds $2 million to Orlando's 2009-10, putting the team at roughly $65 million in payroll.

Magic bosses had indicated the team would enter luxury tax territory to keep Hedo, who should command a starting salary in excess of $8 million. But Carter changes the calculus. Orlando would be going well over the tax threshold to sign the 30-year-old Turkoglu, and Carter -- a playmaking scorer -- duplicates what Hedo does. So Orlando seems untenable, or at least illogical.

So where will Hedo land?

FanHouse fixes a decade of draft-day blunders in Revisiting the NBA Draft.

It's hard to blame the Toronto Raptors for taking a 7-footer with 3-point range and the ability to play three positions. That's what Andrea Bargnani presented as the No. 1 pick. There was no clear-cut top choice. The 2006 NBA Draft was filled with unproven early entries, a couple of seasoned seniors and raw big men looking for a big payday.

So the Raptors took the player they thought had the best upside. Hey, the NBA Draft is about development these days, right? Nobody in this supposed weak draft was supposed to be an All-Star anyway, right? No one told that to Brandon Roy, who was passed up by five teams and traded by another. Finally, the Portland Trail Blazers, still ringing from a reputation of bad guys, car racers and dog fighters, had a franchise player in their hands, and he was from nearby Seattle.

Sure, the NBA Finals aren't even halfway over (or are they? Orlando can win at least one game, right?), but the rest of the league is officially looking toward the future. The Raptors and 76ers have completed the first trade of the summer, sending sharpshooter Jason Kapono south to Philadelphia in exchange for bruising forward Reggie Evans.

Raptors prez and GM Bryan Colangelo announced the move this afternoon. From Doug Smith of the Toronto Star: "We're changing the dynamic of our club with this move," Colangelo said. "This obviously addresses a few areas of need. ... [The Sixers] probably had too many bigs and we probably had too many finesse players."

That whole exceeding expectations bit was fun while it lasted, Bulls.

Chicago, needing a victory for the No. 6 seed (which may or may not be more valuable than the No. 7 seed), blew it against Toronto. (To that point) 32-win Toronto. John Salmons shot 1-7, Kirk Hinrich went 0-6 and the Bulls front line gave up 16 offensive rebounds in 45 opportunities. Bad stuff all around.

But! Chicago could hold on to the No. 6 with a Philadelphia loss to ... Cleveland, a team which sat four starters (including LeBron) and had only a share of the all-time home win record at stake. Cleveland's remaining crew actually led much of the game, and Daniel Gibson sent the game to overtime with a deep deep three. Philly took a lead in overtime, though, and despite Andre Miller missing two free throws in the final seconds pulled out a one-point victory for the 76ers.

As such, Philadelphia gets Orlando instead of Boston, and the Bulls find themselves facing the defending champs. Awesome work, Bulls. It's almost as if they worked hard so that they could control their own destiny ... so they could blow it.

As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

"If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: 'It seemed a good idea at the time.'" -Rebecca West

Bryan Colangelo either laughs or weeps at this quote after the Raptors 2008-2009 season.

I mean, it DID seem like a good idea at the time, right? You're a playoff team, on the verge of contention. You have a legit superstar in Chris Bosh. You have an up and coming point guard in Jose Calderon, a core of veterans alongside sharpshooter Jason Kapono, and a young stud in Jamario Moon. All they needed was to jettison that black hole, T.J. Ford and minimize that bust Andrea Bargnani. And if they could do all that and upgrade their frontcourt with some muscle, that would be idea.

Enter Jermaine O'Neal. Enter the meltdown.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

Dang, Dwyane Wade. Isn't a little late in the season to be dropping off 55-point games? The (soon-to-be) scoring champion can't hit the three ... except when he drops six of 12 from distance on his way to a marvelous 55-point effort in the waning days of the regular season.

Of course, something was in fact at stake: Miami clinched the No. 5 seed in the East with the victory. That means Atlanta instead of Orlando in the first round. But Wade also made his final plea for MVP consideration with the effort. After a Brett Pollakoff-led assault on LeBron's predestined status, Kobe Bryant has likely supplanted Wade as the No. 2 choice. That won't do, men. That won't do.