He-Gone: How Hedo Alters The Cavs Plans

Hedo Turkoglu signing with the Raptors, now changes things for the Cavs.

How much things can change over a days time.

During Friday afternoon, Hedo Turkoglu was in Portland and expected to sign with the Trail Blazers. ESPN.com even had Hedo reportedly signed, sealed and delivered to Portland on the front page of the NBA page.

Now, late Friday night, Hedo is reportedly going to Toronto to agree to a deal with the Toronto Raptors.

Free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu changed his mind Friday, deciding not to join the Portland Trail Blazers, opting instead to accept an offer from the Toronto Raptors, sources told ESPN.com.

So how in the world does this change the Cavs plans?

The Cavs were linked to two of the Raptors free agents: forward Shawn Marion and guard Anthony Parker.

In order to get the cap space needed to sign Hedo, the Raptors renounced their rights to all of their free agents (Parker and Marion included). Even though Parker and Marion were unrestricted free agents before, the Raptors before could offer more money to both of them and could go over the cap to re-sign them. Now with the Raptors renouncing them and signing Hedo, the Raptors are unlikely to re-sign either Marion or Parker.

Ever since Trevor Ariza and Ron Artest agreed to deals yesterday, it’s looked like Parker has been the Cavs target as the swingman they want to put on the perimeter next to LeBron James.

And now that the Raptors have basically let go of Parker, it looks like the odds are in the Cavs favor of landing Parker.

At least Ric Bucher thinks so.

Raps say goodbye 2 Marion, Parker, Delfino, Graham. Good news for Cavs’ fans - I’d expect Parker in Cle, if not Europe, next season.

Now while the Cavs chances of signing both players likely went up
significantly, the Cavs are now unable to do any kind of sign-and-trade
with Toronto for either player.

There were reports that the Cavs were working on a sign-and-trade for
Parker. By doing a S&T for Parker, the Cavs would have preserved
their assets (MLE and BAE) from being used. Now with Parker and Marion
being renounced by Toronto, the Cavs cannot execute a S&T with
Toronto and will now need to burn their assets up in order to sign
either.

So while Hedo going to Toronto could be seen as a good move for the
Cavs, it could also been seen as a bad move for the Cavs. (P.S. - Not
to mention, could this mean Bosh is more likely to stay their
long-term? Hedo isn’t a superstar but can’t help thinking about it.)

Even though Parker is getting up there in age (34), he has all the skills to fit right in at the SG spot and provide the Cavs with everything that they need.

Parker might be able to start at SG and allow West to come off the bench, in a role which better suits both him and the Cavaliers.

Parker has been a guy that has previously been linked to the Cavs for a while (Cavs tried to sign him 3 years ago) and is a guy that Danny Ferry has really liked for some time now.

As far as Marion, it looks like the Cavs may be one of the few teams out there now willing to offer him the MLE but the Turkoglu situation needs to pan out first because it’s still possible a sign-and-trade could happen with Marion going to Orlando.

While Marion is a talented player, his fit would be questioned here. His defensive versatility isn’t questioned, but his ability to shoot well here is; his ability to guard bigger PFs and smaller wings is; his ability to play well in a half-court offense is; and his ability to play well as he’s aging and his athleticism is going also is.

With the 4th of July weekend already here, the free agent market will start to quiet down but it didn’t quiet down without a big bang.

Going into the weekend the Cavs can feel good about their chances to land Parker and/or Marion.