HawthorneVillager.com

Magic's Barnes heading north to join Raptors
-Orlando Magic free agent forward Matt Barnes said on his Twitter account Monday that he's accepted a deal to play for the Toronto Raptors next season. The deal is for two years and $9 million, according to a league source.

Barnes had been courted by several contending teams, including Boston, Miami and the Lakers, as well as the Cleveland Cavaliers, but opted in the end to take a bigger contract with the Raptors, who dealt starting small forward Hedo Turkoglu to the Suns earlier this month for guard Leandro Barbosa.

On his Twitter feed, Barnes wrote: "I wanted to thank the fans in orl. you guys were amazing the way u (accepted) My family & I and the tremendous support you showed the team."

The handwriting was on the wall for Barnes in Orlando when the Magic signed veteran swingman Quentin Richardson to a contract and matched the three-year, $19.5 million offer sheet for guard J.J. Redick given by the Chicago Bulls. The Lakers came hard after Barnes, who averaged 8.8 points and 5.5 rebounds for the Magic last season. Barnes got into a celebrated row with Kobe Bryant during a late regular-season game and then accused Bryant afterward of throwing numerous elbows and said he would not back down from challenging Bryant in the future.

That assertion may have impressed Bryant--who, a source says, pressed hard for the Lakers to get Barnes just as he had pushed them to sign former nemesis Raja Bell. Bell opted to return to the Utah Jazz with a three-year, $10 million deal last week.

A source said that Barnes wanted to return to Orlando but didn't get an offer from the Magic, which had signed him to a one-year minimum deal last summer.The Raptors will be Barnes's eighth NBA team. Miami and Boston could only offer the veteran's minimum of $1.146 mllion for Barnes after the Heat used its remaining cap room to sign forward Mike Miller, and the Celtics used their mid-level exception on Jermaine O'Neal.

Meanwhile, the Lakers had about $2.3 million of their mid-level exception remaining after signing guard Steve Blake to a four-year, $16 million free agent deal earlier this month. Blake replaced Jordan Farmar, who took a three-year deal in New Jersey.

2 year deal, PERFECT.
Salary might be a little high for Barnes (and he likely knows it), but I'm very happy it's a short contract. If things work out, great. If they don't, he's only got a year left and won't be difficult to unload.

He's been around the block (more teams than years in the league IIRC), but he'll do at LEAST what hedo did last year, with a much better shooting percentage and attitude. What worries me is that no team ever wants to keep him... and that his middle name is Kelly. (Kelly kelly kelly kelly Kelly kelly kelly kelly, k-e-l-l-why... why? becuase you're Kelly kelly kelly kelly of miiine...... )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hJjx7jTHA8

We still need a scorer though!

Isn't this deal dead? I heard this at least yesterday.

Is it? Sorry, I've been sports-free all week!

It's dead. Looks like he is leaning towards either the Lakers or Cavs.

Do we know why the deal died?

Bcz the team management mis-interpreted the cap rules...

Nice! I thought they had experts on their teams that know the cap like the back of their hand. How embarrassing. We're quickly becoming the joke of the league.

Annnnd...

we watch him put on his Lakers jersey. Colangelo gotta stop this crappy, nonsense, jumping to conclusions thing and only leak guaranteed infos.