Well, so much for that idea. Hedo Turkoglu has pulled out of talks with the Blazers and is likely headed to Toronto to sign a new deal. It’s confirmed by The Oregonian, ESPN, CBS, the Grinch, Snuffleupagus and my bag of Sour Patch Kids.

From Quick’s story:

“It just wasn’t the right fit,” the source said. “When you are talking about that much money, everybody involved has to feel great. If you don’t on either side, it doesn’t work.”

ESPN’s Ric Bucher reported that Turkoglu’s wife played a major factor in the decision, as she preferred living in Toronto more than she did Portland. The Raptors were the Blazers’ staunchest opponent in the race to sign the 6-foot-10 forward, and appear to be the likely destination for the 30-year-old.

The part about his wife might be the biggest shame to me, because the City of Portland just got dissed in the national eye, when in fact it’s actually very similar to Portland. Actually the biggest shame is that everyone gets screwed here, other than Turkoglu, who gets his money and you can’t fault him at all for that. Portland loses out on the best playmaker on the market, the guy who would prolong Brandon Roy’s career by taking pressure off him on a nightly basis, the guy who would help Greg Oden develop by actually assisting to him, and Toronto is in trouble because they are going to overpay and be left with a big contract and a bad team (having had to renounce half their rotation to make room to sign Hedo) when Chris Bosh leaves next summer. So nobody wins. Great day. Lets all exchange high fives and sing songs around the campfire. In Portland or Toronto, you pick.

Of course now the Blazers still have their cap room and there is still talent on the market. I doubt they try to sign another SF because there just isn’t another one out there who can facilitate the offense like Turkoglu can, so maybe they put in a bid for Jason Kidd, or go the power forward route and go after Paul Millsap. The lopsided trade angle is open again, and it’s probably a route Kevin Pritchard chooses to explore once more (though you’d imagine they didn’t see anything they liked before). We’ll try and put together the remaining free agent options and possible directions soon, but being a holiday weekend the news might be a little slow.

Via Blazersedge and Henry Abbott (great scoop) — and ESPN:

According to Henry Abbott of TrueHoop, as reported on ESPN’s Sportscenter, the Portland Trail Blazers have reached an agreement in principle with free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu.  The terms of the deal have not been finalized.

This has seemed certain for a day now, but the confirmation is always nice. As I’ve said before, I like the deal because Roy doesn’t have to initiate all the offense now, and all the Blazers bigs have a wing with court vision to get them easy buckets off the pick-and-roll. We’ll analyze this later, though. Right now we’re waiting on the terms of the deal. Keep an eye on the length of the deal, whether it includes any team options, and whether or not it eats up all of Portland’s cap space (since they were bidding against themselves at this point.

UPDATE (3:00 ET) John Hollinger’s take on the deal:

Turkoglu for $50 million is an imperfect solution, certainly, but it’s a far better one than squandering the space by waiting, or by paying similar money to jam a square peg into a round hole. And as Turkoglu’s soon-to-be-former teammates in Orlando showed last month, even in the current economic situation overpaying for a part that fits can work out awfully well.

I’m glad brought up the Rashard Lewis deal from two years back in his article. Almost everybody with a pen or a keyboard trashed the Magic for giving Lewis $122 million two years ago, but he was a good fit on the team and helped them get to the NBA Finals. Who’s trashing that deal now?

UPDATE (6:11 ET) According to Jason Quick, Hedo has not yet agreed to a deal with the Blazers, though a 5-year, $52 million deal is on the table. I don’t see how Turkoglu wouldn’t accept the deal, seeing as how Toronto has offered a deal to Shawn Marion and probably wouldn’t be able to offer more money.

Despite published reports to the contrary, Hedo Turkoglu has not reached an agreement with the Trail Blazers, a team source announced at 2:20 p.m. Friday. ESPN first reported that a deal had been reached in principle, but general manager Kevin Pritchard and Turkoglu agent Lon Babby have not confirmed the deal.

Ric Bucher again mentioned the tidbit about Turkoglu’s wife liking Toronto, which may (I guess, who knows) be holding things up. Or Hedo’s agent might be holding out for a few extra bones. Turkoglu is said to be in Portland for another day, so I don’t see how this doesn’t get done. There’s not exactly a huge rush to get it done today.

Via the Toronto Globe and Mail, Shawn Marion is about to get paid:

First things first: the latest word is that the three-year, $21-million deal that has been speculated as the Raptors’ offer for Shawn Marion might be a bit light, I’m hearing. Think four years and north of $32-million; maybe as much as $34-million. If that’s the case what is Marion waiting for, really?

This is good news for Portland, as it takes their main competition for Hedo Turkoglu out of the game. The Raptors would have had to renounce their rights to Marion, along with other rotation players, to clear space for a big-time offer. So not only does Portland not have to worry about having their offer trumped, they have leverage in contract negotiations (which Ric Bucher says they are having right now).  Could they save some cap space to sign another FA? We’ll see.

So much for that “late bid” that Portland supposedly threw in for the services on Trevor Ariza. Confirming rumors that were floating around all day, Trevor Ariza will sign with the Houston Rockets, essentially completing the non-trade trade of Ron Artest-for-Ariza. That’s one less small forward for Portland to worry about in their pursuit of Turkoglu, but it also might ramp up the competition from Toronto if they should desire.

You might think I’m crazy, but I’d rather have Turkoglu right now than Ariza, even considering age. The Blazers already have a carbon-copy, skills-wise but not experience-wise, in Nic Batum, and the playmaking of Turkoglu is going to do more for the players around him. The Blazers needed someone to make plays for others, not play off others. As for the defense angle, lets hope Kirk Hinrich is the answer to that.

Jason Quick has the latest on Hedo Turkoglu’s visit to the Pacific Northwest, where he’ll be until Saturday. Brian Wheeler said earlier that if things continue as they have been, the Blazers might have a verbal agreement by tomorrow. Here’s some select tidbits:

McMillan, who dined with Turkoglu on Wednesday night in Orlando, has been emphatic in his endorsement of Turkoglu, urging Pritchard to seal the deal. Pritchard meanwhile said he grew to admire Turkoglu even more this spring while watching him help Orlando reach the NBA Finals.
…
“We need someone to get us over the hump, and we feel like he can,” Pritchard said.
…
Pritchard wouldn’t get into many details of what he had in store for Turkoglu. He said there will be dinners downtown and tours of the Rose Garden and Tualatin practice facility, but no trip to Mount Hood because of time constraints.

“I want to show him the city,” Pritchard said. “Part of the recruiting process is making sure he understands what the city is about in terms of how we feel about basketball and how important it is, and to show him the beauty of the city, and that he is wanted here.”

If you’ve been following us on Twitter, you know that I’m feeling pretty good about the potential signing, especially if they follow up with a trade for Hinrich. Two huge factors for me are prolonging Roy’s career by taking pressure off him to initiate so many pick-and-rolls and late-game offense, and boosting Oden’s development by giving him a tall passer with court vision that can actually give him assists when he’s got position in the paint.

But we can talk about all that when/if a deal is agreed to, as there’s a ton of things to consider. For now, I just want to say this. Kevin Pritchard and Nate McMillan think they have their guy and now they are trying to sell him on working in Portland for the next 3-5 years. Even if you are against the move, as I know many are, don’t try and sabotage things by yelling “Go back to Turkey” and like comments should you see Turkoglu touring the streets of downtown Portland. You may not agree (and it matters less than I probably make it sound), but let the people who have got the Blazers this far do their job. Most importantly, represent your town, because however things go down, the national eye in the sky will be narrowed on the City of Roses when they do.

Last night, Jason Quick continued to do work with his report that both Kevin Pritchard and Nate McMillan were surprised to hear about Rudy Fernandez alledged ‘fury’. Here are quotes from Quick’s piece:

“I just spoke with Rudy two days ago, to see how he was doing, and he said he was doing fine and that he was happy,” McMillan said. “I talked to him about our moves, and how we did in the draft, and why we did what we did in the draft and he was fine with it. We talked about Sergio (Rodriguez) and he was OK with everything we’ve done.”

Pritchard said he “had a good conversation” with Fernandez on Monday.

“We joked around,” Pritchard said. “And we had a fantastic exit interview. He talked about how excited he was to come back.”

“Pritchard also noted that Casey Holdahl from blazers.com is in Spain following Fernandez. Holdahl has also said that Fernandez has been in nothing but good spirits all week.”

I don’t know about you all, but I can officially put this ‘infuriated’ Rudy thing to bed. One thing this reminds me is that during the off-season rumors are all over the place. So from here on out I’ll be taking Jay-Z’s advice and believe half of what I see and none of what I hear.

This morning, Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune reported that the alleged sign-and-trade deal which would have sent Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw to the Philadelphia 76ers for Andre Miller is dead. Or as he said ‘pooh-pooh’ed by the man himself, Mr. Kevin Pritchard:

“Pritchard shot down one rumor – the Blazers sending Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw to Philadelphia in a sign-and-trade for Andre Miller – Tuesday night.

“No,” Pritchard said in a text message when asked if the trade would happen.

“Nothing to it,” a 76ers representative said to the same query.”

As Eggers mentioned in his piece, this doesn’t mean that there is no interest in Andre Miller or that a deal for Miller couldn’t be in the works later. It simply means that we will not be seeing the Blake/Outlaw for Miller swap. Thank goodness we can put that rumor to bed.

Bombshell of the day material and it is coming right out of left field. Chris Sheridan over at ESPN.com reports that Portland’s pursuit of Hedo Turkoglu has ‘infuriated’ Rudy Fernandez.

That’s right. According to this report, if Rudy was a smiley face he’d definitely be the one en fuego right now. According to Sheridan, he’s not just mad….he may bolt:

“Portland’s pursuit of a certain player from Turkey has infuriated the Trail Blazers’ lone remaining Spanish player, Rudy Fernandez, to the point where he’d prefer to play in Greece, Russia or even Spain again, ESPN.com learned Tuesday.

A league source told ESPN.com that Fernandez has already been courted informally by European powerhouses Olympiacos, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and CSKA Moscow.”

To be honest with you, I’m not sure what to make of this. My gut reaction is ‘Huh?’ followed by “Hmm” and then jus confusion. I mean, obviously there must be some sort of level of credibility to this source considering it’s currently linked on the front page of ESPN.com. However, at the same time, I’m putting this with the rest of the off-season rumors that start popping up around the first few days of the free agency period. If there is one thing we Blazer fans have learned is that Spanish guards have aggressive agents who like to pop off at the mouth. And this reeks of something an agent would do. Who knows, maybe Sergio’s agent did it for fun. I mean, lets just think about this logically. Rudy played 25.6 minutes a game which was the 5th most on the team. How does he complain about that? During the season it never once seemed like he was anything but satisfied in Portland. I mean, color me blind, but I couldn’t have been the only person who never sniffed a hint of unhappiness from Rudy Fernandez, right? I’m sure it was an adjustment for him, but it never once seemed like he was unhappy with what was going on. Time after time it seemed as if Rudy would always point out how satisfied he was with Portland and the team and the fans. Even at times when as a fan you wonder if he should be frustrated he never gave off any vibes. That’s why it’s just a bit hard to imagine him going from content to ‘infuriated’ in a matter of hours. Logically,  if Rudy has so unhappy this whole season with the organization than why are Casey Holdahl and co. even over there? Unless he’s the world’s greatest actor there’s no way this wouldn’t have been sniffed by now.

Also,  if anyone should be infuriated about Portland going after Hedo it’s Travis Outlaw, followed by Martell Webster with a hint of worry from Nic Batum. Because Turkoglu’s arrival means one or two of them are on their way out shortly. Turkoglu at the 3 should not affect Rudy’s PT at all. You’re potentially looking at a crunch-time lineup of Roy/Rudy/Turkoglu/LMA/Oden, which should only make him happy. We know he can create his own shot but he’ll have three offensive weapons taking pressure off of him and two guys who can make his life a ton easier.

Maybe they have some sort of super-secret beef that no one knows about? Who knows. I still can’t truly wrap my brain around this one, but for now I’m going to place myself in the ‘highly skeptical’ category until I hear something with a bit more bite to it. It just sniffs like Spanish gossip if you ask me. I’ve been wrong before and I’ll be wrong again but the timing is just a bit odd. It’s just a little too expensive for me to buy in this economy.

ESPN’s Marc Stein reports that Hedo Turkoglu will be having dinner with coach Nate McMillan tonight and will then tour Portland tomorrow. On Thursday he will also meet with Kevin Pritchard and Tom Penn. Stein also had this to say:

“Turkoglu is widely expected to land with the Blazers as the first marquee free-agent signing of Pritchard’s reign.”

It looks as if Hedo to Portland is no longer just a flimsy idea but a reality. Much more on this as more comes, stay tuned.

No smokescreens, no posturing, no rumors. Kevin Pritchard and the Blazers want Hedo Turkoglu, and they want him now, as in seconds after free-agency opened now. It’s a lot to process, all the thoughts and opinions out there, but here we go:

Ken Berger made the first call (I believe) and put down the number $50 million on the table. That’s a hell of a lot of dough for a 30-year old small forward, but every time I scratch my head about it, I remember that this is Portland’s only summer with cap space, and saving a few dollars by inking Turkoglu to an $8 million per year deal isn’t getting you another FA signing in the process. If Hedo is the man they want, and that extra green isn’t preventing you from making another move (like the Blake/Outlaw for Hinrich deal that would seem likely after this), then do what it takes.

For me, a lot depends on the length of the deal and the team options involved. But again, if it happens there’s no reason to bemoan a guy like Devin Harris. If the price was right, KP probably would have paid it. If tonight is any sign, he’s not holding anything back.

Wendell Maxey has all kinds of thoughts on Portland’s aggressive approach.

We agree that the signing would make Outlaw very expendable, but while I know it’s a common thought to say “there won’t be enough shots to go around”, that angle gets overblown every single year around this time. Free agents know what kind of situation they are signing into, and do you really believe Hedo or Roy and Co. are going to complain if they’re winning. On every championship team every year, there are players that could/should get more shots with another franchise.

Jason Quick’s report. Plus an oddly-timed release of a Rip City Revival piece on LaMarcus Aldridge that we’ll talk about later.

The reactions over at Blazersedge. There a ton of them and boy are they mixed.

Marc Stein with the FA wrap from around the league.

More tomorrow/today as it happens.