Jermaine O’Neal Headed to Toronto

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Jermaine O’Neal Headed to Toronto

TORONTO (Canadian Press) - It appears T.J. Ford's days in Toronto are done.

On the eve of the NBA draft, Raptors president and GM Bryan Colangelo reportedly agreed in principle to a deal to send Ford, plus Rasho Nesterovic, the team's No. 17 pick in Thursday's draft, and a player to be named later to Indiana for forward Jermaine O'Neal.

The deal would not be finalized until after July 9th and the league's signing moratorium.

Earlier in the day, Colangelo said he was in the midst of four or five conversations with teams involving the point guard, saying he and Ford had come to an amicable agreement at season's end to find him another team.

"We're talking about a player in T.J. that's an asset, a starting point guard in the NBA," Colangelo said. "There's been a lot of interest, and teams that have called and inquired have not put deals on the table that have been insulting in any regard. In fact, it's pretty apparent that T.J.'s value is very high."

O'Neal is a six-time all-star, but is coming off a couple of injury-plagued seasons, playing just 42 games for Indiana this past season because of a problematic knee. He will earn US$44 million over the next two seasons.

The Raptors and Phoenix Suns had been rumoured to be talking about a trade for Boris Diaw, while another report had the Raptors talking to Detroit about swapping Ford for Richard Hamilton.

"We are holding our cards close to the vest right now as we need to," Colangelo said. "Some of the deals could make us significantly better."

Ford shared point guard duties with Jose Calderon this past season, but what had originally been one of the team's biggest strengths turned into its Achilles heel, Colangelo said, with the two battling for minutes.

The Raptors are keen to hold onto Calderon as their starting point guard when he becomes a free agent July 1, rendering Ford's role almost obsolete.

While the Raptors lose their No. 17 pick in this deal in what Colangelo called a deep draft, the GM said he was interested in acquiring another pick, perhaps late in the first or in the second round.

"There's a couple of bigs that we feel could step into an NBA game and contribute. There's also a couple of bigs that have great upside that would be considered longterm projects. We're intrigued by both those scenarios," Colangelo said. "There's also one or two wings that we feel could potentially step into an NBA game right now."

The Raptors need to add some toughness, and improve on defence and rebounding.

Among the players Colangelo said are intriguing: Stanford's Robin Lopez, Alexis Ajinca of France, DeAndre Jordan (Texas A&M), JaVale McGee (Nevada) and Roy Hibbert (Georgetown), as well as Ante Tomic of Croatia and Omer Asik of Turkey, who would probably require another season or two in Europe to develop.

Among the power forwards available, Colangelo mentioned Jason Thompson (Rider), Darrell Arthur (Kansas), Marreese Speights (Florida), J.J. Hickson (NC State), and D.J. White from Indiana, who Colangelo said had a great workout for the Raptors.

The Raptors had the No. 17 pick in 2001, selecting Villanova forward Michael Bradley ahead of Jason Collins, Zach Randolph and Brendan Haywood.

Toronto didn't have a pick last season, but Colangelo made a late-night deal, swapping the team's second-round pick for this year to San Antonio for Greek forward Giorgos Printezis.