Raptors trading John Salmons to Hawks for Lou Williams

[benji]

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11154 ... anta-hawks

The Toronto Raptors are on the verge of trading guard John Salmons for fellow veteran Lou Williams, according to sources close to the process.

Sources told ESPN.com that the teams were in "deep discussions" on a deal to send Salmons to Atlanta for Williams in time for the Hawks to be able to waive Salmons and pay only $1 million to buy him out of next season's $7 million salary.

The Hawks, sources say, will immediately waive Salmons to expand their projected salary-cap space for this summer to $15.5 million, though one source cautioned Sunday that the move is more about flexibility and roster-shaping for the Hawks than any specific free-agent target.

Sources say that the Raptors will also acquire the rights to Brazilian big man Lucas Nogueira from the Hawks. Nogueira played for Estudiantes in Spain after being selected with the 16th overall pick in the 2013 draft.

[Lamrock]

Nice trade for the Raptors. Lou Williams seems to have lost a step after the ACL surgery but is still far better than John Salmons, who is hard to watch. Given that they were over the cap anyway, dealing an expiring for a solid combo guard and a young big isn't bad at all.

Hawks clear up some cap room. They have some good players in Millsap, Horford and Teague but are probably a LeBron away from contending. It's likely they overpay for someone like Deng or Stephenson and make the second round occasionally over the next few years, but we'll see.

[NovU]

Makes me wonder how far the Hawks are willing to go to land Luol Deng. The guy refused handsome money from the Bulls and absolutely stunk with the Cavs (who were awarded for screwing up somehow). I am guessing Deng will still get more money than what he was offered by the Bulls.