We'll have more as the details unfold, and nothing official from the Raptors' camp yet, but Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that the Raptors have moved guard Leandro Barbosa to the Indiana Pacers for a second-round draft pick.
Today was already the start of Christmas thanks to March Madness, and it just got even better with this news.
It's not a first round pick based on early details, but you take what you can get and I'm guessing there just wasn't a better offer out there.
Plus, it has a two-pronged effect; it gives the Raptors SOMETHING in exchange for Barbosa, instead of letting his contract simply expire, plus, removing Barbosa's scoring really hurts this team's ability to score points, something they already struggled with, so I'm fully expecting the losses to start piling up now.
In that sense, kudos to Colangelo for realizing that the tank just wasn't moving slowly enough and now, the team has a legit shot I'd argue at the Unibomber, Anthony Davis.
UPDATE - She's official. Confirmed now by multiple sources, and here's the link to the Yahoo! story.
UPDATE II - Eric Smith reporting that with the move, Raptors have about $7.6M in cap space now to spend before July 1, allowing them to potential absorb other deals. As well, if Raps renounce rights to free agents and restricted free agents, they could have about $12M, allowing them to be a major player this off-season. As well, I haven't done the numbers but many reporting that this move puts the Raps under the minimum team salary threshold, so other moves may be on the way, and Anthony Carter might be headed to Indy with Barbosa.