NBA Trade Rumours: Raptors Shopping for Back-Up Point Guards

From an ESPN post last night:

The Phoenix Suns appear to be out of the Josh Smith sweepstakes.

Phoenix has had talks with Atlanta about Smith, who will become an unrestricted free agent this summer.

However, the Suns have been engaged in discussions about their own role players in Sebastian Telfair and Jermaine O'Neal. Toronto, looking for a backup point guard, has interest in Telfair, as well as Minnesota's Luke Ridnour and Oklahoma City's Eric Maynor.

Shocking!

Yes, with Jose Calderon recently traded to the Detroit Pistons (via the Memphis Grizzlies), the Dinos need some help backing up lead PG Kyle Lowry. John Lucas III has been stellar as a scorer in the back-up role, but hasn't been as effective running the team's offence as the Dinos would likely desire.

From the mouth of Raptors' President and GM directly:

"Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled back-up point guards, yearning to breathe free!"

(Ok, not directly...but you get the idea.)

The Raps seem to be looking at the lay of the back-up PG land so to speak, so we'll likely see more of these types of rumours in the next 24 hours.

As for the aforementioned three options?

I'm fine with all three at face value, but obviously a lot depends on what Toronto would have to give up in return.

For example, Telfair only has this year left on his deal, and a fairly small $1.6ish million dollar price tag. Hypothetically, Toronto could move Mr. Haddadi's very similar deal to the Suns for Bassy, and that's that. Ridnour has an extra year on his deal, and a much higher price tag, so the Raps would need to take that into consideration when making a move.

And of course, the team Toronto is trading with needs to get something from the Raps in exchange, be it additional financial flexibility, prospects, current roster help, etc, etc.

Of the three options, Ridnour would be my preference, but obviously Minnesota needs to be amenable to whatever the Raps want to send their way. More to come on this I'm sure, but wouldn't it be tough to pass on Luke Jackson's former teammate?