Bargnani to Knicks Trade On Hold For Now

Masai Ujiri may be getting a true taste of what it's like to try and run the Toronto Raptors.

Raptorsy things just seem to happen at the darndest moments.

Just when it looked like Raptorsnation (and especially us here at RaptorsHQ) could rejoice at the prospect of Andrea Bargnani being dealt far, far away from the GTA, we get news like this:

Howard Beck ‏@HowardBeckNYT 1h

UPDATE: Knicks trade for Bargnani will NOT be approved by NBA tonight. As a result, teams will have to restructure under 2013-14 cap figures

Essentially, the proposed "Andrea Bargnani to the Knicks" deal is on hold for now as the clubs re-work things to fit the upcoming 2013-14 salary cap structure.

The original deal saw Bargs headed to NYC in exchange for Marcus Camby, Steve Novak and a first-round pick in 2016, which worked under the NBA's collective bargaining agreement. However as of July 1, the financial commitments to all players involved changes slightly, so now it appears there will be too great of a salary discrepancy between Bargnani (who amazingly has a five per cent trade kicker costing the Knicks an extra $1.1M over two years!!) and the players Toronto would be receiving.

Now then it looks New York will have to send a third player Toronto's way to make the salary pieces work, and the Knicks as of now, don't have a player who fits in that salary range. The club may have to get a third team involved, or get one of their players to agree to a sign-and trade deal. (Howard Beck has a great breakdown of the whole mess here.)

However it does still sound like this deal will get done, it just may take a bit longer than originally anticipated.

We hope...