Marcus Banks for Matt Carroll

Another trade on the horizon?

Man, a guy goes to the dentist, gets back and it looks like work might be calling again.

According to a couple of league sources and I can't corroborate this with any of my most trusted Toronto folks, Raptors GM Bryan Colangelo's got another deal bubbling, one that would send guard Marcus Banks to the Dallas Mavericks for Matt Carroll, adding a little long-term salary but providing coach Jay Triano with a shooter that he could use deep on the bench.

I'm warned -- and therefore so are you -- that the proposed transaction remains in its relative infancy and if this summer's proven anything it's that nothing's done until it's done. But just as we suspected, Bryan is thinking of moving a salary for one that’s a bit longer but not that much more expensive in the long haul.

Carroll, a 6-6 guard who will be entering his seventh NBA season, has four years left on his contract, he’ll make $4.7 million this season, $4.3 million in 2010-11, $3.9 million in 2011-12 and $3.5 million in 2012-13.

It’s more money and years than Banks has left – he’ll get $4.53 million this year and $4.8 million in 2010-11 – but the way Colangelo has structured his roster financially over the next few years makes the extra cost on the Carroll deal not that large a burden.

What Carroll can bring is to be determined. He’s a good shooter – a career 40 per cent shooter from three-point range – but on a Raptors roster pretty stacked at the wing spots, he’ll be an emergency fallback for Triano.

Banks? Well, Banks never really worked out after being obtained in the Shawn Marion trade last season. He hardly played, was mediocre when he did and then got hurt and missed about the last month of the season.

He didn’t take the team’s suggestion and play in the summer league last month – although he was in Las Vegas to meet with the staff and work out – and the GM’s been trying to deal him for months.

And in another strange twist to Banks’ career, he’ll be reunited with Marion one more time.

They were traded with each other from Phoenix to Miami in the Shaquille O’Neal trade and then moved in tandem from the Heat to the Raptors for Jermaine O’Neal.

Carroll’s bounced around for his entire career. He spent time with Portland and had a cup of coffee with San Antonio after leaving Notre Dame and then spent more than four seasons in Charlotte. He was traded from the Bobcats to the Mavericks at the deadline last season.

http://thestar.blogs.com/raptors/2009/08/another-day-another-raptors-trade.html