The rumored sign-and-trade deal between the Hawks and Pacers involving Al Harrington is becoming more clear as Atlanta has laid out their demands.

According to sources, the Hawks want the Pacers to part with a future first-round pick, absorb the contract of third-year center John Edwards and kick in $3 million in cash considerations, which is the maximum amount any team can add to a trade.

It's believed that the Pacers want to either scale back the quality of the draft pick or reduce the cash contribution, which is the reason that the trade has yet to be completed.

Industry sources say no one else but the Pacers are presently chasing Harrington, as officials from around the league see his return to Indiana as an inevitability.

Atlanta is expected to sign Harrington to a six-year contract worth nearly $57 million and send him to Indiana. Separate trade exceptions to add Harrington and Edwards to their payroll, without shipping any players to the Hawks, would then enable the Pacers to complete the exchange.

The trade exception that the Hornets gave the Pacers in exchange for Peja Stojakovic have led some to wonder about the motives behind the move.  Some believe that it was for the Hornets to win favor with the Pacers in attempts to help in a potential relocation, while also keeping Al Harrington out of the Western Conference.

Andy Miller, the agent for Harrington, said he and Harrington were still considering other offers when the Hornets and Pacers agreed to the trade. He added that he didn?t think the Pacers ?under any or every circumstance were going to get Al Harrington.?

?I have no idea about the relationship between the two owners,? Miller said. ?Being actively involved in the whole process, I can tell you that when it was announced that (the Pacers) received a trade exception, we hadn?t made a decision whether we were going to Indiana or any other team that was pursuing us.

?So from a conspiracy theory perspective, it doesn?t have any weight, because we?re not a part of that theory and we hadn?t made a decision yet.?

With the Pacers already having 15 players under contract, which is the NBA maximum, and that number soon to climb to 16 with the iminent signing of guard Jimmie "Snap" Hunter on Wednesday, the Indianapolis Star is reporting that more moves are expected to come shortly for the team.  

Hunter's contract will carry only a partial guarantee of about $100,000, according to the report.

The team is still expected to acquire ex-Pacer Al Harrington from the Hawks in a sign and trade, but will not be giving up any players.  They're also hoping to add a center or power forward and perhaps a perimeter shooter.

They're armed with a $7.5 million trade exception and the mid-level exception, which would allow them to offer a contract starting at $5.2 million, but some of their changes will have to be accomplished with more trades.

They also have the option of releasing Josh Powell and Rawle Marshall, two minimum-salary, one-year veteran forwards obtained in the trade with Dallas that also brought Darrell Armstrong in exchange for Anthony Johnson.

Marshall's contract becomes guaranteed for next season if he's still on the Pacers' roster after Aug. 7. Powell's becomes guaranteed if he's on the roster after Oct. 1.
The Pacers are reluctant to let them go, however. Both are young, athletic and improving, and have given indications they belong in the league.

"The more I look at it, I kind of like it," CEO Donnie Walsh said of the possibility of the two staying with the team.

The Indiana Pacers announced Friday they have signed free agent Maceo Baston. Per club policy, terms of the contract were not disclosed.

Baston, a 6-9, 215-pound forward, spent the last three seasons in Israel playing for Maccabi Elite Tel Aviv, averaging 13.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Prior to playing in Israel, he played 16 games for the Toronto Raptors in 2003, where he averaged 2.5 ppg and 1.4 rpg in 16 games.

The terms of the sign-and-trade deal that will send Hawks free agent Al Harrington to Indiana are nearly done, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

According to a report by Sekou Smith of the Atlanta Journal-Constitituion, the Hawks will sign Harrington to a six-year deal worth an estimated $60 million and then send him and reserve center John Edwards, both former Pacers, back to Indiana in exchange for cash, a future draft pick and a trade exception.

The sticking point of the deal is the cash the Hawks will receive according to those familiar with the negotiations. The Hawks want more than the Pacers are willing to give. A deal for Harrington has stalled nearly a month after the NBA's free-agent negotiating period began.

"No, there is no deal. There is nothing new to report," Hawks general manager Billy Knight said Thursday afternoon.

While frustrated fans continue to wonder how long it will take for the deal to be done, Knight said he's not experiencing the same frustrations.

"I'm not exasperated at all," he said. "All you can do is see what happens at the end of the day and just let this thing play out."

"Obviously we're disappointed at the pace of the transaction," Harrington's New York-based agent Andy Miller said Thursday, "but I will say that everybody is working diligently to find a solution to execute."

The Pacers secured a $7.5 million trade exception in an earlier sign-and-trade deal with New Orleans/Oklahoma City that allows them to make the deal with the Hawks.

They're over the NBA's salary cap and would not be able to acquire Harrington without it.

Pacers president Donnie Walsh told the Indianapolis Star on Thursday that they are waiting on Knight.

"It's up to Billy now," he said.

"We're just waiting to here where we are. I have hope it can get straightened out, sooner rather than later. That's important to us. But I don't think we've reached a point where we say 'We have to get it done or we can't use the [trade] exception.'

"We'll just keep working on it and see if we can get it done."

The Indiana Pacers announced Monday they have acquired guard Darrell Armstrong, swingman Rawle Marshall and forward Josh Powell from the Dallas Mavericks in exchange for point guard Anthony Johnson.

Armstrong is a 6-1, 180-pound 11-year veteran who played the majority of his career with the Orlando Magic. He has career averages of 10.1 points per game and 4.1 assists per game. He played 62 games with the Mavericks last season, averaging 2.1 ppg and 1.4 apg.

Powell is a 6-9, 235-pound forward from North Carolina State. He played 37 games for Dallas last season, averaging 3.2 ppg and 2.2 rpg. Marshall is a 6-7, 190-pound forward/guard who played collegiately at Oakland University in Michigan. He played 23 games last season, averaging 3.1 ppg and 1.3 rpg. Both players were signed by the Mavericks as rookie free agents in August 2005.

?Darrell Armstrong is a good fit, a solid professional, a great guy in the locker room and someone who brings a lot of energy to a team,? said Pacers President of Basketball Operations Larry Bird. ?Both Powell and Marshall are young and talented players who possibly can help us and we?re excited to take a look at them. Their experience with a championship-caliber team like Dallas last season gives them the mentality of what it takes to win at the highest level.

Bird added, ?We appreciate everything Anthony Johnson did for the organization, on and off the court. He performed well for us, both as a starter and as a backup.?

The Indiana Pacers are closing in on acquiring Al Harrington via a sign-and-trade deal, according to a report on ESPN by  Marc Stein.

Multiple front office sources believe that the deal is as good as done.

The Pacers' chief competition, the Golden State Warriors, expect Harrington to end up in Indiana with a six-year $57 million deal.

Harrington, sources said, initially told interested suitors he was expecting a six-year deal worth at least $66 million. For the Pacers to pay that much, Atlanta almost certainly would have to be willing to accept a package built around Indiana center Jeff Foster. But Foster, by all indications, is not part of the forthcoming trade.

Indy's unforeseen trade exception from the Peja Stojakovic sign and trade gets Harrington fairly close to his financial target and the team he likes best.

With a modest cash payment believed to be in the $250,000 range, Indiana convinced the Hornets to participate in a sign-and-trade swap for Stojakovic instead of signing him outright.

Without the $7.5 million trade exception resulting from that maneuver, Indiana wouldn't be able to complete a sign-and-trade for Harrington unless the Hawks were willing to take back contracts in the same monetary range as Harrington's new first-year salary.

According to Fred Jones' agent Bill Duffy, his client will sign with the Toronto Raptors in the next few days.

The Pacers made a qualifying offer to Jones earlier this summer but rescinded the offer last week, making Jones an unrestricted free agent.

"We were behind the eight-ball," Duffy said. "Other situations were not available that would have been available because time had elapsed."

The Indiana Pacers are on the verge of finalizing a deal with the Mavericks for veteran point guard Darrell Armstrong in a sign-and-trade deal, according to people with knowledge of the situation. According to the Indianapolis Star, the Pacers will give up guard Anthony Johnson in the deal, while also receiving Mavericks forward Josh Powell.  

According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Rawle Marshall will also be included from the Mavericks.

The deal is pending league approval, which could happen as early as Monday.

Johnson, who spent three seasons with the Pacers, was a steady contributor despite roles that ranged from third-string point guard to starter. He averaged 20.0 points, 5.2 assists and 5.0 rebounds while outplaying New Jersey's Jason Kidd in the Pacers' six-game, first-round playoff loss last season.

Trading Johnson, who said the team's "culture has to change" at the end of last season, avoids a point guard controversy with Jamaal Tinsley. Pacers president Larry Bird said Tinsley is "as good as you're going to get" if he is healthy in his season-ending news conference. Tinsley has battled injuries each of the past three seasons.

Sarunas Jasikevicius is also a candidate to be traded in the Pacers' crowded backcourt. Rookie James White and newly acquired Marquis Daniels can also play point guard.
The acquisition of Armstrong, a 13-year veteran, would give the Pacers a veteran voice in the locker room. He has averaged 10.1 points and 4.4 assists in his career. Powell, a rookie last season who went undrafted in 2003, averaged 3.0 points and 2.2 rebounds in 37 games last season.

This is the second offseason trade for the Pacers, who sent Croshere to Dallas for Daniels.

Shooting guard Fred Jones could be the next Pacer traded. The Toronto Star reported today that Jones is headed to the Raptors. The deal could be finalized in the next couple of days.

According to WTHR 13 in Indianapolis, a deal has been completed that will send Al Harrington to the Indiana Pacers.

The full details of the trade are yet to be released, but RealGM.com will continue to update our users as the deal becomes official.

The Pacers have a $7.5 million trade exception, which will likely be involved in the deal.

The Warriors and Bulls were the two other teams believed to be most interested in acquiring Harrington.

Friday afternoon update: An official from the Pacers informed RealGM's Christopher Reina that no annoucement of any deal involving Harrington has been scheduled.