The Portland Trail Blazers began their courtship of free agent small forward Hedo Turkoglu as soon as the free agent market opened Wednesday, the Oregonian reported last night.

Teams were allowed to contact free agents and their represenatives starting at midnight Eastern time, or 6 p.m. Hawaii time on Tuesday. There is a one-week moratorium on signings, with July 8 being the first day players can sign.

The Oregonian's Web site reported that Portland's general manager Kevin Pritchard and assistant general manager Tom Penn were the first to call Turkoglu's agent Lon Babby.

"Kevin Pritchard and Tom Penn called me at the earliest possible moment and expressed enthusiasm for engaging in discussions about Hedo becoming a Trail Blazer," Babby was quoted in an article written by Jason Quick. "We have begun that process."

The article said that Pritchard said he first contacted guard Brandon Roy and forward LaMarcus Aldridge, who both are seeking contract extensions with the Blazers, before inquiring about Turkoglu.

Turkoglu, 30, a 6-foot-10 shooter who this season helped Orlando reach the NBA Finals, averaged 16.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists this season.

Pritchard had said earlier that the Blazers would be active in this free-agent period.
The Blazers are reportedly one of five teams that expect to be under the league's salary cap, which will be set on July 7. The Blazers payroll is at $50 million, which is expected to be around $8 million under the cap, according to the article.
The Blazers also have the ability to free up $1.7 million in additional cap room by renouncing the rights to former first-round picks Petteri Koponen and Joel Freeland, both of whom are playing overseas.
They also cleared space during the NBA draft by trading backup point guard Sergio Rodriguez, whose salary is $1.57 million for next season, and drafting Spanish forward Victor Claver, who is expected to stay overseas and therefore won't be on the payroll.
On Monday, the team allowed backup forward Channing Frye to become a free agent by not making him a qualifying offer of $4.6 million.