On Sunday night, Celtics coach Brad Stevens said he had received numerous calls from teams inquiring about forward Jared Sullinger, who became an unrestricted free agent when Boston renounced his qualifying offer.
Now, it appears that Sullinger has joined the Celtics' Atlantic Division rivals, the Toronto Raptors. On Monday, Sullinger changed his Twitter profile picture to a Raptors logo and posted Toronto's team slogan, "We the North."
A league source confirmed that Sullinger has agreed to a one-year contract with Toronto. ESPN reported that it is a $6 million deal.
"Boston I love you guys," Sullinger said in a note posted on Twitter. "You guys stayed with me through the ups and downs. I grew so much as a person and player. A place that is forever will be called home. Thank you for the memories."
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The Celtics had initially extended a qualifying offer to Sullinger, making him a restricted free agent. But when the team guaranteed the contracts of Amir Johnson and Jonas Jerebko last week, they needed to free up salary cap space to sign Al Horford to his four-year, $113 million deal.
Sullinger was the 21st pick of the 2012 draft. The 6-foot-9-inch, 260-pound forward averaged 11.1 points and 7.7 rebounds over his four seasons with the Celtics.
"Jared's one of the more talented guys being able to get the ball off the glass, and he's got beautiful touch and he's a good guy," Stevens said on Sunday, "and so I think he'll do well."
Gary Washburn of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at adam.himmelsbach@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach.