The Raptors are in possession of a key component that nearly every championship team would want. That man is Chris Bosh, and though the power-forward has been adamant about how much he loves Toronto, he’s been more than aloof in stating his intentions to stay north of the border. The Raptors have survived much of this season to sit at 19-19 SU and are in the midst of a playoff run as we approach the halfway point of the NBA basketball betting season. The problem is that Chris Bosh might not be in a Toronto uniform by the time the team gets there.

Bosh is currently ranked eighth overall with 23.9 points per game, and is also sixth overall with 11.3 rebounds per game. What would an NBA executive pay for a 25-year old forward with dynamic skills, and the ability to average 20-12? A max contract.

Toronto would certainly be in a position to offer Bosh an igloo full of money for his troubles, but Bosh is a competitor who wants to win a championship. The Raptors are far from that, and losses to the Celtics and Magic this year have proven that the Raptors are playoff canon fodder at best. One of the biggest detriments to Toronto’s success is that they tote the league’s worst overall defense. They allow 105.3 points per game against, generate just 13.0 turnovers a game and give up an opposing field goal percentage of .464.

CB4 isn’t the main reason for the defensive shortcomings of Toronto. This is a roster built around undersized big men, and guards incapable of stopping cripples from climbing up stairs. Andrea Bargnani is the bright spot of the Raps behind Bosh. With 17.1 points per game and 6.1 rebounds, Bargnani has finally shown offensive consistency, albeit far short of stats becoming off a first overall pick in the draft.

Hamstringing the Raptors even more is Hedo Turkoglu’s ungodly contract. He stands to make between $9.8M to $12.2M in the next four years of his contract and he’s already 30 and slowing down. Versatility is the name of Hedo’s game, but dominance is not anywhere close to part of it. Aside from Turk, the Raptors are paying nearly $10 million a season for Jose Calderon, who is contracted through 2012-13. That’s $10 million for a guy who averages about 10-2-5 a game. Bargnani is also on the books long term for over ten million per season.

That doesn’t leave the Raptors with a bevy of bargaining chips on the trade table. If anything, they’re going to have to get what they can for Bosh in a sign and trade. No two teams have shown bigger interest in viably landing Bosh this season as a rental player than Chicago and Houston.

I’ve made strong cases that the destination for Bosh will be the Chicago Bulls, and that he’ll be used as bait to lure Dwyane Wade back to his hometown. Bosh is certainly not a game breaker, as he’s proven in Toronto, but he’s a marketable asset that can put fans in the seats. Combined with an athletic talent like Wade or LeBron, the sky would be unlimited for Bosh.


A deal involving Tyrus Thomas and Kirk Hinrich to Toronto would certainly be enough for Chicago to land Bosh, and the Bulls have the cap room next season to sign Bosh to a long-term deal. Derrick Rose and Bosh could then be used to lure Wade to Chicago to form a terrifying threesome. With Joakim Noah, Bosh and the Bulls could be a rebounding force of nature in the Eastern Conference.
The other candidate to land Bosh is Houston, which has dangled a combination of players including Carl Landry. Of course any deal that sends Bosh to Houston would have to include Trevor Ariza, and the Rockets would be hard pressed to justify losing the free agent that they courted so quickly this past summer. The attraction of Bosh isn’t just in his numbers – he’s a Texas native and the Rockets brass is apparently convinced they could sign Bosh to a long term contract in his hometown state.
A Bosh-for-Bynum rumor has surfaced thanks to the media in New York, and while the trade is somewhat attractive, it doesn’t make a world of sense for the Lakers. Bynum is a legitimate center in a league that is virtually devoid of such players. Bosh and Gasol seem like an attractive combination under the rim, but they inevitably serve the same role.
Bynum is under contract for $58.4 million over the next four years, and that’s relatively cheap for a player of his age, skill, size and talent. Losing Bynum long term to get Bosh as a rental player that they clearly can’t afford to keep past next summer seems desperate to me, and the Lakers are anything but.
While the rumor mill swirls like crazy in Toronto, the fans in Raptor country are coming to grips with the reality that they’re star player will no longer be theirs after this season. A team that looks like it’s rebuilding each and every summer will have to do so without its core player, and that might be a good thing considering that Toronto will be unable to sign another mega star to play alongside Bosh. The fact that the Raptors continue to botch draft picks year in and year out probably doesn’t comfort Bosh all that much.
What’s key here in the Bosh rumors is that teams are going to target CB4 before LeBron and Wade become openly available. The sweepstakes are going to be a wild spending spree for all teams, but the roster with the most attractive building blocks is going to be the one that secures the big targets. Bosh’s complimentary playing style, and Toronto’s hidden desire to recover some talent before Bosh leaves town completely, make this an intriguing story to follow.

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