Chad Ford: Raptors Cleaning House

[Built Ford Tough]

The past few weeks I’ve been calling around to every team in the league gathering draft info. Out of all those conversations, one thing that is becoming clear: The Raptors have been the most aggressive team in the league this summer in seeking out all sorts of trades. At this point it’s conceivable that the team could end up trading three of its five starters this summer.

 

Toronto GM Bryan Colangelo, as we reported in May, is open to a sign-and-trade should Chris Bosh tell him he wants to sign somewhere else on July 1. Obviously the Raptors would like to keep Bosh, and, according to a Raptors source, they are attempting to clean house now to show him they can surround him with a more competitive team. The source told me that there’s been little movement on the Bosh front and that won’t change until they hear from him on what he wants to do.

 

http://proxy.espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/16700/raptors-cleaning-house

 

Meanwhile, the Raptors are not just sitting around. Rather, Colangelo is shopping Hedo Turkoglu, Jose Calderon and Jarrett Jack with an eye toward making trades before July 1.

 

The same source told me that a Turkoglu trade was already in the works and could happen by the draft. While the source was confident something would happen, the source didn't disclose the potential destination(s). The Calderon and Jack discussions are moving more slowly, but over the past few days the Raptors have been pressing forward on those fronts as well.

 

http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/67188/20100614/raptors_very_active_in_trade_talks/

 

Chad Ford isn't exactly the most credible person in the world, so I don't know if things are exactly as he makes them out to be, but I think this is fairly accurate considering everybody knows that the Raptors need to make a huge splash in order to keep Bosh and that they have been actively shopping Turkoglu, Jack and Calderon.

 

It is very nice to see that there is some new rumblings on the Turkoglu front though. I would be happy with just dumping his contract, but if the Raptors can actually get some sort of value in return for him I will be absolutely estatic.

 

This should definitely be a fun offseason when it comes to the Raptors though. I completely expect Colangelo to make multiple moves and am confident that they will be a much different team come the 2010/11 season.

 

EDIT: I forgot to touch upon the Bosh situation.

 

It is very nice to hear that the Raptors aren't basically conceding the fact that he is gone and are looking to make moves that will keep him in Toronto. Although I don't believe Bosh will ever be the best player on a championship team and have basically come to terms with the fact that he most likely won't be back (although I haven't completely given up hope) it would really suck to see Bosh leave. Losing a 23/10 big man is never something that you want to do, and it is even worse considering he was the face of the Raptors franchise. Losing him like they lost Stoudamire and Carter would really suck.

 

Anyways, this is finally some good news considering this offseason it has been basically nothing but Turkoglu talk, Bosh leaving and other sort of doom and gloom topics, haha.

Edited June 14, 2010 by Built Ford Tough

[Poe]

Basically what Chad Ford is saying... is anything can happen

 

 

The idea of Toronto finding a way to keep Bosh is interesting, though. It makes me wonder why Bargnani isn't in trade talks instead.

[Real Deal]

Point is, Toronto has to do whatever it takes to keep Bosh, or to lure a superstar free agent to Raptorland. It's going to be difficult, to be honest: Toronto isn't LA or New York, the Raptors aren't a contender and most likely won't be one next season (unless they somehow rake in two free agents), and then you have to look at the coaching situation as well.

 

Retaining CB4 is the idea. If that means trading Hedo (who doesn't even deserve to start on any NBA team at this point) and putting Calderon on the block as well, so be it. With the way the team is set up today, Toronto needs a superstar that can give them 25/10, or they need the ultimate superstar that can dominate any team he plays (James and Wade are the two ideal players here).