To recap, Bosh goes on ESPN radio and tells the world he’ll await what move James makes before making his move.
A few days later, Bosh appears at a charity golf event in Miami and reiterates what he’s said all along, basically that he hasn’t decided on anything.
He went on to tell reporters that Miami is in top contention, but he’s not willing to play the centre spot.
In the aftermath of Bosh’s appearance, reports have come out of Houston, where the Rockets are said to be eyeing Bosh and the movement that will take place in the coming days.
Yao Ming’s name gets hardly mentioned in this free-agent sweepstakes, but he too can opt out to become a free agent.
Bosh’s name has been linked with the Rockets in the past and he’ll certainly complement a player such as Yao, but the take from this space is that Bosh wants to be on a team with a dynamic wing.
There aren’t many dynamic wings in the NBA, a list that includes James, Wade, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant.
Privately, the Raptors are hopeful Bosh will use the team to maximize his money, making for a complicated multi-team deal if a team with limited assets such as Miami ends up being Bosh’s desired destination.
A team such as the Bulls has more pieces that would seem to appeal to Toronto.
The bottom line is that nobody knows how this thing is going to play itself out.
Those who claim to know or think they know are simply delusional.
Hedo Turkoglu spoke to the Turkish media again Monday and tried to clarify his recent controversial comments.
Turkoglu said his frustration stemmed from not being used right in his first season as a Raptor. He added that he would like to return to Toronto but would like the system to utilize him more.
Almost everyone connected with the league thinks nothing will happen until James makes his decision. It will then be up to other free agents to decide if they want to join him, and there’s been no indication James is in any hurry. If, as reports indicate, he will listen to pitches from up to six teams, it could take days to even gather enough information to decide what he wants to do.
“I don’t know, it’s out of our hands,” said Colangelo. “If it were up to teams in the league, they’d like it to happen quickly.”
Since James can only go to one team, leaving jilted suitors to move to Plan B with other high-profile players, those even further down the pecking order will have to wait. So a free agency market that usually dries up after a couple of weeks could go for a month this time around before all the key players are signed.
Colangelo said he has been in contact with Bosh’s agent, Henry Thomas, but not as much lately with Bosh, who has been travelling.
“We will get to a point where there’s a conclusion to this one way or the other,” Colangelo said.
The New York Knicks have enough money to afford two maximum salary players, the Bulls are close, and the Heat can add one while keeping Wade. With so many teams in such good position heading into free agency, Colangelo knew it would be tough to keep Bosh, who he said loves the city of Toronto.
“It’s the perfect storm for Chris Bosh to leave and unfortunately we’re possibly going to be on the short end of that, but we will evolve,” Colangelo said. “We will have to evolve and move forward.”
A source close to Bosh on Monday was asked if Bosh had made a final decision on where to play next year, and the source said, “He hasn’t.” The source, however, conceded that Bosh is tired of being the centrepiece of a team that has yet to escape the first round of the playoffs during his career.
“It’s like if you went to work every day and you worked hard, and you never got a promotion,” the source said. “You want a chance to get ahead.”
So maybe he will do this by joining LeBron and Wade in Miami, forming the core of some kind of super-team. Or rather, a super trio plus Michael Beasley, Mario Chalmers, and a taller-than-average homeless guy playing centre. Or maybe he will accompany LeBron to Chicago, where they will play with Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah, who is the anti-Andrea Bargnani.
But either way, he will almost certainly cement what we have all suspected since this team went diving off the deep end after the All-Star break last season: the franchise player for this perpetually faltering franchise is packing for sunnier climes.
“I think it’s likely that he will leave,” Colangelo told Prime Time Sports on the Fan 590 on Monday.
Colangelo said a sign-and-trade between the Raptors and the team Bosh decides to go to is possible, but he did not guarantee it. He added that it might not be a player that comes in return, but a trade exception that would allow the Raptors to take on extra salary in a later deal.
Bosh is widely expected to leave, especially after the playoffs, when he was seen courtside in Los Angeles and having dinner with fellow free agent Dwyane Wade. Still, Colangelo acknowledging as much is new.
“I’m not going to sit here and tell you I’m confident Chris is coming back,” Colangelo said last week after the NBA Draft, and the selection of power forward Ed Davis.
“If he makes a decision to leave, we’ll talk to those teams that he’s interested in signing with. There will be opportunities for him.”
The Raptors had not been contacted as of Monday about giving permission to the Nets to talk to Gherardini, 54. He is under contract for one more season, but the Raptors will not stand in his way if it’s to take a better job.
"This would be a great opportunity for Gherardini," said a league official. "This would be a step up into a real GM job where he will be running the Nets as their top basketball official. He is ready for that."
Gherardini’s main focus now is to help the Raptors retain free agent Chris Bosh, who is considering relocating to Chicago, Miami or New York. Bosh also plans to meet with the Nets, but they’re considered a down-the-line option for him. After turning down Prokhorov’s job offer in Moscow before he joined the Raptors in 2006, Gherardini went back on Prokhorov’s radar once Prokhorov’s involvement with the Nets first surfaced last fall.
Press rumours that Marcin Gortat is to leave Orlando Magic and even the United States, heading north to Canada to play for the Toronto Raptors.
Orlando Magic is supposed to already been in discussions with the Canadian team, regarded as one of the best in the league’s Eastern Conference.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, the Toronto Raptors have offered to trade their Turkish player, Hedo Turkoglu, for the Pole, who may be transferred alongside French team-mate Mickael Pietrus.
A modified version of the ballyhooed free-agent summit that was initially suggested and then downplayed by Dwyane Wade has indeed taken place, ESPN.com has learned.
Sources close to the situation said Monday night that three of the biggest names in basketball — Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James — met over the weekend in Miami to seriously discuss their futures, with a focus on the increasingly plausible possibility of those three teaming up with Wade’s Heat.
Let’s assume for a second that ridding the team of Jose Calderon is a greater priority at Raptors HQ than trading Hedo. Calderon’s fragile body has only further eroded his already meagre defensive abilities and it would appear that the front office has lost faith in him as a starting guard. Plus, Colangelo has been much more emphatic that one of the team’s two current point guards (Jarrett Jack being the other) will not return next season. Given that Jack is on a far cheaper deal, that he has the versatility to swing between both backcourt positions, that he actually plays defense and that he is a solid rebounder for a guard, it would seem foolish to unload him simply to ease a glut at the position.
That is especially true when one considers that on the court last year, the real glut was between Turkoglu and Calderon, two players that need the ball in their hands to be effective and two players that appeared to make each other less effective by sharing the court together. It was no coincidence that the team had it’s best stretch when Calderon was coming off of the bench and played far fewer minutes in tandem with Turkoglu.
This could be a fun week for Rockets fans.
It could, and most likely will, turn out to be much ado about nothing.
But the Rockets would not be serving their many followers well if they didn’t do all they could to entice Toronto Raptors free-agent-to-be Chris Bosh to don Rockets red. If that means adding a second big-contract All-Star, then so be it.
The Rockets have coveted Bosh for a long time. It is easy to understand why.
Since drafting Yao Ming No. 1 eight years ago, the Rockets have started at power forward the likes of an offensively limited Chuck Hayes, a defensively limited Luis Scola, a young Eddie Griffin, an aging Juwan Howard, and, well, supply your own description of Kelvin Cato.
If you combined the best qualities of those players, you could have the ideal player to put next to Yao.
Basically, that is what you have in Chris Bosh. Hence the long-standing crush.
The Rockets’ desire for Bosh might not be obsessive, but it is such a strong fixation that despite the odds against the two coming together, the organization is keeping hope alive that Bosh will choose it over other suitors.
First and foremost, the Heat simply don’t have the room right now to sign all three players because of Michael Beasley’s contract. In fact, even if they dealt Beasley away and waived James Jones they still wouldn’t have enough to offer three max deals. They would be close, but somebody, or all three, would have to play for a few less dollars. The only thing that could help ease Miami in that regard is having Toronto sign Bosh (the third player in this proposed puzzle) and then trade him to Miami for Beasley. I highly doubt the Raptors would go for something like this because of Beasley’s checkered past, but it’s possible. It also would allow Bosh to sign for more money and that extra year that the Heat wouldn’t be able to offer.
He says that the Toronto Raptors do not have an established offensive system, unlike the Orlando Magic.
He was mainly used as a spot shooter and he tried to do the best he could under the circumstances. He clarified his earlier comments, and said he meant that he did not want to play in that system, and that he has no problems with the city or the fans.
He added that he was confident that offensive and defensive scheme would be changed, because it clearly wasn’t working for him or for the team, and that was all he wanted to "scream out" throughout the whole season.
When he is asked if the problem with the system was that offense was run too much over Bosh, he responds: "No, I can’t say that. Chris Bosh is a perennial All-Star and I enjoy his game very much. The offense is naturally built around Bosh, but the issue was my role in that offense."
He says he will be having conversations with the coach and the team officials. He cites that last season was his first in Toronto and he got to know the organization, the city and the culture. Turkoglu says he just wants to play basketball in the best way he can.
It stands to reason that Chris Bosh’s ego will allow him to ‘join’ good friend Dwayne Wade in Miami, while somewhat opposing, as mentioned above making a free agent move that would likely confirm the sentiment that he needs to ‘follow’ a big name free agent to be successful. If Dwayne Wade remains in Miami, Bosh does not have to ‘follow’ anyone anywhere and will instead be viewed as one of Miami’s prized free-agent acquisition.
Chicago seems like an ideal landing spot for Bosh as they have the defensive presence and all-star point guard that Chris Bosh needs to maximize his abilities, however this is LeBron’s most likely destination and as posited above Chris Bosh does not want to ‘follow’ anyone.
