HawthorneVillager.com

In my opinion, this is a much better move where you are not stuck with certain aquired players. Plus, this puts the pressure on Bosh and will certainly reveal if he's money driven.



Wherever Chris Bosh heads next, he'll likely have to do so on his own -- and at a slightly discounted rate.

The Toronto Raptors have become increasingly disenchanted with the idea of helping Bosh obtain a maximum contract via a sign-and-trade deal, according to a league source.

Because of the higher annual raises and additional year a "home" team can offer its own player, Bosh could make $125.5 million over six years if he re-signed with the Raptors and they moved him elsewhere; he could make $96.1 million over five years by signing outright with another team.

The difference in the first five years of the deal would amount to $4 million.

It's no secret that this year's free-agent actions are being driven in large part by the threat of a locked-out 2011.

Sign-and-trades allow for players to obtain the most money while their old team benefits by at least getting some assets in return.

The right combination of players, manageable contracts, draft picks and a trade exception could have enticed the Raptors to accommodate Bosh.

The Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers and New York Knicks are believed to have submitted trade proposals for Bosh to the Raptors, and apparently none has impressed Toronto.

Bosh's Twitterization of the courting process, which included several tweets of anticipation leading up to the July 1 commencement of free agency, didn't sit well with the Raptors either, the source said.

Bosh met with the Rockets and Raptors at the onset of the free-agent market and during the past two days met with the Miami Heat, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks and Chicago Bulls at the Chicago office of his agent, Henry Thomas.

The philosophical change on the Raptors' part restricts Bosh's choices to the teams with sufficient salary cap space to offer a max contract: the Bulls, Clippers, Heat, Knicks and Nets.

It also hampers teams who hoped to acquire Bosh via trade while preserving their cap space to use on another player or players.

According to the source, Bosh, Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are still intrigued by the possibility of all playing together, be it in Miami, Chicago or elsewhere.

On the one hand, I really like that the Raps might be showing Bosh the finger for the way he's (mis)handled this, but on the other hand, by all accounts, it seems like he's going to be going to one of those teams with the cap space regardless, so are the Raptors cutting off their nose to spite their face? Why not get something for him?

I gather from this that the Raps really want to do business with the Rockets and this might be a ploy to get the Rockets to ante up in their offers if they want him. But in the end, it'll be up to Bosh to agree to even go there.

I'm glad the Raptors decided not to be Bosh's bi$ch! It's a good move to let Bosh know we won't be bothered with his dealings.

Or it could mean the Raptors will re-sign him. The team knows it can give Bosh the most money, and Bosh probably knows it too. Maybe the whole meeting with teams thing is in order to get the max from the Raptors. I think the longer Bosh goes unsigned, the more likely it is he stays.

I think he's pretty much gone, Laura.

As much as I'd love for Colangelo to tell him to buzz off, I think the Raps should still do a sign-and-trade since you can still get some good bodies in return, and the money that you sign would then be the resposibility of the other team.

Also, as unfair as it is for the Raps, they just can't tell Bosh to buzz off since you don't want to give the perception to the big names that you're hard to deal with, esp. if you want to attract big names to Toronto.

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EXACTLY.

Perception already IS negative - bridges are burned with most of the big names that have left. We LOVE the average--good guys that play hard and go elsewhere - JYD, MoPete, Donyell Marshall, etc... but the stars -- they always seem to leave on bad terms - probably because our front office waits too long to get anything done, and is too afraid to lose them.

If you know your girlfriend of boyfriend doesn't want to be with you anymore, shouldn't you just accept that and send them packing, instead of trying to hopelessly hang on to something that isn't there, only to have everyone hurt in the end?

Bosh should have been signed and traded to the Knicks during the slump last season... oh well....

Wil,

The sign and trade guarantees you nothing. You are likely taking on players that the team is trying to dump...and higher priced ones at that. What incentive is the signing team under to give you decent assets when they are signing Bosh anyway? sometimes nothing is more.

Colangelo needs to listen but not necessarily take.

Dale

Gallinari and Lee, for starters.

The knicks had to dump salaries to make cap-space room. They could have shipped Lee over here as his career with the knicks is likely done if they manage to get the free agents they're pining for, anyway.

In that situation, everybody's happy. Knicks need cap space, we need talent.
Bosh for Gallinari and Lee would have been perfect last year, and the Raptors could have re-signed Lee late last year if they liked what they saw.

Good morning Dale, hope you had a good weekend! My answer is that the other team gets the player they want (Bosh), and for us, we can either take what they give, ask for what we want (no guarantees we'd get of course), or be a bit more complicated by dragging in a third (maybe a fourth!) team to see who we can get via trades.

But most likely I see sign and trade. Bosh wants a max deal of 6 years, and only the Raps can provide that for him and no other team unless Bosh takes less somewhere (5 yrs, 100 mill I think?), so I'm thinking the skinny, junkie-looking power forward will want full money.

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I don't even care anymore, let's just get this over with, already.

This has become so boring. Sports headlines tell me Bosh and Wade met for dinner for the third consecutive night... Ooooooh!! . This is what pro sports has become.

Someone wake me when it's over.

Looks like he may sign with Miami to be with his boy DWade, to be confirmed this afternoon.

It's not yet known whether he will do the sign and trade, or just up and leave. If he just up and leaves, I think we should give him even worse treatment than Vince Carter got, but I'll be optimistic and see if we can get something. I just can't see the thug turning down another 30 mill.

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Never! Vince Quitter is the ultimate A-Hole!

Really though, Bosh hasn't done anything wrong. His contract was up and he chose to go elsewhere. If the Raptors declined the chance to expedite things through a S&T, than that's on them. He wouldn't just up and leave to spite the Raptors, he'd be walking away from nearly $30 million as you reference.

As much as Bosh mishandled his departure, he didn't screw over the Raps the way Vince did.

Bosh exercised his rights as a free agent, albeit he was real douchy about it, but all the same, he played hard here, never caused problems... I'd cheer him if I were to attend his return game.

I agree with Eclipse. He's a free agent and back around the all star break he said he was going to test the waters. This is on Colangelo for not trading him during the season and getting something decent for him. Bosh has been up front and he has every right to do what he is doing. The raptors never gave him anyone good to play with. That and Bosh is overrated

http://www.thestar.com/sports/basketball/nba/raptors/article/833551--toronto-raptors-extend-offer-to-forward-linas-kleiza

Oh yay, another Euro!

I don't care if he comes from Mars, we need all the help we can get.