What to do with Chris Bosh?

Chris Bosh has been the face of the Raptors for over five years now, ever since Vince Carter stopped playing and forced his way out of Toronto in 2004. That is what makes Bryan Colangelo’s current situation so hard. Bosh turned down the chance to sign a contract extension earlier in the offseason which, for most Toronto fans, is a sign that he wants out and is likely leaving for a contender after the upcoming season. It may seem like, to people outside of Toronto, that Colangelo has an easy decision: trade Bosh now while his value is still high and before he leaves for nothing in the 2010 offseason. However, it isn’t easy to trade away a franchise player and get similar value in return and without Bosh the Raptors could easily be amongst the worst teams in the league next season. So given the current situation Colangelo has a few options that he can explore:

1) Keep Bosh for the ‘09/’10 season: If the Raptors keep Bosh then the team has an outside shot at making it into the playoffs. The Raptors still have most of the pieces on the team from when they were the 3rd seed in the East 3 years ago. With the addition of a talented rookie swing man (DeRozen or Curry) and a few free agents to play along side Bosh and Calderon the Raptors should fight for one of the final playoff spots in the East. However, even if the Raps make the playoffs they won’t make it out of the first round with either the Cavs, Magic, or Celtics in their way. At the end of the season the Raptors can sign Bosh or attempt a sign and trade.

2) Trade Bosh Mid-season: Around the trade deadline if the Raptors are out of contention and there is a likely contender who wants to improve, the Raptors would likely trade Bosh mid-season. If this is the case the Raptors would likely get mostly future draft selections and a good young talent to add to the current roster. However, if the Raptors trade mid-season the value they would receive would likely be less than if they traded him now, which brings us to the final option.

3) Trade Bosh Now: If Colangelo trades Bosh now he will get the most in return but is giving up all hope for the upcoming season. With an offseason trade Colangelo will get young players in return and the team will enter rebuilding mode. In all likelyhood Colangelo would try to get picks in next years draft, which is supposed to have more talent than this year’s, and get at least one good young player. Also if the Raptors trade away Bosh they will likely be selecting in the top 5 next year which could end up being a franchise player in such a talented field.

In my opinion I think that Bosh needs to be traded. The current roster does not have the talent to get past the second round in the best of situations and needs to shake things up. By trading their franchise player the Raptors are accepting that they won’t win with their current roster and will start building a team for the future. Raptors fans need to understand this and continue supporting this team regardless of how bad they are next season because they will be horrific. As I have said before over at Trueball teams need to realize when they need to start over, and with Bosh almost certainly gone after next season that time is now for the Raptors.

Update: According to Colangelo a sign and trade is the best available option for the team. While Colangelo might just be trying to evade the media for now this report dowses the possible Bosh trade talk.

- KC Roberts