So one day in late April, I checked in on my blog and noticed a lack of something. Sifting through them, I found pieces on Hedo, the Young Gunz, the Amazing Race, video games, the Olympics, etc. But the one thing that was truly missing was a piece about the franchise - CB4. And yeah, sure, maybe I did that because every other media outlet was beating the whole "Chris Bosh" topic to death; but still.
Like many others, I don't want to take Bosh for granted. And so with the realization that he may be gone very soon, I wanted to dedicate the next 30 days or so to him with my writing and this very blog. After all, this may be my last chance to discuss him on here.
The mission - should you choose to read it - is simple. Everyday, I'll breakdown a different team's outlook in regards to acquiring our franchise player. We'll take a look at how a potential transaction will affect both sides of the spectrum, and whether or not such a move could potentially go down.
Disclaimer: Let's please keep in mind that I'm not majoring in the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement; so if there's a few errors here and there in that regards, please let me know. Thanks!
Previous Piece: The Chicago Bulls
Today's Piece: The Cleveland Cavaliers
Players of Interests:
Anderson Varejao
Delonte West
Antawn Jamison
Anthony Parker
J.J. Hickson
Fresh off a stinker in game 2 against the Celtics, the Cavs now must step back for a quick second and look themselves in the mirror. While doing so, they've got to ask themselves one simple question: "Are we good enough?"
My answer: "I'm not even sure anymore."
See - to be honest - I'm not the biggest LeBron fan out there. Am I a hater? No way, I recognize obvious talent when it's there, and it's hard to hate on talent. But for some reason, the dude just rubs me the wrong way.
So what's got me interested in whether this year's Cavs team is good enough? Easy, this link: LeBron Won't Stop Until He Brings Championship To Cleveland.
To me, it's like this. If LeBron wins a title this year, he'll be more likely to leave Cleveland for the bright lights of New York. That brings forth two ugly problems to the table. One being we'd have LeBron in our division, meaning 4 dates a year. And two, another max free agent (maybe CB4) would be more enticed to join LBJ in New York as well. That doesn't sound very appealing to me.
So Raptors Nation, let's all hope that our best friends the Boston Celtics take care of business! Assuming that happens, and the crazy Danny Ferry (see Varejao's contract) decides to up the ante by luring Chris Bosh to Cleveland, what could we possibly want in return?
Sideshow Bob would have been pretty nice if he wasn't locked in to such a disturbingly long contract. His lack of scoring prowess is made up with his hustle and ability to guard a respectable amount of 4s and 5s. He would be yet another big that would look ideal next to Bargnani.
A more realistic (and almost guaranteed to be included if a deal were to go down) option would come in the form of J.J. Hickson. The 6'9 North Carolina State product - who's currently on his cheap rookie deal - would give us a young forward prospect to move forward with. Most fans who can see the bigger picture realize that if we let Bosh go, the best thing to do next would be to rebuild with young players on cheap contracts. Hickson meets that criteria. Let's call him a poor man's Jeff Green without as good of a jumper.
But while on the topic of the Cavs, we can't forget that we have Bryan Colangelo as our GM. And if there's one thing I've learned during his tenure here, it's that he hates to lose. He hates it so much that he never starts from scratch. If a mistake is made, he would rather get a quick fix than press the reset button. In some ways, that's an awesome trait from a GM, you can't fault always wanting to stay competitive. But would it be the best idea this off-season? Let's say BC sticks to his guns, I could totally see him trying to pry Antawn Jamison away from the Cavs. It would be torn to shreds by the fanbase and media, but somewhere in the back of your mind, you know it could happen. All the Cavs would need to do is re-sign Shaq for a much smaller deal (word is will happen if the Cavs don't win the title) and re-sign Big Z for the minimum, and they can afford to do this.
My Preferred Scenario:
Raptors Trade Chris Bosh,
Cavaliers Trade J.J. Hickson, Delonte West (expiring), Anthony Parker (expiring), Sebastian Telfair (expiring), TPE
Assuming Telfair picks up his 3 million dollar player option, which he'd be stupid not to, the Raptors would acquire roughly 11 million in expiring money in this trade plus a decent TPE. It's isn't the prettiest looking of returns for Bosh, but it would probably be the best in regards to short term and long term impact if Chris wanted to go to Cleveland. And who wouldn't love Anthony Parker back raining 3s from the corner? As for Cleveland, Shaq gets to team up with who he calls RuPaul.
More Likely Scenario:
Like with Boston, we just stay away from each other. Or we show Chris Bosh this:
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