Pretty simple exercise; if you were Bryan Colangelo and you had the opportunity to exchange our trade exception for a player of your choice, who would it be?

Rules:

1) To avoid the obvious picks (i.e. Lebron, Wade, Kobe), their salary for the upcoming season cannot exceed $10M.

2) No players on rookie contracts/ veteran chasing a championship (e.g. Mike Miller, Shaq)

3) Should justify why you selected this player and how they fit into our team concept.

I found salaries at Hoops Hype but I'm sure they are widely available. My pick is for Gerald Wallace ($9.8M) for rather obvious reasons. Our talent on the wings is rather raw and unproven. We could also use a defensive stopper on the perimeter as well as in the post. His athleticism would fit in very nicely with what our team is trying to do. Furthermore, his versatility to defend inside would compliment Andrea Bargnani well to further mask his defensive shortcomings.

Other candidates include: Paul Millsap ($6.2M), Luis Scola ($7.7M), Lou Williams ($5.5M), Hedo Turkoglu ($9.8M, just kidding)

I think this question has been passed around a lot since the end of the season when it became CB4 wanted to take his services elsewhere. Who is going to become our primary option next year on offense?

1) Andrea Bargnani

For lack of better options on this team, it looks like Bargs is the best bet to create offense for himself. While his spot-up shooting is sublime, and would likely be a good fit as simply a 3-point gunner, his aility in the post and facing up gives him a lot of options now that Bosh is gone. Remains to be seen how well he handles double teams (didn't do very well in that feature role last year), but he has decent passing skills and can hopefully adapt. Not sure whether he has the mentality of a go-to scorer; may prefer playing second fiddle but that's hard to say since Bosh played such a prominent role.

2) Demar DeRozan

Another strong summer league by DD shows us why we took him in the lottery. While much of his potential remains latent, DeRozan has shown an improved jump shot and increased comfort handling the ball. While it isn't likely he leads the team in scoring next year, he may very well play that role in 2 or 3 seasons as his frame fills out some more. Still needs to develop his handling and long-range shooting skills, but growth in these areas has been evident.

3) Leandro Barbosa

Would be #2 had the Raptors traded Jose Calderon. As of now we still have Jose, meaning Barbosa will be sharing minutes at the 1 and 2. Without Jose, Barbosa would have had the ball in his hands constantly, backing up Jack at the 1 or playing alongside him at the 2 (much better than the Jose + Jack duo last year). On a team lacking many options, Barbosa would have averaged in the high teens to low 20s in point and dominated our offense a la Mike James. Even still, he is our best off-the-dribble option at the end of the game or at the end of the shot clock, so look for Jack to put up big numbers. Remains a darkhorse unless Jose is traded.

Any other options? Jack? Solomon?

It's a shame that Jose got snubbed for the HR derby, but did anyone check out Jose's long, long foul ball in the 4th off John Lackey? It curved just foul, but it went into the upper deck. Now I knew Jose has good power, but there haven't been many people that have hit balls that ended up in the 5th deck (Jose Canseco and Josh Phelps come to mind). Anyone else know who else has hit homers into the upper deck?

Is 5 years/$34M too much for our backup PF from last year?

Personally, I'm not entirely thrilled with the amount of money that we ended up spending but I like Amir Johnson and I think he is a nice piece to have on our team. The reason I hesitate to commit this much money to Johnson, essentially the equivalent of a mid-level exception, is that he needs to take on a bigger role in the team to earn that value. While we saw some spurts of potential last year, notably the spurt at the tail end of the season when he started a couple of games, he hasn't sustained a high-level of play that warrants starter's minutes in his career thus far. With that said, his high motor, defence and athleticism are always a welcome addition to our team. In order to earn his contract, however, he needs to continue to improve his scoring and cut down on the fouls to stay on the floor (6.5 fouls/ 36 minutes).

On the flip side, with the amount of cap space that teams had and value of quality big men on the market (Drew Gooden got about the same contract 5 year/$32M), could Amir have gotten more from a desperate team that struck out on the A-listers? With the price that has thus far been paid to both Gooden and Amir, signing similarly useful rotation players may become costly.

With the 13th selection in the 2010 NBA Draft, the Toronto Raptors select... Ed Davis.

While a pick like Ed Davis, though talented but raw, does not spell the end for Chris Bosh in Toronto, it likely reduces the likelihood that we keep both Amir Johnson and the aforementioned Bosh.

With July 1 approaching rapidly, BC and Co. are likely working overtime in trying to put together scenarios  for the impending free agency. As such, I wanted to hear what the basketball community thinks of sign-and-trade possibilities. While everything is pure speculation, and of course is contingent on Lebron's choice of destination (once he goes, everyone else will make their decisions), it's interesting to speculate on which teams BC will call.

Here are the rules. In terms of CB4, it's important to remember that since he's an UFA, he can go wherever he wants (i.e. we have no say in where he goes therefore we can't trade him to a loser). There is also an unpublicized list of free agency destinations that Bosh would be interested in, but since that's unavailable, I think it is reasonable to ignore that for now but use some discretion (system should fit him at least, decent support system and coach in place, young pieces). I included the common teams that we hear alongside a couple scenarios that I haven't heard much about but could make sense.

Here are a couple of ideas in no particular order:

1) Golden State for Andris Biedrins + Anthony Morrow

Could make sense since GS just drafted a F/C (likely a C for Don Nelson)

2) New York for David Lee and one of Wilson Chandler, Danillo Galinari, Chris Duhon (just kidding)

Word is Toronto isn't interested in David Lee, which is probably a good thing given that we would have the worst defensive frontcourt in NBA history, but at least he can rebound.

3) Chicago for Joakim Noah

Since they have cap room, wouldn't need to balance the trade. Would only happen if it was a package deal that Lebron/Wade/Joe Johnson would sign with them if they could get Bosh, but again, they can probably just sign him outright too.

4) Oklahoma City for Jeff Green and Serge Ibaka

I can see OKC making a move to try and make a title run while still have their core pieces under rookie contracts. With Durant and Bosh, OKC would have the skinniest starting forwards in the league but also a scary perimeter combination. OKC also has a ton of big man depth, so Ibaka and Green are expendable.

5) Lakers for Andrew Bynum

I've heard this one on the rumor mill for a while now. I find it hard to imagine Gasol and Bosh paired together and I find it even harder to imagine enough shots getting around to please everybody (Gasol complains about lack of touches as it is). I could see this happening if Lebron +Wade/Joe Johnson or Amare to a lesser extent sign together and the Lakers panic.

6) New Jersey Nets for Derrick Favors + Devin Harris

Nets are shopping Harris pretty strongly and he may just need a change of scenery to jump start his game once again. Just a year ago, he was being tagged as a future perennial all-star but the weight of carrying the perimeter scoring for a 12-win team was too much. I highly doubt this trade happens, but Favors would be an excellent parter with Bargs and it could make sense for both sides given the Nets look primed to become Dallas Mavs 2.0 with Russian Mark Cuban.

With the news that Andres Nocioni has been traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, it looks like the possibility of a return of to Sacramento for Hedo has vanished. While I didn't think it was all that likely for a rebuilding team like the Kings to take on an older player with a bloated contract, the Kings have expressed interest in the past in re-aqcquiring Hedo on a number of occassions. With that said, what happens to Hedo from here on out? Here are a couple of possibilities I had in mind:

1) Toronto Raptors trade Hedo Turkoglu and Jose Calderon for Gilbert Arenas and Quinton Ross

This trade makes sense for a number of reasons on both sides. For Washington, word has it that the front office is hesitant to have John Wall share a locker room with Gilbert Arenas. While I feel like Gilbert's character issues are overstated (his teammates seem to genuinely like him), having Gilbert's gigantic ego could be a poor fit next to another ball-dominant guard. While Wall is an excellent point guard, he is more Derrick Rose than Deron Williams at the moment, though the potential for him to become a true playmaker is there. But by playing him next to Arenas, tons of shots will logically get sucked up by Arenas. With that said, Jose Calderon makes a ton more sense in terms of a mentor to bring Wall along. Calderon's efficiency and team play would compliment Wall nicely if the two are on the floor together (albeit not starting next to each other but at times if they go small). Calderon has also shown the ability to come off the bench very effectively, something that would positively influence team chemistry in rebuild mode.

For the Raptors, the obvious boon is ridding ourselves of Hedo, albeit replacing him with an even larger long-term contract. Unlike Hedo, however, Gilbert can potentially earn the value of his contract if he is able to return to his pre-injury form. Not long ago, Gilbert Arenas was among the few guards capable of creating offence for himself, a step below Lebro, Wade, Carmelo and Kobe but on par with a Joe Johnson. The reality for the Toronto Raptors is that it will be next to impossible for us to attract true superstar players through free agency (which historically doesn't happen very often anyways). With Gilbert Arenas on board, hopefully that would be enough for Chris Bosh to come back, which is important in maintaining good chemistry in the locker room (wouldn't want Gilbert being the alpha male). The combination of two solid stars, and hopefully continuous growth from Bargs and DeRozan should give us a lot of talent going forward (top 3 or 4 potential).

2) Toronto Raptors trade Hedo Turkoglu and Marco Belinelli for Emeka Okafor

I've always liked Emeka Okafor. I enjoy watching strong, defensive centres that aren't afraid of contact. Unfortunately, Okafor's health issues early in his career and a lack of a development low-post game has hindered his overall development. Okafor has played full seasons the past three years, so the health issues appear behind him. His numbers in the major categories were all at career-lows last year playing without an experienced playmaker and at age 27 (28 this year) it appears unlikely that we will see too much more growth out of him. With that said, I could see Okafor fitting in nicely with the Raptors, especially in the event that Bosh leaves. He could fill a role similar to what Antonio Davis did for the Raptors (version 1.0 rather than the second time) as a strong defensive presence who battled on the boards.

For the Hornets, they pick up more shooters to put around Chris Paul. Although the Hornets don't appear to be West contenders any time soon, collecting shooters like Hedo and Belinelli seems to fit their team philosophy. They also struggled on the wing mightily last year, trotting out Mo Pete and Julian Wright. Potentially this deal could get bigger to include other contracts that the Hornets would like to get rid of like James Posey.

This trade lacks the potential impact that a trade for Arenas would have but also represents us giving up less talent. Solid big men don't grow on trees and though Okafor is no all-star, he is an above-average starter in the right situation and would be extremely valuable to a team like the Raptors.

3) Trade to another team (Spurs for RJ?)

4) Keep him (Plan Z hopefully)

I would love to hear what other people have heard or speculated. While I purposely kept the trade small for simplicity sake (they all work according to RealGM tradechecker), I recognize that there are other components and teams that could be involved as Colangelo has showed (who could have predicted that four team trade last summer?).

Thoughts on what happens when Travis Snider comes back from the DL?

Since the organization seems committed to letting Travis Snider develop, he will presumably get his position in right field back full-time. Furthermore, Snider seems much more comfortable playing right field, which favours left-handed throwing fielders, over left field meaning he can't even take over Fred Lewis' job (who's playing very well anyways) without even taking into account the problem with a leadoff hitter. This leaves an interesting situation about who sits to give Snider his PT.

I think the most likely scenario would be for Encarnacion to head to the bench and to move Jose Bautista over to third base. A couple of weeks ago I would have favoured benching Overbay but his bat seems to be warming up and if we have any hope of trading him, we have to showcase him. In that scenario (though I don't know how likely this would have been, even if Overbay was still batting below the Mendoza line) would have Jose shift to play first (he's listed as the backup first baseman).

The other positions on the diamond seem pretty entrenched. Despite his poor BA, Aaron Hill has been hitting balls hard and I don't see us benching him. We don't have a competent replacement for Alex Gonzalez on the diamond defensively or offensively so he's not moving anywhere. The other positions are pretty self explanatory.