Raptors Rumors: De Ja Vu All Over Again; Raptors and Bobcats Talk Trade

According to Steve Kyler, he has reiterated that the Raptors, Bobcats deal is still not dead and the Bobcats seem to have growing interest in Jose Calderon.

Calderon was a member of the Charlotte Bobcats for only a short time about a month ago when sources confirmed that Calderon and Reggie Evans were sent to the Bobcats for Tyson Chandler and Boris Diaw.

After the media uproar about the deal and how supposedly one-sided it was, Michael Jordan and Larry Brown had second thoughts and nixed the deal.

It appears that the Bobcats have been showing more interest lately. According to David Aldridge, the Bobcats were supposedly talking trade with the Toronto Raptors, and Indiana Pacers about a three-way trade that would have seen center Erick Dampier head to the Pacers, and point guards Jose Calderon and TJ Ford head to Charlotte and Toronto respectively.

The deal is still being discussed today, so the four teams that already had the trade in place decided to go ahead with the monster swap.

The Bobcats currently have three decent point guards, but nothing that screams NBA starter. Reserves D.J. Augustin, Shaun Livingston and Sherron Collins make up their current point guard rotation, but the Cats aren't satisfied. They've set their sights on Toronto's Jose Calderon again and are feverishly talking trade with Bryan Colangelo and the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors currently have four players that can play the point on the team with starter Jarrett Jack, Jose Calderon, Leandro Barbosa and Marcus Banks taking up minutes at the one. Barbosa is more of a two-guard and Banks will likely see more bench than floor this year, so the Raptors could be in line for another point guard if Calderon is dealt.

Now I will share with you all THREE possible deals, I will restate, some of these are not published rumors, just deals that work under the salary cap that I have created with the Trade Checker at RealGM.

Trade 1 

Jose Calderon for Boris Diaw

Trade 2 (published rumor)

Jose Calderon to the Bobcats, TJ Ford to Toronto, Erick Dampier to Indiana

Trade 3

Jose Calderon for DJ Augustin and Nazr Mohammed

For me, personally trade 3 is my favorite. 

In trade 1 the Raptors receive another SF/PF in Boris Diaw. His point-forward game could replace the departed Hedo Turkoglu, but again he's another player that fills a position that's already full with the likes of Linus Kleiza, Sonny Weems, Amir Johnson and Ed Davis manning the small forward and power forward spots for the Raptors.

In trade 2, we receive Ford for Calderon. Given Ford's locker room disruptions and poor attitude when not starting, he could do more bad than good for the squad.

However, in trade 3, we accomplish a lot. We get a starting center for whom we can move Amir Johnson to the bench and Bargnani to his natural power forward. We also get a replacement backup point guard in DJ Augustin. Mohammed's roughly $7.1 million dollar contract expires at the end of this year, so getting the extra cap space for the next offseason will be crucial to future success.

Also note the Raptors still have the traded player exception from the Chris Bosh deal worth roughly $14.5 million.

So in the end, the Raptors hold all the cards. The Bobcats balked on their first deal in an ugly ordeal, so the Raptors have plenty of leverage now to get a deal done. If I was Bryan Colangelo, I'd look long and hard at the last deal I've proposed in hopes that it could be beneficial to the Raptors.