The Toronto Raptors appear to be caught in a bit of a holding pattern, one that Franchise notes was inexcapable from day one...

"So maybe a sign-and-trade deal isn't the best idea for us.  Look at some of these trade packages teams have put together Maurizio!  Garbage, garbage and more garbage!  Maybe it's in our best interest to simply let Bosh walk if teams aren't willing to play ball...

Well...wait...can we still get David Lee in return for CB4's services?

No?  Lee isn't keen on playing here?  Well maybe Houston can put together a package...I know they weren't on Chris' original list, but hey, Yao Ming has been recruiting him.

And considering our guy is probably the lynchpin in deciding where LeBron and Wade go in many ways, shouldn't we be able to get SOMETHING useful back??"

My guess is that something akin to the previous back-and-forth has gone on between Bryan Colangelo and his brain-trust over the past 72 hours.  While Raptors' fans wait patiently for some word on where Chris Bosh will be playing next season, it seems that various scenarios are unfolding on nearly an hourly basis.

The team wants to sign-and-trade CB4, then it doesn't, souring at both the options given in return for Bosh and Chris' own handling of this free-agency process.  I compared Bosh's "social-mediaization of the process" to being dumped by a long-time girlfriend, and then having her consistently give you updates on the new guys she's dating and how amazing each is.

I can imagine for someone as proud as Bryan Colangelo, that's akin to having the old salt ground into his previous wounds pretty good.

So now what?

Well...not much.

Amir Johnson is coming back next season, the "young gunz" are back in Toronto this week for more workouts, and until this Chris Bosh situation is finalized, it's hard to even speculate about "next moves."

I'm sure Colangelo will however be getting lots of "what's next" type questions at noon today when the newest members of the Toronto Raptors, Ed Davis and Solomon Alabi are introduced to the media.  I think we're going to skip this one, it will be all video-taped for Raptors.com I'm sure, and do some more extensive one-on-one work with both in Vegas in a little over a week, but my guess is most of the media's interest won't be on Davis and Alabi, but on Bosh.

At this point though, unless something breaks in the next few hours, I'm not sure there's much to say if you're Bryan Colangelo.  Sure, maybe you want to make a deal with the Houston Rockets, probably the team with the most to offer for Chris, but there's so many other things in play right now that again, you've gotta "hurry up and wait" so to speak.  If you're Bryan, you haven't been in control of this process from day one and you're not about to start at this point.

LeBron James had noted late last week that he'd make a decision on his future-team today (my gut is torn between Jersey and Cleveland) so maybe that shakes the tree a bit and gets things going.  But until that happens, BC is simply sitting on the sidelines spinning the good news stories like the return of Toronto's top free-agent outside of Bosh, and the new rookies, Davis and Alabi, the best he can.

It's no-doubt a tough situation to be in, but one that's been foreshadowed for quite some time.

Speaking of Davis, SB Nation's UNC blog, North Carolina March, sent us their thoughts on Davis as a prospect recently, and briefly discussed his time as a TarHeel:

Ed Davis generates a bit of a mixed reaction for Carolina fans. As a freshman for the national championship team, he was an important talent, and when playing along side Tyler Hansbrough and Deon Thompson he was part of a very formidable frontcourt. I'm not sure they would have won the national championship without him.

After most of the championship team graduated, he was expected to be the focal point of the offense in 2010, and that's where the mixed feelings come in. Davis was expected to step up and take control of games - be the next Tyler Hansbrough in other words - and he never did. Roy Williams has repeatedly said about this season that he had to coach effort to these players, something he had never done before, and Ed Davis appeared to personify that. The first N.C. State game aside, I don't remember him ever stepping up on defense. Entry passes bounced of his hands (and everyone else's; fans never knew who to be blame for that), his shooting game never extended out as far as expected, and then in early February he went down with a broken wrist. He did play the remaining 9:16 of the game (against Duke) with that injury, so his toughness can't be called into question, but his effort might.

So you're not getting the second coming of Chris Bosh, I'm afraid. At least not the Chris Bosh who first arrived in Toronto. However, he's also young and greatly stepped up his game when pushed by competing teammates upon arrival at Carolina. He has more raw talent than a lot of players who have recently come through Chapel Hill of late. With proper motivation he can definitely work his way up to being a franchise player for a team. We're just not sure how to get him there, frankly.

Hmm....so much for the positive spin.

Of course there have been countless cases of prospects who have become better NBA pros than college players, so we'll just have to wait and see...

...something that seems to be this off-season's central theme for Toronto Raptors' fans so far...