There is much debate among Raptor fans as to who will be the first to go; Jose or Hedo? We have to bear in mind Raptor fans that who we want to go, and who will actually be the first to go may not coincide.

There is an army of Raptor fans who have been on the trade Turkoglu bandwagon for about 78 games this season. Turkoglu never found a fit with Andrea Bargnani assuming the role of clear-cut #2 option; a role Turkoglu envisioned for himself when calling Chris Bosh before deciding to spurn the Portland Trail Blazers for the Raptors.  No matter which way you slice it Turkoglu and his bloated contract were a major disappointment and one can only hope Turk and Triano find a way to make it work if player and coach are both indeed back next year.

Turkoglu will be the harder of the two contracts to trade, and failing some sort of sign-and-trade scenario, it is likely that Turkoglu will be a Raptor next year. Turkoglu needs to become more of a focal point of the Toronto Raptors offense and we need to let him resume the point forward duties he had in Orlando that got him the contract in the first place.

The argument that the push for Andrea Bargnani’s development took away from some of Hedo Turkoglu’s opportunities is a valid one, but Turkoglu himself took some of the blame and apologized to the fans for his poor play this season.

Turkoglu will undoubtedly be a key piece of the 2010-2011 Raptors, there is little chance Bryan Colangelo, even being the wizard that he is, can find a taker at this juncture for Hedo Turkoglu at the price-tag we signed him for; the only hope is if we agree to take on a similar or perhaps larger contract.  I have a suspicion Bryan Colangelo signed Hedo more for this summer than last.

Jose Calderon is an excellent offensive point guard and is well known in NBA circles for his stellar free-throw percentage and assist:turnover ratio. But that’s where it ends; Calderon is horrible at defense which makes him a liability and easy prey for opposing teams late in games. On top of that, Calderon has proven just as effective coming off the bench as when he is a starter; this is great, but not when you are making $8 million plus a year.

Jose Calderon, even at $8 million a year has a much more moveable contract than Hedo Turkoglu, and Bryan Colangelo hinted at the end of his presser about knowing that their was a market for his players, including Calderon. The main reason to support a Jose trade is that Calderon’s defense is too much of a liability, especially on a team that is devoid of any good defenders. If you do not count rebounding Andrea Bargnani has been showing defensive improvement; Chris Bosh and Hedo are both average defenders, and DeMar DeRozan who started much of the season has not proven able to competently defend his position.

What Jose can net us now?….well one can only imagine. If you want to try out trade scenarios for yourself you can check out the ESPN trade machine.

I was one of the strongest, if not the strongest, supporters of the potential Jose Calderon-Kevin Martin swap and hope the Raptors can land a swing man or a starting caliber big for Jose.

At the end of the day, like you, I hope both of these players, and Il Mago, are traded from the Raptors roster. But sometimes what we want, and what is feasibly possible, are two different things. This may be one of those times, but one thing is for certain; our team will look much different next year.