Throughout last year's NBA campaign, and even after missing the playoffs for the second straight year, the Toronto Raptors remained confident that they would be able to resign franchise cornerstone Chris Bosh during the off-season. Yet, the All-Star forward made it clear last week that he is not going to stay in Toronto, but will explore his options in free agency as far as a bigger market as well as a better chance to win a championship is concerned.

More precisely, Chris “CB4” Bosh has already listened to offers of the Houston Rockets, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Clippers. Considering that he did not want to meet with the Rockets and was not particularly impressed with the Clippers' presentation it appears to be a fair assumption that he will not end up with either club. Likewise, the Knicks have apparently reached an agreement on a multi-year deal with Amar'e Stoudemire which would make an acquisition of power forward Chris Bosh fairly redundant. Consequently, it is no surprise that rumors are floating around of Bosh looking to play with either Dwayne Wade or LeBron James in New Jersey, Miami or Chicago.

The Raptors on the other hand are trying to move on as they are looking to survive the departure of their franchise centerpiece without being bound for a few more years in the lottery. GM Bryan Colangelo's first step was to resign former backup center Amir Johnson to a five year deal worth $34 million. In 2009-10, the 6-9 forward-center averaged 6.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 0.8 blocks in just 17 minutes per contest. While these numbers may not seem very impressive for such a large paycheck, one should take into consideration that his numbers could easily double up with Bosh out of the picture. Likewise, Johnson is just 23 years old leaving him with plenty of time to further improve his game.

You can watch all games of the Toronto Raptors, Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat and New York Knicks right here on www.watchlivenba.com, the home of NBA live streaming.