THE SPORT COUNT

Chris Bosh meets the Raptors bench.

Last time we dared suggest Toronto could be construed as a less-than-AAA-grade team, half the city clicked through to question our sexuality and mental capacity. Which, while entertaining, hasn’t changed the fact that the team is a house of cards, and some key pieces are likely to disappear or drop-off very soon. Here’s why:

Bosh has become the face of the franchise, but there’s a very good chance he leaves this off-season. Toronto’s future is contingent on Bosh staying. This can’t be overstated. But even if the club fronts the cash to max him, they still entertain his weaknesses for the duration of it: Bosh has never shown great defensive aplomb, lacking the big-man ability to genuinely control the paint. He doesn’t bang down low, not in the way franchise big men like Shaq or Olajuwon did, or Dwight is doing now. He’s excellent with his face to the basket, but once his lateral movement and mid-range game drops off — which it will — he potentially becomes Yi Jianlian on a way bigger contract. Bosh has to learn to be a big body to remain effective in his later career.

Turkoglu’s form at the end of last season was unquestionably excellent. If his worth was to be valued on his performances from February through to the finals — which Toronto did — the $55M is justifiable. But can he maintain that form? He’ll turn 30 this year, which is the traditional point players begin to drop-off. This could have been the reason for his effective no-show in the Euro championship in the off-season. His un-guardable step-under jump shot worked because defence had to cover Dwight in the paint and Rashard on the other wing, but it’s questionable whether Toronto has this sort of potent inside-outside threat. Bosh occupies the middle well, but Bargnani’s surprising long-range competency is not Rashard.

While these three key pieces create a very firm foundation, and Bargnani looks to be finally beginning to justify his number one pick, Colangelo has surrounded them with — to be blunt — a deep roster of complete fucking potatoes. Who out of this list is the glue-guy, the heart of team that can fire-up the starters in a clutch situation? Seriously:

· Marcus Banks: a $4m contract , and he averaged 9 minutes of playing time in 22 games last season.

· Marco Bellinelli: serviceable numbers off the bench, but that was in a Nellie system. His real-game is much lower.

· DeMar DeRozan: this kid is exciting, and a human highlight reel, but the history of super-athletic, low-basketball-IQ players isn’t great.

· Quincy Douby: Marcus Banks with a less disgusting contract.

· Reggie Evans: career averages of 4 points and 7 boards. Horribly, one of the better frontcourt outputs in this bench list.

· Jarrett Jack: a potential talent, who — again — will be limited to a back-up role.

· Amir Johnson: like having a quarter of Greg Oden on your team.

· Rasho Nesterovic: a million years old, but good for 7 points and 4 boards. He earns more money this year than Andrew Bynum.

· Patrick O’Bryant: raw, possibly deserves more court time than he got at Boston, but will he see it as a third-string centre?

· Sonny Weems: averaged less than two points in 12 games for Denver last year.

· Antoine Wright: 7 points, 2 rebounds in 24 minutes last season.

· Jake Voskuhl (FA): utter non-event.

· Joey Graham (FA): quite reasonable bench output. At least there’s one guy.

This list struggles to evidence a player that can provide Luke Walton effort, or Leon Powe dependability, or even Kyle Korver single-talent help. Meanwhile, Reggie Evans, Marcus Banks and Rasho alone will combine to take up $16M of cap space this year, and are effectively untradeable due to their talent-to-contract ratio.

Toronto, on the back of their recent successes should be starting another year as potential conference finalists. But they don’t, because the 82 games of the regular season will drain their studs, and there’s zero depth to pick up the slack. On the upside, watching DeMar’s ridiculous hops all season should make for great TV.