Okay, so obviously Portland is trying to get better, obviously. I mean, they're one of the few playoff teams that has kept its core intact and still has cap space to play with. So the question ends up being, what do they need? Well, as of right now, here's what I see in terms of the Blazers' roster:
PG- Steve Blake, Jerryd Bayless
SG- Brandon Roy, Rudy Fernandez
SF- Nicolas Batum, Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster
PF- LaMarcus Aldridge
C- Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla
This is not counting the Blazers' draft picks of Victor Claver (who will probably stay in Spain for a year or two), Jeff Pendergraph, Dante Cunningham, and Patrick Mills. I don't know if the plan is just to let them all walk, or to offer any one of them a contract. What is crucial now is to consider the needs that Portland has. There are three things that I think Portland really needs, and these are them, in what I consider order of importance:
1.) Upgrade at the SF slot (defensive minded player that can hit threes)
2.) Upgrade at the PG slot
3.) A backup PF
So if we look at Kevin Pritchard's moves, it's a little confusing to say the least, at least from where I'm standing. The first was to offer a 5 year $50 million contract to Hedo Turkoglu, which makes some semblence of sense. He's decent on defense and can hit threes, as well as take some of the playmaking burden off of Brandon Roy. However, he's 30, and isn't super effective without the ball, it's a tough call, I think he'd help, but he wouldn't be the perfect fit in Portland. As we all know, he spurned the Blazers last minute for a 5 year $56 million deal in Toronto.
His second major free agent push was to throw a front loaded contract at Paul Millsap, I think the deal ended up being like $32 million for like 4 years or something, but Pritchard threw in a singing bonus and therefore paid Millsap $10 million upfront. The Jazz had made a commitment to match anything anyone threw at Millsap, and were able to scrounge up the money to do so. This is where things start making less sense. I can understand the idea of throwing a contract at Millsap for no reason if other than to make the Jazz match, but I don't see how Millsap is super attractive as a piece on the Blazers. Millsap is a starting caliber talent, and on the Blazers he's not going anywhere except on the bench behind LaMarcus Aldridge. $8 million a year for a backup is a lot, that's all I'm saying, unless Blazers had in mind to start Aldridge back at the center and play Millsap.
Now, there are murmurings of interest in Andre Miller. While it's an intriguing idea, I don't subscribe to the fact that Andre Miller will make the Blazers better. In my opinion, what fits for the Blazers in terms of point guards, is one that can hit threes as well as run the point. While I have no doubt that Miller can run the point, he can shoot threes for jack, and therefore needs the ball in his hands to be effective, which means taking the ball out of Brandon Roy's hands, and relegating him (Roy) to being more of a shooter than a creator. If we look at the blueprint of the Blazers, it's actually fairly similar to the Lakers. I consider Derek Fisher and Steve Blake to be along a similar mold of point guard, that is, one who can run the show, but also be that spot up catch and shoot guy at the top of the key. A perfect fit would actually be Kirk Hinrich if they could get him somehow (without giving up Jerryd Bayless).
My call would be to make a bigger splash at the wing position in free agency and then trade the expendable wing player for a backup big or something. I would say make a comparable if not larger offer that was made to Millsap to Marvin Williams. Worse case scenario is that Hawks match and take up a lot of cap space. Another possibility is to offer Lamar Odom the contract that was offered Hedo Turkoglu, and if the fit isn't great, trade him somewhere, maybe work out a sign and trade or something, say to Chicago for Hinrich. In terms of getting a backup big, there are a number of free agents still out there that are serviceable, maybe like a Hakim Warrick, Joe Smith, or Drew Gooden. Remember that Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw are still very tradeable. Maybe the Blazers think that Martell Webster will be good enough? They're high on Nicolas Batum? I don't know.
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