Will we make a trade by the trade deadline?

If we do, what will it be? I don't know if we will, but if we do, the trade I'd look at is Joel Przybilla for a lesser backup C with an expiring contract so we have insurance against Miles playing 10 games or have the option of giving Webster and Frye decent extensions while still keeping lots of cap room. I like our young core and want to keep them together, there aren't many players I'm all that interested in trading. Thoughts?

 

Which lesser centers are you talking about? I see Jason Collins, Rasho Nesterovic, and Jeff Foster as the only ones. I wouldn't trust them to play lots of minutes like I would Joel if Oden gets in foul trouble (which he will early on).

I can see us trading Lafrentz and Outlaw or Webster and Sergio for a SF.

 

Yep. Those are the ones I was thinking of.

 

I don't think we will unless someone comes to us with a very good trade.

 

IMO the Blazers have a ton of young talent, but you don't know if any of them are superstars yet, or just very good players.
You win titles with top 5 talent or a couple of top 15 talent like the Celtics did.
Think about it, in the past 10 years, The Celtics won with KG and Pierce and a declining but very solid Ray Allen, the Spurs and Duncan have won, The lakers with Shaq and Kobe won, the Heat won with an inspired Shaq and a healthy Dwayne Wade and only the Pistons won without a top shelf player but rather 4 all-stars and a solid role player in Prince.

The Blazers should develop this young talent make it attractive over the next year or two and then go out and trade 2-3 good players for a Great player. That's how you win a title in the NBA. A collection of good talent makes you a playoff team that always fall short. So long as there is Chris Paul, Kobe and Lebron around there are teams with Alpha dogs who can decimate any team.

If the Blazers do end up with such a player in say Oden or Bayless, then it will come down to chemistry which may need minor tweaking.
IMO Roy is an all-star, which is a step below superstar. Superstars win titles.

 

Our team isn't built like the Celtics of last year, they're built like the second championship incarnation of the Pistons. Chauncey was about the best player they had at a single position, but they spread out the damage across all five positions. Sooner or later, someone was going to be opne.

 

The Pistons also played very good defense and played smart.

 

I know they're not like the C's, but the Pistons were the exception rather than the rule.
go back further, teams that won titles had one of the 5 best players (or better) leading the team and one or two all-star level players.

unless Oden or perhaps Bayless is a top 5 level talent, I'm saying the Blazers need to make a more after establishing how good their young players are in order to acquire an alpha dog player who can win a title... IE Lebron, CP3, Kobe.

 

Of coarse the Blazers would love to trade for a top 5 player but it probably isn't going to happen. I do think we have a chance to have 3 players in the top 5 in 3 different positions SG, PF and C in the NBA and probably closer to the top 3 in two of those positions. You can go through and compare all the top Centers, PF and SG and see where our players would be right at the top in 2-4 years when they are just starting to get into their prime. You never know and things might not happen that way but we have a better chance then any other team IMO.

 

True, this team will take time to develop into a title contender and there's a good chance some of these guys will not pan out or have reached their potential already.

 

I do agree when you look at NBA history usually the team with the best player or close to the best player wins the NBA Championship. Usually it was when you had a dominate big man Center or PF(Duncan) who really is the center. I think and hope Oden is going to be the best center in the league. Why package Roy, LMA, Rudy and/or Bayless to get a top 5 player if even possible to go with Oden when all he might need is what we have. If Oden pans out to be the top center and dominating in 2-4 years players like LMA, Roy, Rudy, Bayless are exactly what he needs to win.

 

I understand your point and I disagree with it. Just because the Pistons were an alternate model, doesn't mean they were an exception.

 

I think Ed's comments are correct. Right now it is even. Oden could easily be a top 5 player--and I expect he will be.

Regarding a trade, I think it will happen because the Blazers need to cut the roster. Players will start rotting on the vine if they remain as they are now. Likely candidates are Outlaw, Joel, Webster.

If one of Webster, Outlaw or Rudy takes over the SF spot, then they might just do a number reducing trade for a future pick. If nobody steps up to take over the SF spot, then I could easily see getting a SF upgrade for a SF prospect plus a solid center and maybe a future pick (or Raef's contract). I will be shocked if they carry this whole team through the year as is. Somebody (more likely 2-3 somebodies) are not going to be happy when Nate trims the rotation to 9 (I can't see him really getting to 8).

 

but history says otherwise. The Bulls won with Jordan, The Celtics and Lakers won with Magic/Bird, sixers won with Moses Malone and Dr. J, Rockets won with Hakeem etc, etc.

 

I think Portland isn't really modeled on any team from the past. If things go as planned, they'll have a top-five player in Greg Oden and two All-Star-caliber players in Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge, and two borderline All-Star-caliber players in Jerryd Bayless and Rudy Fernandez. That doesn't really look like any team I can recall off-hand. Now, that's one of rosier projections, of course, but not wildly optimistic (Bayless and Fernandez becoming solid All-Star talents, Roy becoming a superstar is within the realm of possibility, but basically the best-case for every player). If players fall short of that (or, somehow, exceed it) we'll have a quite different picture.

 

And no one ever won with an offense based on the short-pass until Bill Walsh showed up on the scene.

Change happens.

 

What about the 77 Blazers. They won because they played as a team with not even a superstar. Walton is my favorite player but it is hard to call him a superstar with all his injuries. I think if the team wouldn't have imploded would have won multiple championships. Outside of just a very few teams they usually had a dominate big man. Jordan's teams won because they had good role players around IMO the best player that ever played the game plus one more star player in Pippen. There always great players that didn't win a championship because they didn't have a great center. Even the Celtics last year had KG. I know he was their PF but he was the dominate big in the playoffs. The Lakers had the best player in Kobe and didn't win. Lebron hasn't and won't win a championship IMO until he gets a great or at least really good big man. I'm really not sure what you want the Blazers to do? Maybe trade Roy, LMA and bayless or another peice for what top 5 player? Most of those top 5 players haven't won anything excpet Kobe and that was with Shaq who was the best center in the league at the time. The Blazers are setup in the best situation to win multiple championships if by many Oden is as good as they think.