Looks like he wants to come over and I have to believe POR would be very interested, I believe his Euro contract has one more year "Blazers draftee Joel Freeland is still dreaming about the NBA, but remains unsure on when the dream will come true. The British forward, who averaged 11.2 ppg and 5.8 rpg at the Eurobasket, says he had good communication with Portland throughout last season, which makes him confident the team is really interested in him. “(The NBA) is a goal of mine, but I’m still going to weigh my options,” Freeland told HoopsHype. “We’ll see what happens next year. The NBA is definitely a place where I want to be. If I feel like I’m 100 percent ready and I’ve got the opportunity to make the step, I’ll make the step. If not, I’ll continue doing what I’m doing. “(The Blazers) came over to see me maybe four, five times. We had some dinners, some meetings and everything. Overall it was good. I haven’t had much of communication lately because of the lockout. I know they are keeping an eye on me and they got me in mind, so we’ll see what happens"
They've got nothing cooking from the draft, Camby is ancient, Oden is brittle and the kind of crap you get with the MLE -- assuming that survives the new CBA -- for players taller than 6'9" tells me that there's a better than average chance he gets to come over and ... play? sit? have his knees explode the second he sets foot on the floor? I guess we'll see what happens.
The way I see it, we Do need another big man but probably only one to get major minutes. For about 20 minutes a game I would like to see Wallace and Batum together (meaning: one at PF) and for the other 76 big-men-minutes we have LMA (like 38 minutes?) and Camby (20 minutes?) which leaves just 18 more minutes. That means we have room for another 18 MPG inside-player on a regular basis and if Camby is injured the 3rd big man should be able to play closeer to 30 with a 4th big man getting 10+. If - god forbid - Aldridge is unable to play, Camby role grows to like 28, the 3rd big man (Oden? Landry?) gets 30 and the 4th big man gets 18. I see Freeland as that possible 4th big man but I'm not sure he accepts this role.
I'd sure welcome him. He may be able to add some depth. By the time we start play again, Camby is shot and Oden is always hurt. We may really need him.
Worse case scenario he's Channing Frye without the three point shot. Bring him over and see what he's got. What other options do we have? He could very well turn out to be a serviceable bench player. Fish or cut bait already.
