Portland Trail Blazers The problem: In terms of efficiency margin (the difference between a team's offensive and defensive rating), only Oklahoma City has played better than the Trail Blazers out West. Unfortunately, their record doesn't match up to the stats. Portland has struggled in close games, often faltering down the stretch. The only offensive creators on the roster are Jamal Crawford and LaMarcus Aldridge, though Nicolas Batum is showing signs, as Marv Albert might say. Ray Felton has played better than Crawford in the clutch, but has been so poor overall that the latter has replaced him in the starting lineup. To get the rotation back to normal, the Blazers would love to find a good points/assists point guard who can create offense and push Crawford back to the sixth man's role. The fix: Felton's contract is up after this season, which should make him highly tradeable. Gerald Wallace has one more year plus a player option left on his deal. Given the Blazers' needs, finding takers for one or both of the former Bobcats would seem ideal. Unfortunately, starting-quality point guards aren't that easy to find. The best at that position with an expiring deal is Phoenix's Steve Nash, who is reportedly coveted by Portland. Unfortunately, the Suns are looking to extend the Nash era beyond this season and Nash appears content to stay. That could leave Toronto's Jose Calderon as Portland's best option. He's not a big-time scorer, but knocks down a high percentage of his looks and is one of the best passers in the league. His decision-making would be a key for the Blazers when things get tight. You could send Felton and Wallace to Toronto for Calderon and Linas Kleiza. Portland gets its new point guard, one who would allow Crawford to play off the ball down the stretch and might also boost the game of struggling Wesley Matthews. Batum steps into a 35-minute role as Portland's full-time 3 and inherits Wallace's job as the go-to perimeter stopper. Kleiza is a versatile bench scorer, better suited to that role than either Batum or Wallace, and is one of the league's top-25 per-minute scorers this season in clutch situations. Toronto would get the 3 it lacks and the defensive ace that Dwane Casey surely covets in Wallace. They also get a replacement for Calderon in Felton. Someone has to run the team for the rest of the season. If it works out, they can re-sign Felton this summer, and he's young enough still to be considered a point guard of the future. If things don't go well, cap space is always nice.
I get that. But last time the Blazer had capspace, they got Andre Miller with it. Miller did alright here, but what PG can they get this summer with capspace? Maybe just pull the trigger now and get best PG possible and give up capspace. Maybe . . . I don't know.
Calderon is going to stay on the trading block. If we take a shot at free agency and can't land anyone we can always make a lopsided trade to take Calderon into our capspace.
After reading that article it almost had me convinced it's a good idea ... and even after dwelling on it a bit, I can't say that I find much fault with it. Neither Calderon or Kleiza are stars or probably even real difference makers, but Calderon's deal only runs for one more year and Kleiza is hardly on a cap killing deal at 4.5 million. It probably still means the team needs to draft a point guard this year or next, but it could be worse.
Sure, why not? Kleiza is actually pretty good, and it would be really nice to have a PG who can shoot. I would say that it would be a major defensive downgrade... except that our defense seems to suck these days anyway. And I get the impression Kleiza wouldn't mind clocking someone if it came to it.
