Like many of you, I've been thinking a lot lately about trading for Chris Paul, and where Portland stands compared to other teams.  His list includes Dallas, Orlando, New York and us.  I don't take New York as a serious threat since they have no assets and could really only take back Paul (if they take back more, they cant sign Carmelo, which means no big three).  This leaves Orlando and Dallas as our main competition.

Dallas and Orlando, in terms of what they offer are very similar.  They have a bunch of over paid veterans with contracts that expire next year.  Both can easily take back Okafur, Posey and Paul and still be intact enought to compete for a ring.  However both can only offer very little in terms of young talented players.  Dallas only has the PG from France (don't know how to spell his name, don't want to look it up), and Orlando only has Ryan Anderson(soft PF), and Jameer Nelson (who turns 29 next season, so not that young).  Now the problem that Orlando and Dallas both have is that there best young assets are PG's, but New Orleans, already has a good young PG in Darren Collison, so they have no need for those assets from Dallas and Orlando.  This leaves the Blazers as the only team that can offer good usable prospects to New Orleans. 

This forces New Orleans to make a decision, either trade Paul for young players that can help them rebuild quickly, or use Paul for a massive salary dump.  Unfortunately for the Blazers, I believe at this point they would probably use Paul for a massive salary dump, meaning he would be traded to either Dallas or Orlando.  However Portland has an advantage over Dalls and Orlando.  Orlando and Dallas are stuck, they can only offer a salary dump, they can not obtain any young assets to give to New Orleans.  Portland on the other hand can still put themselfs in a situation where they can offer young assets and a masssive slary dump.  This is Portland big advanatge, with some hard work they can offer both things that New Orleans want, while Orlando and Dallas can only offer a salary dump.  This is where Portland has to get a third team involved.

New Orleans wants to get rid of both Okafur and Posey, we can take Posey easily, however we have no need for Okafur.  So the task at hand is finding a team that needs Okafur's services.  The good thing about Okafur is that he is actually a decent big man, he is overpaid, but he is not useless, on the right team he can be valuable and needed.  This was my try at finding a home for Okafur trademachine

New Orleans sends out : Paul, Okafur, and Posey

they get: Prince, Miller, Priyz, Batum, and Rudy plus picks, cash, maybe Elliot Willams and a Euro

Detroit sends out : Prince

They get: Okafur, cash, picks, and maybe a Euro or another small time player

Portland sends out: Miller, Priyz, Batum, and Rudy

Portland gets: Paul and Posey

Why does New Orleans do this:  They get they massive salary dump they wanted plus some nice young pieces to help jump start there rebuilding process.

Why does Detroit do this:  This is the hardest one to rationalize, but Joe Dumars has done some pretty dumb stuff lately and there is no reason why he wouldn't continue doing it.  Also they have a pretty strong need for big men, and Okafuris well above average for a center and would fit there needs.  The problem is, he is overpaid, maybe Joe Dumars looks past that part and decides to use Prince's expiring contract to pick up a much needed big man.  This wouldn't be one of his dumbest moves, it wouldn't be incredibly smart, but it also wouldn't be incredibly stupid.

I don't need to answer why Portland does it, we all know why.  My question to you guys is what do you think of this trade? and  more importantly, what other teams could we find to take Okafur?  Because in my mind that is the key for us.  We have prospect no one else can compete with, we just need to find a way to take more bad contracts off New Orleans hand, if we can do that, then I think Paul is ours to be had.  So write away, lets find Okafur a home!

Like many of you I live outside the Portland Market, and I do not recieve a cable service that has NBA League Pass.  Therefore I watch all Blazer games using the NBA League Pass Broadband.  Usually I have no problems watching the game, however tonights game is on NBA TV, and for some reason the NBA has decided to block games that are on NBA TV from being viewed using NBA League Pass Broadband.  So my question is where can I watch tonights game and also our next game against Dallas online?  Thanks for the help, I know that there are gonna be a lot of other people in the same boat as me.

I've been sitting around this summer looking at our team, and also looking a the avaliable free agents for the summer of 2009, and to tell you the truth I dont see anybody out there that would really be a big help to this team.  However there is the possibility that Loul Deng could be a free agent since the only team with cap space left this summer is memphis and they are cutting cost and do not need a SF, so it looks like Deng might be signing a one year contract with the Bulls since the Bulls dont seem too interested in giving him the kind of contract that he wants.

To be truthful I have not seen him play that much, so I can only go off from what I have heard and what the stats tell me, but by looking at his stats he has been better then Outlaw in every category, is the same age, and has playoff experience.  From my view I think Deng is a better player considering his stats and the fact that he was gotten significant playing time with playoff teams while Outlaw other than last year could barely get 20 mins a game on last place teams.  The biggest factor in my mind is how good of a defender is Deng, since I really haven't seen him much I cant really know, but what I do know is that defense wins championships and its going to be key to have a good defender at the small forward position and I am just not sure Outlaw will be capable of doing that.  The one down side to Deng is that he is not a three point shooter while Outlaw is more then capable of hitting that shot.   My question to all of you is if Deng is avaliable do you think the Blazers should use there cap space and go after him which would also means having to let go of Outlaw?  If you have seen Deng play please give us your thoughts on him since almost all of us know what Outlaw brings to the table.

ESPN the MAG is doing it's annual NEXT thing.  I say that it is up the the Blazer Nation to make sure the Roy is on the cover of ESPN The MAG as the NEXT athlete.  Go to this link and vote for Roy:

http://espn.go.com/mag/

You can vote over and over again, so if you want you could do it all day long.  The only competition I really see is from Joba the Hutt, and thats only becasue he is a New York Yankee.  So go out there and vote and make sure that our Blazer gurad Roy makes it on the cover of ESPN the MAG!

Should the blazers go after Kobe Bryant?  This is a questions I've been asking my self since the middle of the summer when he first made it known that he would like to be traded.  I have thought about many diffrent trade senarios and after hearing last night that the trade involving the Bulls and Kings gave me an idea for a trade that I think would work.
The trade involves the Blazers, Lakers, and Kings(since they have already shown interest).  Know I did this on ESPN Trade Machine(which is pretty cool by the way), so i know the numbers work.
Blazers recieve: Kobe Bryant
Lakers receieve: Brandon Roy, Ron Artest, Brad Miller
Kings receieve: Martell Webster, Jarret Jack, and Raef LaFrentz

Now why this would be beneficial to all the teams involved:
Lakers:  Lakers get 2007 ROY Brandon Roy, who has the talent to be an All Star player and a great leader.  In Ron Artest they get an All Star calliber player who is still relativly young.  In Brad Miller they get an ageing center but one who still produces and could fill the gap between now and the time that Bynum is ready to start.  Also Miller style of play fits perfectly into the triangle offense.  With this trade the Lakers stay competative in the west and could have a starting lineup of Roy, Artest at Guards, Walton and Odom at forwards, and Miller at center.  This team would still compete for a playoff spot and would better off then any other trade they could make.  Also they would have good young pieces to build around, so its a trade that i think they would go for.

Blazers:  Blazers get the best player since MJ, and automaticly become a playoff team.  Starting lineup would be Blake, Bryant at guards, Outlaw, LMA at forwards, and Prizy at center.  Becasue of the trades blazers would be a little thin at some positions but they would open up two roster spots so they could add some players.  With Bryant and LMA blazers would have a great inside outside game, and with Oden waiting on the side Kobe would have his shaq back, but this time Kobe would be the perenial all star and the man, so he would be cool with it.  I feel Kobe's got about five years left as a top 5 player in the league, and when he starts decline in talent LMA and GO will be ready to pick up the slack.  Kobe is easily the type of player that could play into his late 30's.  I think overall this trade would make the blazers better in the short and long run.  Blazers would be championship contenders within 3 years, and would stay championship contenders for 8 to 10 more years.  Why would Kobe come here?  Becasue he would realize that he could play the last 10 years of his career playing for a championship every year.  To everyone who thinks that the Bulls would be champioship contender if they trade for Kobe and keep Deng, you dont know anything about basketball.  You dont win without big men, and the bulls dont have any inside game what so ever.  The only team that has ever won without big men was the MJ Bulls, and thats becasue MJ was the best player ever, and as good as Kobe is, he still aint close to MJ.

Kings:  This is proably the biggest stretch since the Kings lose a ton of talent in this trade. The Kings are gonna suck so they should just start to rebuild.  They get Webster who is showing why he was the 6th pick.  You could pair him up with Kevin Martin, one play SG and the other SF, and you have a great outside shooting punch to go along with their rookie center Hawes from washington.  They get a decent point gaurd in Jack who can play for Bibby while he is hurt and maybe be their future starter.  LaFrentz is here just to make the numbers work, I believe he can still play and could possibly make up for the loss of Miller.  Also his contract and Bibbys end in the same year (two summers from now) which means they would get 25 MILLION in cap space which they could use to get a couple of free agents.  So this trade works well for the Kings.

This is my idea for a trade, I think its fair for all teams, or as fair as it's gonna get for the Lakers, and I think the Blazers would win a ton of rings with the trio of bryant, LMA and GO.  Let me know what you guys think, especially you Dave since you seem to be the Blazer guru!