With him not extending his contract for two years, I think Wallace is going to be able to demand a five year deal. The question is do we want to be overpaying Gerald in four or five years?

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One all world shooter that is. I am talking Steve Kerr/Smith/Reggie Miller/Ray Allen level here. G Dub brings the hard nose hustle and makes us so much more versatile. If we just could have one constant threat from anywhere on the court to spread out defenders I think we would be there. Now the question is who could be that piece? Could it come from within the team (Roy? Batum? Rudy? Babbit??)? Or is that piece not here? Anthony Morrow comes to my mind but for some reason I question his mindset and work ethic--which partially be merely because he hasn't had a role on a team really competing for anything, but who knows.

EDIT: I obviously didn't do a good enough job convincing anyone so here is a bit more of a write up. I hope you give this post another chance and give me your thoughts on this

There is whole lot of talent and versatility in those five wings. Batum can play the three or four and guard the one through four. G Dub also can play the three or four and guard either quite well while being able to rotate to a guard or a big somewhat effectively--at least as well as every other strong SF not named James. Wes can play two or three and cover both guard spots as well as many small forwards. Rudy and Roy can be effective setting up the offense or playing off the ball, and can be effective against many lineups as the small forwards. Neither of those last two are premier on ball defenders but they know how to play the passing lanes.

Our greatest strength as I see it right now is our versatility, and Nate seems to agree. One thing that makes us scary to opposing coaches is how we cross match up against teams--and 'Dre and our wings are a HUGE part of that. Miller's ability to post up smaller quicker guards is a very nice advantage we have. And then on the other side of the floor Nic can guard that quick point guard and help negate that potential advantage other teams might have on Andre. I come upon this assessment mostly because of Nate. I get the impression we have been throwing zones at teams more often lately---and it has been much more effective since the trade for Wallace. He makes us so much tougher and more flexible. Our defense really isn't the Blazers big issue at this point. Now our weakness. I didn't catch all of the last San Antonio game, but of what I did see was them packing the paint on us. A strategy that so many other teams have done and had success against us with (OKC game is a recent example--they are SCARY with Perk). Now I am not saying that we do not need a reliable big who can crash the boards and play some D (thank god we did not overpay for David Lee), especially with Camby getting even older. What I am thinking though is if we have someone to consistently make defenses pay for crowding the lane, that would open the paint up for LMA, Roy, Crash and 'Dre. Also think about Andre's ability to find a shooter anywhere on the floor--I wish I had stats on what percentage of our three pointers he has assisted on since coming to Portland.

Now shooters on the Nash, Kerr, Allen level are almost as rare as a healthy defensive big, but if we have a chance to grab one we should jump on it. As far as a big I really like Dalembert as an offseason acquisition.

That was the win of the season last night. I thought our last win over the Spurs was the hi point of the season earlier (screw the heat) but this takes the cake.

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Now that summer has finally started it is time to talk trades. I still feel Portland needs a quality back up four to play spot minutes. Detroit has reportedly been shopping Maxiell, and I think he has real potential to fill the biggest hole in the Blazers. Brandon Bass is another piece that I feel we can nab in a pinch.

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First off, you all know by now Andre Miller had a monster game--that can not be said enough.  While he has been a polarizing figure for Blazer fans this season, I've become a big fan, and after a night like that one he has cemented himself as one of my most respected players in the NBA today.  Scoring that many points without chucking up threes or getting a whistle every time someone sneezes in China (Jennings needed 7 made en route to his 55 points--but he only missed one---in Melo's 50 point game this season Anthony shot twice as many free throws as Andre did vs the Mavs) is pretty much unheard of nowadays.

 

My question is what would you all be thinking about that performance if Portland found a way to lose that game?

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I'm not one of the Blazer fans that feel we desperately need to make a trade at this point. We will need to figure out how all of our guards are going get the minutes they need as more and more players get healthy again. In my mind the only Blazers I would be really upset to see traded are Broy and LMA of course and Juwan Howard---who has been stellar lately in too many ways for me to list. The Nets have a serious need for some players capable of hitting the three. They are last in the league in hitting the three (below 28% last I checked). Because of this their hot new center, Brook Lopez gets swarmed defensively and has no room to operate. It just so happens the Blazers have a couple of nice three point shooters on the team--in theory at least.

Poll

Which New Jersey Nets player could fit in the best with Portland?

4%

Yiiiiii!

9 votes

4%

Josh Boone

9 votes

7%

CDR

14 votes

50%

Harris/Lopez---like that will happen

100 votes

6%

Courtney Lee

12 votes

27%

Marcus Camby???

55 votes

199 votes | Poll has closed

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Some may claim we would be giving up too much but you have to consider we would be getting a reliable proven banger at the 4

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