OK, to review — the Lakers have added Ron Artest, the Cavaliers have added Shaquille O’Neal, the Rockets have added Trevor Ariza, the Magic have added Vince Carter, the Spurs have added Richard Jefferson, the Celtics have added Rasheed Wallace. Toronto, as we well know, has added Hedo Turkoglu. The Mavericks are trying to add Marcin Gortat and are retaining Jason Kidd. And moving forward, the Spurs are pondering Big Baby Davis, the Cavs are looking into Shawn Marion.

Man, the good teams are bulking up.

And the Portland Trail Blazers? Well, probably by mid-week they’ll add that point guard they want in a trade — either Andre Miller or Kirk Hinrich. But it shouldn’t affect their cap space much. They’re going to have all kinds of room under the cap.

In some ways, they kind of remind me of that old story of the guy wandering through the house of ill repute with his pockets full of money who can’t find a date.

Honestly, there’s still plenty of time to use that cap space to help facilitate an unbalanced trade for a good player. To make a solid roster addition. But so far, I have to say this is not exactly the way I expected the offseason to go. Kevin Pritchard is going to have to pull a rabbit out of his hat or this is going to be one letdown of a summer.

And a setback for the team. When everyone you’re playing against is improving and you aren’t, you’re in for trouble. And no, just the expected improvement of Portland’s young players isn’t going to be enough.

It would be a shame to squander what’s been, since before the trade deadline, a golden opportunity to add talent to this roster.

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On Wednesday, NBA teams can begin talking to free agents and their agents, although they can’t sign anyone for a week. But already there are rumors about which teams are chasing which players.

I believe the Trail Blazers have their sights set on adding not one but two new players. And everyone seems to be saying they’re after Hedo Turkoglu. I must say that I’m a little surprised by that. While he’s a great guy and a very good player — as we saw in this season’s playoffs — I just don’t know that he fits real well with Brandon Roy.

Turkoglu seems to operate best when he has the ball. The Magic made best use of him in a 1-4 set, the same thing Portland often uses with Roy. When he doesn’t have the ball, Turkoglu tends to stand around a lot. And he’s not much of a spot-up shooter or defender.

Last season was far from his best year. He shot only 41.3 percent from the floor, 35.6 percent from three-point range. He averaged a nice 4.9 assists per game but that was mitigated by 2.65 turnovers per game.

I’m not sure that’s worth $10 million a year, which is what he’s seeking — although in today’s NBA I’m not sure he can get it.

The other player Portland is rumored to be seeking? Well, the Kirk Hinrich gossip just won’t go away. A player the Blazers could have had prior to the trading deadline, he has more value now because of a solid playoff series against the Boston Celtics.

If most of the free-agent budget is spent on Turkoglu, Hinrich is an available option through trade. It would probably cost the Trail Blazers Travis Outlaw (expendable with the arrival of Turkoglu) and one of the point guards, either Jerryd Bayless or Steve Blake. I’d guess the Bulls would want Bayless.

I’m not enamored with these moves. I’d much rather see Portland go get a better point guard in an unbalanced trade. I’m not in love with this free-agent class. Turkoglu is one of the better ones, but it’s a weak class. This is probably the Blazers’ last chance for quite a spell with this kind of cap space and I’m not sure Hedo Turkoglu is where you’d want to see that money spent.

One thing is sure, though. The NBA expects Portland to be big spenders. One NBA source, who has been in the league quite a while, expects the wallet to open and the Blazers to try to clear as much cap room as possible:

“They’re going to shift into ‘drunken sailor mode,’” he said.

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I love how some people thought the Darius Miles stuff would be a “distraction” to the Trail Blazer players. I mean, seriously? Do you really think they care about it? I don’t.

And along the same lines, how many players on ANY team are excited about their team having a lot of cap space to sign free agents? Certainly the ones whose jobs will be threatened by the arrival of the impending free agents aren’t real excited about it. That’s just reality.

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Would you take something like this into account when deciding whether to sign with Portland?

The Western Conference balloting at guard shows Brandon Roy 10th, trailing the likes of Rafer Alston, Tracy McGrady, Jason Kidd and other has-beens and never-wases. And this, I’m afraid is the way it’s going to be most of the time out here — no population base compared to the big cities, home games on TV so late nobody in the East watches. Hard to get enough votes for a Blazer to make it into this game as a starter.

Would this bother some free agents? I think it would.

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Yes, I was remiss in not mentioning that Allen Iverson is in his contract year. The Pistons figure on having some major cap room when Iverson walks. Henry at True Hoop does a nice job of summing it all up here, with plenty of kudos for Piston GM Joe Dumars.

Sorry, I never get as juiced up over that as everyone else does. Go ahead, look out there at all the big-time players who will be available as free agents in two seasons and dream to your heart’s content. But will they still be there two years from now? And can you play in that market? Can you go up against that player’s current team and whoever else may have cap room that season and win?

I’m a little more pessimistic about that stuff than most. The system is designed these days to keep most players with their current team. They don’t always stay, but most of them do. And making a lopsided trade that changes the nature of your team just for some perceived future payoff is a bit risky, don’t you think?

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