According to Chad Ford at ESPN, Portland is still talking to three teams about those same trades we’ve been talking about for days now:

• All eyes are on Portland right now. As of early this morning the Trail Blazers were still talking to at least three teams: the Nets, the Bucks and the Bobcats.

Sources say that the Blazers still prefer a deal for Gerald Wallace, but are struggling to get something done. The Bobcats turned down an offer for Wallace yesterday, but came back to Portland last night looking for more assets for a Wallace deal. The Blazers have refused to part with Nicolas Batum so far and don’t want to take back Nazr Mohammed and his contract in return.

The Bucks have had ongoing discussions with the Blazers about a Richard Jefferson and Luke Ridnour swap. But it sounds like the Blazers want more assets (read Ramon Sessions or a first-round pick) to take back Jefferson’s contract.

The same is true for their talks with the Nets. Last night it sounded like there was some agreement on players. The latest has the Nets wanting Raef LaFrentz and Channing Frye for Vince Carter and Maurice Ager. The outstanding issue is the Blazers’ insistence that the Nets include the Golden State Warriors’ 2011 first-round pick, owned by New Jersey.

I still believe there’s a chance of another deal out there that nobody knows about. By the way, I’m not big on Vince Carter (plays the same position, basically, as Brandon Roy and is also nearing the downside of his career) but if you can get him at that price, you better be considering it. I’m not sure I’d trust that report, with Rod Thorn being notorious for being a tough man to deal with. I mean, Channing Frye for Vince Carter? Uh, yeah — might be a slight upgrade.

Tweet This Post

This from True Hoop this morning, quoting an NBA executive from a Chad Ford column:

“I guarantee you [Blazers GM] Kevin Pritchard has gotten better offers for LaFrentz than the Suns have gotten for [Amare] Stoudemire.”

Amazing, huh?

I guess, ordinarily, here’s where you’d do some kind of statistical comparision of the two players, or talk about how if his jumper is falling, LaFrentz can really help a team.

But LaFrentz is out for the season, and won’t play before his deal expires. Stoudemire is a young, healthy, starting All-Star big man.

Assuming this is really the case — could there be a clearer sign that in today’s NBA economy, cost-cutting is king?

Ford says the Blazers are getting new offers all the time and that Gerald Wallace, he of the recent collapsed lung, is available:

The focus for the Blazers right now appears to be at the small forward position. It appears that three players — Gerald Wallace, Caron Butler and Richard Jefferson — are on Pritchard’s radar screen. A fourth one, Mike Miller, is also a favorite of the Blazers, but the Wolves have been reluctant to include him in a deal.

Sources say the Blazers have intensified their focus on Wallace. He’s young, athletic and physical, and he doesn’t need to score to be an impact player. He has four years and $38 million left on his contract, which is a lot, but given his age and production the past few years, it’s not unreasonable. The problem for the Blazers is that the Bobcats want Portland to take back Nazr Mohammed as part of the deal. That could be a deal-breaker for Pritchard.

Butler might be the best player of the group when he’s healthy. He was an All-Star last year and is excellent in the mid-range game. He too has a reasonable contract, with just two years and $21 million left on his deal. But it’s unclear what the Wizards would want in return and whether they’ll ultimately opt to keep Butler and reevaluate the team when Gilbert Arenas returns. If the Wizards are to make such a deal, certainly they’ll want the Blazers to take back Etan Thomas’ contract, and they’ll likely also demand one or two young players from the Blazers. That price might be too high for Portland.

Jefferson is the most available. The Bucks need to clear his salary from their cap if they’re going to re-sign their two restricted free agents this summer: Charlie Villanueva and Ramon Sessions. Sources say there have been conversations that have included both Jefferson and Milwaukee point guard Luke Ridnour, though the talk has quieted down. As a proven scorer and defender who’s played in the NBA Finals, Jefferson has some appeal for the Blazers.

One wild card for the Blazers is Vince Carter. His contract is the most expensive of the group, but Carter has been fantastic this season and would give the Blazers the biggest bang of anyone out there. It appears unlikely the Blazers will go that direction, but New Jersey would certainly listen if Portland wanted to do a deal.

Assuming he’s healthy (and he’s expected back in the lineup tonight), I like Wallace a lot. He’s got a great motor. Works his tail off and is content working to get his own points wherever they are — off turnovers, the offensive boards, whatever. I’d be a little afraid of Carter.

Tweet This Post

In normal circumstances, you’d be turning cartwheels over the chance to play a team that, on the road, had to play two overtimes last night and lost its best player in the process. That’s what Charlotte did Tuesday night. But the Blazers better be careful tonight in the Rose Garden.

I watched that Bobcat win last night and I have to tell you how impressed I was with it.

Charlotte led virtually the entire regulation and had a nine-point lead midway through the fourth quarter. It was an outstanding performance. The only way the Lakers got the game into overtime was the Bobcats missed five straight foul shots inside the last two minutes. Then, the Lakers got the first six points in the first overtime — a Charlotte fold for sure, right? Nope. The underdogs got the game back under control, Kobe Bryant fouled out — and the Bobcats helped that, going at him frequently when he was in foul trouble — and Charlotte got the game into the second overtime, where it won going away.

This was in spite of the fact that late in regulation, Andrew Bynum nailed Gerald Wallace with an elbow to the ribs that was judged a flagrant foul and sent Wallace in for an overnight stay in a Los Angeles hospital with what was being called a possible broken rib and collapsed lung. UPDATE: Wallace didn’t come to Portland, his lung is “partially” collapsed and he does have a broken rib. Honestly, in watching it live, I didn’t think Bynum’s foul was meant to be dirty. The replay made it look a little worse but I thought the injury was totally accidental.

It was a wonderful game to watch and it reminded me again of what a terrific coach Larry Brown can be. The Bobcats defend with great energy and play so smart on offense, taking only shots they can make and pounding the ball inside whenever they can. They got 54 points in the paint against a team much bigger than they are.

One of the other interesting things was how quickly the late stages of the game were played — because both Phil Jackson and Brown are among the old-school (and Hall of Fame) coaching school that believes well-coached teams don’t call timeouts unnecessarily. I can’t tell you how much more fun these games are without the incessant timeouts so many coaches need to call.

Brown and Jackson will call them late in games for the obvious reasons — to get the ball moved up the floor or (only sometimes) to plot a final shot. But otherwise, it’s the attitude of “we know what we want to do, let the other guy spend the timeout.” I loved it.

Anyway, Brown has the Bobcats playing hard and believing in themselves. They’ll need all of that if Wallace doesn’t play because they just don’t have Portland’s talent. But with Brown on that bench, Charlotte is tipping the ball off just about every game with an edge.

I would expect another solid Bobcat defensive effort and a lot of attempts, with dribble penetrations and postups, to get the ball inside. And that will lead to wide-open Charlotte three-pointers as Portland’s defense attempts to cover the penetration.

The Blazers, by the way, need to avoid thinking past this game. Saturday night’s bout at home with Utah is shaping up to be a monster game. The Jazz are finally showing signs of buckling under the strain of losing Carlos Boozer for an extended time. By Saturday night, that game is going to look like a must win for Utah.

Still, all signs point to the rested Blazers upping their modest win streak tonight. Unless you watched that Laker game last night.

Tweet This Post