We’re about a week away from the trade deadline and I think that this time around, the Trail Blazers are going to pull the trigger on something.

Two reasons:

First, the obvious — the team needs another big man. And make no mistake, this is a long-term need, not just a temporary fix. Last summer, Portland chased free-agent Paul Millsap — indicating the team felt then that there was a distinct need for another big body who could rebound, play defense and provide inside scoring.

Now, with Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla out for the season, that need is magnified. So there is a definite need for another “big.”

But on top of that, the more serious motivation for a deal is the pending logjam at the smaller positions as Travis Outlaw and Brandon Roy return to the lineup after the All-Star break. Already, there are too many players for the available minutes. We saw at the beginning of the season how hard it is to keep everyone happy with playing time.

It’s not fair to coach Nate McMillan to keep making him deal with those issues. And the team’s roster is seriously out of balance with way too many small players and not enough big ones.

And really, doesn’t this team know by now who it wants to keep and who it is willing to deal? I would certainly hope so. My guess is that Martell Webster, Outlaw, Steve Blake and Jerryd Bayless are all available.

Who will come back in a deal? Your guess is as good as mine. There are undoubtedly players out there available who we didn’t know about. Kevin Pritchard will find somebody. I would guess there’s a young big man, perhaps a little more untested than we’d like, out there who could grow with this young team.

With the deadline now less than a week away, it’s going to be a fun time.

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Finally, there is no other choice.

Yet it’s still taking some measure of agony, apparently, to get that starting lineup changed. Martell Webster to shooting guard, Nic Batum sliding in at small forward, right? What other choice is there with Brandon Roy out?

Yet, here we are again, with Coach Nate McMillan doing the same old waltz when it comes to an obvious lineup change. Just do it, man. What’s the delay? What are we waiting for?

This should have been done a couple of weeks ago, but hey — what do you expect. Lineup changes around here come hard. At the start of the season, if Andre Miller had just been put into the starting lineup alongside Brandon Roy — one point guard, not two — the team would have probably picked up three to five more wins by this point of the season.

Instead, we were subjected to all the hand-wringing involving Steve Blake and the problems of the “second unit” and who Brandon Roy could play with best. All of it was silly. The best point guard was Miller — from Day One. But it sure took a long time to get there.

Batum was the starter all last season and his improvement this season is obvious. Man, he’s needed at both ends of the court and he needs to get a lion’s share of his minutes alongside Miller — who will reward all his off-the-ball movement.

Just do it, Coach.

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Man, that was something. I loved the defensive effort. The “bigs” did a great job, for the most part, of rooting Dwight Howard out of the lane all night and everyone else contributed to hounding Howard when he attempted to operate at the post with the ball.

Martell Webster continues to show what he can do with regular minutes and a consistent role. I mean, this guy is showing signs of either becoming a very, very good player or becoming an outstanding trade piece. He’s already a player other teams are talking about as someone, depending on Nic Batum’s development, who could be available.

Andre Miller and Steve Blake were terrific . . . oh, what’s the point of trying to single out individuals? This one was a great team win from start to finish.

One thing I must say, though, about the Orlando Magic: I’ve been around the league for a long time now and what I saw from them Friday night was downright shameful. And I haven’t seen it too often from what is a high-level team that was in the NBA Finals last season.

The Magic just sort of quit. Rolled over. And it appeared to me that the reason is simple — those guys want to get their coach fired. They aren’t listening to him and they’re actually embarrassing him with their on-court actions. Their effort level and attention span were just not there.

Stan Van Gundy has the reputation of a guy who grinds on his players and I’m afraid he’s gotten to this group. They appear, at least for the time being, to have tuned him out.

And once that happens, it’s usually only a matter of time before the coach finds himself on the street.

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In pro football, they always say the most popular player in town is the backup quarterback. In Portland, it’s tended to be the backup point guard. Jerryd Bayless is no different. The fans love him. At least for one night, Tuesday, he paid them back.

Bayless was very reliable down the stretch of the win over the Sacramento Kings, finishing with 14 points after a big 8-for-10 night at the foul line. Can he do that against teams that don’t allow opponents to average 47 percent from the floor? Certainly, it appears we’ll get a chance to find out. Bayless’ minutes will be increasing, for sure.

It was a strange night for the Trail Blazers, who couldn’t sustain much of anything for long stretches. Portland opened the game with perhaps its best ball movement and player movement on offense this season. The Blazers didn’t always hit the open shots they got, but they were very unselfish and active — which seemed to coincide with Andre Miller’s debut as the singular point guard in the Portland lineup.

But Miller — who got a several “hockey assists” in the game as he made the pass that set up another guy for an easy assist — left the court and Portland’s offensive game deteriorated quickly. It was back to the old “stand around and watch somebody else play” offense and the Blazers trailed by 11 at the half.

The same thing happened in the third quarter when Portland came out with the obvious intention of getting LaMarcus Aldridge going down low. Aldridge, after a miserable first half, responded and went on a splurge that resulted in the Blazers getting back in the game.

Again, though, it didn’t sustain. Portland fell back heading into the fourth quarter, leaving it to Bayless and Roy to close the game out.

Steve Blake and Bayless were on the floor together down the stretch of the game and I assume Coach Nate McMillan will just go with whomever is clicking down the stretch of future games. Nothing guaranteed — which is fine.

This was a decent win. The Kings are an impressive team on the rise with Tyreke Evans looking more and more like the best player in last June’s draft.

Good thing for Portland that it won, too. The next five games are going to be tests.

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On the MSP this morning, with Gavin Dawson and Chad Doing, we had Jason Quick on the air, fresh off the Trail Blazers’ 1-3 road trip.

Of the many things Jason said, he predicted that Andre Miller would be in the starting lineup Tuesday night in the Rose Garden when the Blazers play host to the Sacramento Kings.

Quick also referenced some things going on behind the scenes that he couldn’t expand on, including an assertion that the team was sometimes not confident that it could win when it takes the floor. It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it, that a lot of things are going on behind the scenes with that team? Injuries shouldn’t obscure the problems that have existed since training camp.

I believe some of this stuff is due to the mandate that coach Nate McMillan set up prior to the start of camp. McMillan said at the time that the players who played the best in camp and in the exhibition season would earn the starting jobs and the bulk of the playing time.

But then Miller went out and played better than Steve Blake throughout the exhibition season — and still didn’t win the starting job. Look, Miller hasn’t been playing all that well since the regular season started — he’s been very inconsistent — but you’d have to be nuts to think he still hasn’t been outplaying Blake. Yet Blake continues to start.

There’s something wrong with that. And of course, there’s been something wrong with this team all season. The chemistry hasn’t been right and the team, even when it has won games, hasn’t played all that well.

At this point, there isn’t much to lose by throwing Miller out there with the starters, is there?

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Yes, I have to admit that Greg Oden was probably my biggest source of joy in watching the Trail Blazers this season. To see him improve on the floor right before our eyes was a delight. So with him out, what are we to watch?

Here are just a few things of interest:

– LaMarcus Aldridge. Will he now step up into that all-star class that he’s always talked about? The time is ripe. The team needs more from him now. He’s a key cog — he’s got to play like that consistently.

– Brandon Roy. Obviously, an all-star already. I’d like to see him take that next step and do more to get his teammates involved. Make sure that Martell Webster and Steve Blake not only get shots but get those shots from the spots where they can make them.

– Jerryd Bayless. OK, all the fans are on your side — as they always are for the young kid on the bench. You’re going to get time on the floor now. Make your shots. Show you can get the ball to other people. And quit being such a foul machine. Actually guard someone without hand-checking.

– Steve Blake. Make a few shots, OK?

– Andre Miller. Keep doing your thing. I know you’re not used to coming off the bench but try not to stink it up in the first five minutes you’re out there. Take the shots you can make. Only.

– Kevin Pritchard. I know you don’t want to make a deal now. And I’m not advocating you deal from weakness just to make a short-term  impact. But if this thing doesn’t get better soon, you’re going to have to do SOMETHING.

– Nate McMillan. If your front office can’t turn one of those guards into a big player, you might have to use all those guards at one time and play some small ball. That means fast breaks, spreading the floor, getting to the basket. Repeat — fast breaks. Play fast. If you need some help with this, pull out that Golden State tape from a few weeks ago.

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Nate McMillan handed the keys to the bus back to Brandon Roy Saturday night, right about the same time both men threw Andre Miller under it.

Hey, I’m no big Miller fan. I don’t like being in a position to defend him, either. He hasn’t played all that well so far. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t something wrong with the way this is coming down. Even after Miller was signed as a free agent, McMillan was reluctant to declare him the starter.

Then, as training camp opened, the coach made it clear he would start the players who earned it. Who played the best. But when Blake didn’t play that well in the exhibition season, he earned the starting nod, anyway.

Yeah, the Blazers played a miserable game Friday at Golden State. Yes, even though they’ve been winning, it’s been obvious Roy hasn’t been pleased with what’s going on. And everyone knows Roy needed to ditch the silly three-guard thing, quit playing small forward and get back to his normal off-guard position.

But come on, let’s get real here. It’s not as if it’s a no-brainer that Miller was the root of all Portland problems. It’s not as if he failed as the team’s starting point guard – he never got the chance to play it alongside Roy in the backcourt. There is no reason to suddenly blame everything on Miller, rather than Blake, the other starting point guard in this three-guard folly.

Why is Miller the problem, rather than Blake?

Because Brandon Roy deemed it so. Roy this season is slightly down from his career numbers in field goal shooting, three-point shooting, rebounds, assists and steals — and up in fouls and turnovers — and he’s pinning it all on Miller. That’s obvious. From the very start, he hasn’t liked Miller taking the ball out of  his hands and everyone knew it.

Instead of taking control of the situation, McMillan tiptoed around it by using two point guards instead of one. It’s been all about placating Roy from the start. Why not spend 20 games with Roy being a more traditional off-guard? Learning to play off the ball, learning to move, set picks, get picks, get himself open — without pounding the ball in a spread court. Why not post him up once in a while?

He’d have been a better player for it.

But Roy didn’t want to take himself out of a comfort zone, so Blake right now looks like the most secure player in the NBA. And this change is being made during a stretch of games against mostly powder puff opponents (other than Monday night’s home game against Chicago), guaranteeing a nice little winning streak for the Roy-blessed lineup.

“I want to give the team back to Brandon,” McMillan said before the game. “It’s his team.”

That’s typical NBA coachspeak. It’s “his” team. Well, OK. I suppose then, Coach, you’ll be moving on? Why not just make Roy player-coach?

 ”There’s only one ball,” McMillan said before the game, although he wasn’t talking specifically about Miller and Roy.

Yeah, sure he wan’t. But by the way, there’s supposed to be only one coach, too. Who is it, Roy or McMillan? Here is what Roy said:

 ”I feel like we tried it (the three-guard lineup), and you could say it worked at times, but me sacrificing hurt the team, so it should get back to me playing full-out and getting some other guys in other areas to sacrifice a little bit,” Roy said.

Again, Miller is taking the fall for the failure of a three-guard lineup that was doomed from the start because Roy is not a small forward. Why isn’t Blake taking blame? Roy talked about how his own “sacrificing” was certainly a mistake. He said:

“. . . me sacrificing hurt the team…” and “getting some other guys in other areas to sacrifice a little bit.” Wow. Does that stuff make Roy look as bad as I think it does?

And get this:

“This team is going to go off my pulse,” Roy said. “Even if I’m smiling and trying to make it work, if I seem like I’m not totally comfortable, then Martell won’t be. And Rudy (Fernandez) will look like he’s in a funk. And L.A. (Aldridge) will look like he’s in a funk. They have been playing with me for a couple years and if I’m going well, they have more confidence.”

Whew! Those poor guys can’t get a thing done without Brandon Roy’s comfort level being perfect. He’s saying that if he’s pouting, nobody else can play well. Which, I guess, is probably true. And how about this stuff:

And, perhaps more important, the Blazers had what McMillan said would be their long-term starting lineup. His hope is that Miller embraces the opportunity to take over the second unit and flourishes with the control.

“I want both of them to have it. Brandon with that first group can handle a little bit more and Andre with that second group can be aggressive and make his reads,” McMillan said.

I’m sure a guy who has been a starter his entire career, who is considered one of the best point guards in the league, is really excited about taking ownership of the “second unit.”

Look, my advice to Kevin Pritchard is to get Miller out of here as quickly as humanly possible. Get whatever you can for him. Chalk this one up to one big mistake and forget about trying to bring a real point guard to this team — because it’s always going to be Roy.

This is no place for Andre Miller. McMillan wants to play Jerryd Bayless, too — and there’s no doubt now that Roy is the real point guard. You could bring Chris Paul in here and he’s not going to want to give Paul the ball.

And I’d offer this piece of free advice to Nate McMillan: It may be “Brandon Roy’s team” but if that team doesn’t win, Brandon Roy won’t get fired, you will. This is the same mistake that so many coaches make with superstars.

Yes, keep the guy happy. Yes, build the team around him. But that doesn’t mean he knows what’s best for the team and even himself at all times. You see this kind of stuff all the time in the NBA. Yes, it’s a players league. But guess what? Most of these players don’t have a chance to win until the right coach comes along.

And the great coaches know full well that all decisions aren’t easy. And they better remember that they’re hired to coach the players — and not let the players coach them.

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And it wasn’t that close. It was a 20-point ass-whipping from a team in turmoil. Outplayed by a bunch of tiny tots. Outhustled by a group of malcontents. Outcoached by a lazy guy hanging around just to collect a paycheck.

The worst game in a long, long while.

Just a few, A FEW of the ridiculous things that happened:

– Once more, two fouls and you’re out of the game for the whole first half. Even if you’ve got it going (Greg Oden) and they can’t stop you and they have no one near you in size. Even if you don’t have it going (LaMarcus Aldridge) but should be given a chance to get it going. May have been the turning point of the game. A little flexibility here, coach, please.

– Brandon Roy brought out the pouty face tonight and played that way all night. Didn’t get every call so just kind of drooped all evening. Ugh.

– Aldridge — how about playing BIG just one night. You’re a power forward, remember? And you’ve got a 6-6 guy guarding you. Get him into the post and punish him like you’re supposed to.

– Steve Blake plays almost 37 minutes. Why? WHY???

– Last time I checked, fast break points were 36-5. Don’t know what it ended up. Don’t even want to know. What a complete joke.

– You thought everything was fine on this team, didn’t you? Yeah, good record. But when you’re not playing well, you can win some games. And you can also look like these guys did. Awful and completely lost.

– No discipline in the way they played. Is this a trend?

– This is probably the first game all season where the three-guard lineup should have helped. But guess again.

– Really, let’s move on. The NBA was kind enough to send Minnesota into the Rose Garden tonight. By about 9 o’clock everyone will think everything is straightened out.

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Man, Blazer fans, you have to move on. You’re questioning calls from that Atlanta game that really aren’t worth questioning. While ignoring that the game should never have gotten into overtime without the referees looking the other way while Rudy Fernandez traveled before making the game-tying three-pointer at the buzzer.

The call that really got under your skin was the one where Steve Blake was whistled for stepping on the sideline, isn’t it? Yes, you’ve looked at it on replay four or five times and it APPEARS to you that although his foot was hanging over the line, it never actually came down on the line, right?

Come on, get real. There isn’t a referee in the world, faced with such a split-second decision, wouldn’t have whistled him for being out of bounds. They don’t have replay. They get one quick look and that’s it and from that look it simply HAD to appear that he was on the line. For you to expect any other call would have been ridiculous.

Folks, the real question is this: What the heck was he doing way over there at the start of the play? Why even be close to the line? Blame it on a referee if you want, but he was way too close to have any complaint with a referee.

The over-and-back call? Well, it also appeared on that one that the ball was tipped. If it was, no over and back.

The only easy call of all of those was when Rudy did the electric slide before pulling up for the game-tying three-pointer and wasn’t called for a travel. Now THAT was a bad call –  or no-call.

Man, you’ve got to accept the officiating — either way. It is what it is. Focus on the players, the coaches and the game. That’s really where it’s all settled. Not by the officials.

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It should. But I doubt it, because Nate McMillan is a little more stubborn than that.

In Memphis, Portland is facing a team that has some offensive firepower and I think it would be a mistake to set the defense up with Brandon Roy on Rudy Gay, Andre Miller on O.J. Mayo and Steve Blake on Mike Conley. That’s pretty much three mismatches favoring the home team.

I would especially worry about Roy against Gay, who might be able to manhandle Roy a bit and be pretty physical with him. I think this is the exact kind of matchup problem that makes the three-guard lineup problematical. Under normal circumstances, you’d have Martell Webster taking on Gay, Roy matching up with with Mayo and Miller taking Conley — much more favorable if you’re really emphasizing defense.

We shall  see. It shapes up as a road trip full of winnable games for Portland. And don’t forget, “Talkin’ Ball” shows are on after every game of this road trip — starting about a half hour after the end of the game.

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