Next year's minutes

That is a 9 man rotation, Blake starts at point, Roy moves to point when rudy comes in. Blake comes back in to rest Roy, and then Roy comes back in for rudy.
I still see us playing a line up of LMA at center and Outlaw at 4 at times during most games. And I like our 3 spot with Martell and Jones so I would like to keep it intact.

With this we would still have 12 mins per game not accounted for that the end of the bench guys will take up so it could work.

The only way I see this happening is if everyone of these players I listed reaches their potential for this team. It could be much different if one or more do not do that. But as of now that is how I want to see this team in 3 years.

I want to trade Sergio, unless he really comes on over the rest of this year, and then next year as well. Other wise trade him next year. I see Jack and Frye also leaving this team before it makes a serious run at a title.

With the crunch for roster spots, we don't know how it will be resolved.  Will our 2nd rounders be cut?  Will Raef be bought out?  Will KP make a trade, or three trades?

Martell, Travis, Channing, JJ, even Joel could possibly be traded.  It depends on who wants them and what they are willing to offer.  One thing we can be sure of, we have a lot of young guys who have increased their trade value over the last couple of months -- KP's phone will be ringing, and there will likely be some attractive options on the table.  

Until we know what the roster will look like, speculating about minutes is kind of useless.

But there will absolutely be a minutes crunch if no moves are made this summer.

Just the addition of Oden to the rotation will cause it. Assuming Oden and Pryzbilla log 42-45 mintes a game at C, means LMA will be playing almost all of his minutes ast PF...probably 32-35 a game. That would mean there will only be 12-18 minutes a game for backup PF, and right now both Outlaw and Frye get a lot more then that there with LMA playing a lot at C.

So if both Outlaw and Frye remain, it would mean that Outlaw will be sliding over to SF a lot more (where he's not as effective) and that there would be a real squeeze at SF with 48 mintes trying to be divided between outlaw, webster, and jones.

Normally you'd think maybe webster (especially if he improves his ball-handling) could slide into some minutes af SG, but look!...the blazers have Roy, Jack, and Fernandez playing there!...hmmm.

Just the addition of Oden will have ripple effects on the rotation all the way out to PG.

But as has been mentioned, there are contract issues that may actually have a large effect on the rotation.

I think the very first decision KP is going to have to make is if that cap-space plan is actually that important. If it is, then some hard decisions need to be made this summer.

Jones can, and probably will opt-out. I think he's incredibly valuable to Portland and will be even more valuable with oden playing. His ability to stretch defenses will make it much easier for oden to operate in the low post. So paying him 5 million/year is easily worth it.

Then there are Martell, Frye, and Jack...portland's current 3rd year players. If cap-space in 2009 is a franchise goal, then the blazers will need to extend the contracts of any of those 3 players they intend to keep THIS SUMMER. Going into the 2009 off-season, the cap-holds for those 3 players would be over 26 million dollars. Martell's alone is is 11.3 million.

For instance in martell's case, if he isn't extended this summer, and not traded before the feb 2009 deadline, his 2009 cap-hold of 11.3 million would completely kill portland's cap-space. At that time the only option portland would have is to renounce he rights to him and let him walk. That's not good management.

The same is true of Frye and Jack.

Not enough minutes to go around, and several contract issues that need to be addressed this off-season. The same off-season that will see portland essentially holding the expiring contracts of Lafrentz, Blake, Outlaw, and possibly Jones; and holding the rights to Fernandez, Kaponen, and Freeland; and having several young desirable players under bargain rate contracts; and also holding a mid 1st round pick and three 2nd round picks.

That's a lot of ingredients to be added to an impending minutes squeeze next season. Then you can add a final ingredient: A GM that has proven he's not afraid to make bold moves and is inclined to do them on draft day. He may have set a record for the total number of transactions made in 2 consecutive drafts.

Blazer fans may want to circle the date of the 2008 draft and tune in. It may be a big day for the franchise.