I headed over to Storytellers salary cap site to try and get a better grasp on the situation the Blazers will be facing this summer.  I was curious how the team options for Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw would come into play with the amount of cap space.  Here are the numbers:

Players under contract in 2009-2010-

Brandon Roy -                 3,900,000

Greg Oden-                      5,361,000

Lamarcus Aldridge-       5.844,000

Martel Webster-               4,319,000

Joel Pryzbilla-                   6,850,000

Jerryd Bayless-                2,143,000

Rudy Fernandez-             1,165,000

Sergio Rodriguez-           1,576,000

Nicolas Batum-                1,118,000

Darius Miles-                    9,000,000

Total(rounded)-                 41,000,000                

Estimated 2009-2010 salary cap-            58 million???

Players with team options-

Travis Outlaw-                3,600,000

Steve Blake-                   4,000,000

Expiring contracts-

Channing Frye-             4,264,000(qualifying offer)

Michael Ruffin-

Shavlik Randolph-

I am not a salary cap guru by anymeans, but I believe the blazers could be as much as 14-17 million under the cap this summer if they choose to not pick up the options on Blake and Outlaw.  The 7-10 million in cap space is a rather underwhelming number to me when you compare it to the 13 million super expiring contract that is sitting untraded at the RG center court.  15 or so million makes me feel much better about keeping RLEC  The one question I have is whether those team options need to be picked up before a free agent can be signed?  Can the Blazers shop for free agents/trades and then pick up options if nothing pans out?  Or are the Blazers forced to pick up those options or waive the player before they can start their free agent/lopsided trade shopping?