Blazers Need to do Something

Upon hearing the news that Portland had signed Paul Millsap to an offer sheet, my first reaction was, finally!  After getting embarrassed by He-don't Turkoglu, passing on Lamar Odom and being unable to pry Tayshaun Prince or Gerald Wallace from their prospective teams, Portland finally was able to sign somebody.  But with the way things have been going so far, Utah will probably match the offer and trade Boozer somewhere else.  

Some have scoffed at the idea of Portland spending their free-agent money on a back-up power forward, but it's not like they're signing Jerome James or Eddy Curry.  In the three years Millsap has been in the league, he has succeeded in every opportunity given to him.  Whenever Boozer or Okur have been banged up, Millsap has been there to solidify the middle despite being undersized.  Last year when Boozer went down, Millsap stepped in and recorded 19 straight double-doubles.  

According to Millsap's agent (and you can take any comment he makes with a grain of salt), Millsap is open to the idea of playing behind LaMarcus Aldridge and says Millsap can play the three, four or five.  He never complained when Boozer came back from injury and with Shaq moving back to the East and Yao possibly gone for the year, teams can get away with playing smaller in the middle.

If Portland is able to land Millsap, that might spell the end to the Travis Outlaw era.  He's the most valuable trade commodity and if Portland still feels they need to upgrade at the point, Outlaw would be number one in trade talks.  Portland has already said that Outlaw would be the back-up power forward next season so bringing in Millsap would make somebody unhappy.  

But this all hinges on Portland actually getting Millsap.  Utah has six more days to match the Blazer's offer and multiple teams have expressed interest in trading for Boozer, which if he left, would open up the starting power forward spot for Millsap.   No one is counting the hours more closely than Kevin Pritchard who seems to have finally faced some adversity since becoming GM.  But even Pritchard must take a little bit of solace in the fact that he signed somebody.