Trade? Trade who?

has shown us a very little arsenal and a horrible defensive player. Maybe the injury is still bothering him this year and we should wait till he’s 100% and judge him but right now I could make better decisions than Rudy. Bayless stays in front of his men and like you said he has a great work ethic. Bayless’s achilles heel is his jump shot and his willingness to keep on shooting it. He needs to learn that he needs to drive to the hoop and draw fouls and create his own shot instead of putting the ball between his legs and taking a long jumper. I see no reason why we should even think of trading Batum.

I think we should trade him for three reasons.

1) His stock is high now, meaning we can get more for him that Rudy, who’s frankly a specialist at this point (an entertaining one, but a specialist nonetheless). Although we could probably get more from Batum than any of the three, there’s a reason for that—Batum is the best out of the bunch, and we should hold on to him and build.

2) I don’t really think he can play with Roy and be as good as Batum (who can contribute with his defense) or Rudy (who can hide in the corner and throw bombs) can, and Portland is ultimately only as good as Roy is.

3) We have other point guards who can replace him. Blake is serviceable (and can play with Roy) and Miller can pass better and take over games if we need him. He is the most replaceable out of the three of them, I think.

show yourselves!

Rudy has to be the most expendable. Of course, here in Portland it is easy for members of our fan to sour quickly and/or hold uber-high regard for prospects and players… that is just the nature of the roller-coaster ride we call FAN-dom.

The truth about ALL THREE of these players is that Jerryd Bayless, Nic Batum and Rudy Fernandez all have very bright NBA players. EVEN IF all three only become “specialists”… these three young Blazers all have value right now on the Trading Block… but which has LEAST LONG-TERM VALUE TO THE BLAZERS?

Rudy on the right team could be a Mega-Star. He is one of the top prospects for being a great scorer at the 2-guard, especially considering the glut of very talented young point guards in the league who want to be teamed with an off-guard who can move with out the ball, not need to dominate the ball to score, will be deadly from the outside and can help rack up assists by being a good slasher & finisher as well as an outside marksman. Rudy Fernandez WILL BE a 20ppg player with another team where he can start. And That is why Rudy should be the guy on the block… The token that we are dangling, KP needs to find a team that covets a 2 guard to compliment their ball-dominating young point guard. Chicago’s Derrick Rose, Milwaukie’s Brandon Jennings, Minnesota’s Jonny Flynn, Houston’s Aaron Brooks, Rondo from Boston, DWill in Utah, of course CP3… all of these guys will be a core center piece of NBA teams future plans. Rudy Fernandez would be a great back-court mate with any of them and more. No, I am not saying I want to trade Rudy to team up with a West. Conf. rival at all, but there are situations where Rudy would be flat out SICK! I think we need to move Rudy to the Eastern Conference and trade him to a team where they know Rudy will fit so we can get max value. New York or New Jersey would be good…

By next season we could see Portland’s starting line-up shaped up to:
PG: Jerryd Bayless
SG: Brandon Roy
SF: Nic Batum
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge
FC: Greg Oden

Yeah, of course people can argue with me whether or not Bayless CAN or Should be the starter in Portland. But that is an absurd conversation because Bayless IS in the NBA and IS in the PG rotation and IS doing great things on the court. Bayless could easily take over that starting spot at any time, he is a pro and he could very well run with it. With Bayless next to Roy Portland would have the maximum minutes of getting 2nd chance points out of your guards… but JB is going to need to unleash his 3-point potential for this to be a real long-term solution. Roy can and will play next to anyone, and a back court of Roy + Bayless sounds like DYNO-MITE to me!

Nobody will really debate Nic Batum’s worthyness as a keepsake, not on this website. Batum is really going to need to continue to develop his game. Nic Batum has a bright future and he needs to be kept.

The rest of the trade other than SG Rudy Fernandez should be PG Steve Blake (simply for contract reasons, chance that Portland could resign him later) Forward Dante Cunningham, PF Jeff Pendergraph, Future Draft picks, and even Andre Miller. Although adding Miller would be a blow to this years chances, we do know that Pritchard is thinking long-term. Don’t forget KP is drafting and this team IS GROWING very nicely thanks to all this ADVERSITY. If we don’t move multiple guys we won’t even be able to sign our draft picks for next year. I don’t know who to get, but I want a beast in the paint for sure.

PG: Bayless/Mills
SG: Roy/Webster
SF: Batum/Outlaw
PF: Aldridge/Howard
FC: Oden/Pryzbilla