As time continues to pass with little news on the Rudy trade front, more and more posters on this site are starting to talk about Rudy returning as a Blazer - at least to begin the season (and for the purpose of this post, let's assume that Rudy will actually consider returning to Portland).

One common theme is that if we can't get a quality asset in a trade for him now, let's bring him back and see if he can up his trade value with some quality play.  My question is:  How does Rudy's trade value go up in the future?

For Rudy to improve his trade value, three things have to happen:

   1.  Rudy has to improve his attitude.

   2.  Rudy has to improve his play.  I'm not sure this can happen.  The Blazers style of play isn't going to change drastically this year.  Nate's still the coach.  Roy's still the star. 

   3.  Rudy has to get on the court  - significant minutes.  Where are those minutes going to come from?  For me, there are four other Blazers that I would rather see getting minutes at the SG position before Rudy:  Roy, Matthews, Bayless and Batum.

I would hate to see the Blazers sacrafice minutes from a another player just to try and up Rudy's trade value.

  -  I'd hate to see Bayless and Cunningham sacrafice minutes (as little as they might be)  for what I believe is an opportunity they have earned.
  -  I certainly don't want to take minutes away from Matthews - we paid a lot of money to get him, we have to put him on the floor and see what we got.
  -  Batum is certainly deserving of more minutes this year.

Where do you find minutes for Rudy?  I can see three possible outcomes.

1.  Someone gets sacraficed and Rudy gets 24 minutes a game.
2.  You find limited minutes for Rudy - 10 to 15 and see what he can do.  Rudy hasn't proven in the past that he can produce in a limited role.
3.  Rudy sits on the bench and hopefully another NBA team will appear with an urgent need for Rudy.

Personally, I don't like any of these options and I don't see Rudy improving his play enough to up his trade value.  At this point for me, it's addition by subtraction.  I would vote for the Blazers to take the best offer they can get for Rudy now, and put 100% of their efforts into improving the players that will be here for the long haul.

How bout you?