1) Trade:

After also watching (- Dave mentioned it first) Wesley Matthews do his best Iverson impression the last month or so, I would trade Matthews and Nolan Smith for Nikola Pekovic and Luke Ridnour. Minni without picks is desperate for a trade (see HERE).

Trade machine results: “This trade is successful”

Port. $7,442,080 -5 Wins

Minn. $8,183,600 +2 Wins

2) Sign FAs:

Offer Goran Dragic around a four year, $28 million deal. In the month of April, Dragic is averaging 19.8 points and 7.3 assists.

Spencer Hawes is a legit 7'1" and is only 23 years old.... offer Hawes around a four year, $30 million deal.

In this, his fifth pro season, Hawes has put up career highs in shooting percentage (.493), free throw percentage (.717), rebounds (7.5) assists (2.6) and blocked shots (1.4) per game.

3) Go after RFA Brandon Rush (SG). offer him around a three year, $15 million deal. He has connected on exactly 50 percent of his field goals this season, thanks in no small part to his ridiculous 54.5 percent three-point shooting. And, his defense has been either better than advertised, or more noticeable given the defensive limitations of some of his teammates. He also shows confidence in his ability to guard anyone one-on-one on the perimeter. Ref.

Conditions:

- Renouncing Victor Claver and Joel Freelands obligations (not convinced they will want to sign for the money here in the next couple of years).

- Assuming Williams and Crawford don't return.

The CAP total to this point is $47,236,661 (Storyteller please double check my math).

4) That leaves appox. $10.8 million to sign Batum and the draft picks.

(I don't think there will be enough to squeeze in J.J. Hickson.)

5) This plan would allow the Blazers to pick from the many PFs in the draft for LA's backup.