I want to keep Zbo at least another year for the following reasons:

1. Playoffs baby. Keeping Zach gives us our best opportunity to make the playoffs, and I don't know about you, but I badly want to be back playing in late April and May and maybe even June.

2. Development: It gives Aldridge more time. There's no need to rush him. We can not throw our season on a guy who's had injury issues, and a player we all considered a project 12 months ago. I want to be optimistic, but another season under his belt doesn't hurt. It also helps with Oden. We don't want to give Oden and Aldridge the keys yet and make them work them tails off. Keeping Zach keeps the focus off them a little bit, and allows them to their thing and gain confidence.

3. Trade value: I believe another all star type season from Zach, which he will have, will increase his value even more. Especially with the attention Portland will receive this next season. Another 23-10 season, who knows what that could warrant in a trade. Maybe the SF were dreaming of is 12 months away, after next season.

Conclusion: I think moving Zbo is for the team's best, just not right now.

Just from a fan (unprofessional)point of view, I think we would be money ahead to keep things unchanged this season.  My reasoning is very simple; give the existing players, most of whom are 1-3 year players a chance to work together and develop a team mindset.  Zbo, in spite of whatever shortcomings he has, is a 25 year old 20/10 player who still has an upside. How many of those in the league, available for a 1 for 1 trade?  Add to that a Strong young nucleas and I feel it is worth a look.  Just my 2 cents worth :)

I don't see how losing a player that pretty much could have been an all-star last season could improve a team with a core of 1st thru 3rd year players.

I seem to remember Zach as playing his best when he wasn't the first option on offense, giving him more chances at  boards and putbacks (which are his specialty). If this team is going in the direction most of us think it will, I don't really see him as the first option on O, which is a good thing.

And are you serious? Averages of 23 and 10 coming off microfracture surgery is not something to just give away because we have a player who (as junit so nicely put it) was considered a project 12 months ago and already had injury issues before and after the season.

Zbo is nasty! He is a FORCE on the boards and with the ball. Not many pepole average what he does and there is a reason for that.

But look peaple, thats not to say that if the right offer comes along Pritchard shouldn't take it. As much as I'll defend Zach, names like Marion, Jamison and Prince would look much better in crimson and black to me than Zbo. But at the same time I think that blazer fans undervalue Zach and most dont realize that he is constantly doing things to get better all the time.

Lets keep him on, at least one more year

I tend to agree that dumping Zach too soon is more harm than good to the Blazers. Aldridge may be great, but if you assume Portland is taking Oden, then any trade involving him would likely be to fill the hole at SF... Which leaves the still somewhat untested Aldridge with little to no backup at the tough PF spot.

Answering the questions directly though:

1.) Zach is a proven commodity on the court, and it's only his off-the-court antics and Portland's lack of wins that have left him out of the list of elite players on most people's NBA lists. Trust me, Portland wins 20-25 wins by the all-star break this year and Zach is playing in the mid-season classic. If that happens, by the trade deadline Zach could command a much higher return than right now, possibly enabling us to land a better SF AND a backup PF.

2.) I think Zach's job becomes that much easier if Portland drafts Oden, but even Durant helps. Remember that Zach was dropping 20/10 while dealing with double and triple teams most of the season. Add another player teams can't sag off of, like they could with Joel and even Mags at times, and Zach is able to get an easier shot, or clean up the boards for a put-back.

Let's just cross our fingers and hope Z-bo keeps his nose clean, works hard and proves he's worth either keeping, or at least getting the Blazers a better return mid season, or next year.

we draft Durant and Mags leaves then we may want to keep Zach. Aldrige can play center wil Joel and Durant SF. It may not be a very good defensive front court, but would be the best offensively.

and that reason is not his stats.  He pads his stats, so that 23 and 10 are meaningless.

The reason to keep him is his ability to score in the post in single coverage, draw fouls and make free throws.  No one can stop him one on one.  Certain players have more effect on him, but he's still more likely to score than not, or at least get to the line, where he's a great free throw shooter.   His ability to find angles to get a good shot off over one player, and even if you add a help player as long as it's not a hard double, is special, and if we could somehow maximize that skill and minimize his negatives, we really should.

It's only when teams get wise and start doubling Zach that he has problems scoring, and it typically doesn't take long, unless the other team really prefers not to double, either because of bad coaching, or something else.

The thing is, to maximize that skill still might mean trading him, if keeping him means stunting LaMarcus, and if we think LaMarcus will be far better than whatever player Zach could improve into, which possibly the Blazers might.  Based on the player Zach is now, it's easily LaMarcus who we'd rather keep.

Why Zach needs to stay:

1.  No team values Zach for what he is worth.  Soley in terms of low-post scoring ability, he is one of the league's elite players.  This is a guy who can go out and DESTROY Elton Brand on offense, and I don't think many would characterize Brand as a defensive liability.  None of the players rumored to be traded for Zach come close to having the offensive skills that he does.  If he were traded today, he would come with a huge bad-behavior discount.  It is highly unlikely that the Blazers could acquire someone that not only puts up his kind of numbers, but also can draw double-teams and fouls consistently, and then sink a good share of his free throws to boot.

2.  The Blazers, for all of their potential, do not have someone that can score as reliably as Zach can.  This probably won't be true in a couple of years, but right now they are going to have trouble producing buckets as consistently as they do with Zach.  I'm giddy about what kind of players LMA and Oden (provided he's the pick) will become, but right now they are too raw offensively to carry the inside scoring load.  Just ask the Bulls how important having an inside scorer is.  

3.  Zach gets a lot of (deserved) criticism for his defense and for taking bad shots through double-teams, but this season he showed visible improvement, at least on the latter.  It's a lot easier to kick out of a DT when you know your teammates will be able to hit the shot.  Also, now that the difference between his talent and those of his teammates is starting to diminish, there will be more pressure on him to find the open man, if only because his teammates will have the confidence to chew him out if he doesn't.  

4.  Any trade would likely require eating another bad contract, and we have too many of those right now.  As undesirable as Zach's contract is, at least the Blazers get value from it.  

As for Zach's long-term status, that's almost entirely up to him.  The trade-Zach-now crowd has a point that his behavior and selfishness could be a major problem for the team down the road.  I just find it more likely that with a team full of guys who are great players in addition to great guys, he will have enough respect for them to make any changes he can to make the team successful.  In that scenario, I could see him playing out his contract here in Portland, then going elsewhere as a free agent.  If not, the Blazers are still looking at 60 cents on the dollar through a trade, anyway.  Whatever happens, it should be an interesting summer.

My comments are going to be too far off of everyone else here:

1. Zach would have easily been an All-Star if he were in any big media market last year.  Are we going to get an all-star caliber player in return?  Probably not.

2. There is unlikely to be a deal that suits our needs:
   

• First, we need to have starting and back-up PFs.  If you have conflict over starting minutes, you worry about having two high-caliber ones, but Aldridge isn't ready to demand a starting position yet.  With injuries, they will both get plenty of PT.  (and Outlaw ISN'T (going to be) a PF - he is a SF)
  
• We don't need to improve as much at SF as people here talk about sometimes.  Udoka has another year in his knees, and played defense and hit threes as well as Bowen last year.  Outlaw was fantastic at the end of the year.
  
• We need a veteran PG, but not one that insists on starting or playing 40 minutes for the next two+ years.  We should be able to get that for a lot less than Zach.

3. Zach will be much better with Oden on the team, plus more people will see how good he is.  Aldridge gets another few months to develop, then we trade him to an Eastern team in need of scoring.

Give Oden and Aldridge some time to develop.  With Magloire gone, the shoes will be too big to fill for the youngsters, but not for long.  Plus, Zach increases his trade value and we get more for him this time next year.