The potential availability of Kobe, KG, and the terminally attractive draft class has spawned several kazillion trade rumors in the last few days. As usual most of them are...errrr...shall we say "creative"? But the cornucopia of potential bids does indicate that moving up in this draft could be fairly tricky and probably very expensive. With all the potential suitors those lottery picks are going to come at a premium. For the Blazers in particular, having names like KG, Jermaine O'Neal, and Kobe thrown around could seriously devalue a offer of Zach Randolph straight up. Most teams won't have realistic expectations of getting a big name but you know how it is. If you hear they might be giving away a Lexus or two you're going to be somewhat upset when you get to the lot and find a PT Cruiser waiting for you even if you would have liked the boxy little Chrysler anyway. If even a quarter of these things pan out this may well become known as the Gold Rush of '07...a draft where pick-holders capitalized on the seller's market to acquire great talent through trade, leaving a lot of teams gambling on youth holding the bag. Two years from now there may be more than one team looking back saying, "What did we DO???"
So before the draft is upon us, let's go over this carefully...
--How important/desirable is it for the Blazers to get that extra first-rounder?
--How high do they need to get and what player(s) will they pursue?
--What are you willing to give up to make it happen? If you believe even half of the rumors right now Zach straight up for #3 or Jack straight up for #11 sounds a little unrealistic. How high a price would you pay?
--At this point is the talent pool in this draft all it's cracked up to be or have we now ventured into crazy mob mentality land...perhaps indicating that smart people will just sit out of the frenzy? Will you be disappointed if a trade doesn't happen?
Weigh in below.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)