Freeman: Blazers To Meet UFA C Chris Kaman

Joe Freeman of The Oregonian reports on Twitter that the Portland Trail Blazers will meet with unrestricted free agent center Chris Kaman, who played for the Dallas Mavericks last season.

The Blazers and reps of C Chris Kaman are expected to meet face-to-face once free agency opens, per source w/ knowledge of the meeting.

According to the source, both Kaman and the Blazers think the unrestricted free agent would be a "great fit" with team next season.

The Blazers were reportedly one of two finalists for Kaman's services last summer. He chose the Mavericks on a one-year, $8 million deal.

Blazers GM Neil Olshey traded Kaman from the Los Angeles Clippers to the New Orleans Hornets in the 2011 deal that landed Chris Paul. Kaman initially expressed some frustration to Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports with how that trade went down. (As did Eric Gordon.)

Kaman found out from his real-estate agent's son.

"He said, ‘Hey, you got traded.' I was like, ‘C'mon,' " Kaman said. "Then everyone started talking to me like, ‘Hey, what happened?' I was like, ‘I don't know.' Then my agent wasn't calling me. I couldn't get ahold of him. Then Farouq talked to his agent and said it was done.

"The Clippers didn't tell me anything. They didn't tell me I was traded or nothing after eight years. They didn't have the guts to come tell me they traded me."

Olshey said he and Del Negro were in the lobby of the Clippers' practice facility waiting for the players to return from the events to discuss the trade.

Kaman, 31, averaged 10.5 points and 5.6 rebounds in 20.7 minutes per game for the Mavericks this season.

-- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter