Blazers rumored to be trying to trade for ANOTHER top ten pick

[Kevin]

The Portland Trailblazers are rumored to be hot and heavy over Yi Jianlian. Rumors are that the bulls have big interest in Zach Randolph and that the Blazers may be after their number nine pick with hopes of picking up another college stud.

Probably not a bad move for them as this years draft is super deep and it'd give them an opportunity to give up a ticking time bomb in zach randolph. Randolph got it done bigtime on the court last year but is trouble waiting to happen.

It looks like Portland is serious about bringing a winning team back to the Rose City.

[AddictedToBetting]

Portland will still suck IMO. They need to do some fast and quick. If we get lucky, we might see Portland pull a Utah Jazz like this year. LMFAO...

[Q-Unit]

Originally Posted by AddictedToBetting

Portland will still suck IMO. They need to do some fast and quick. If we get lucky, we might see Portland pull a Utah Jazz like this year. LMFAO...

how do you figure? their rookie of the year PG wasnt around the whole year, and when he was, they played their butts off, still lost yeah, but they didnt purposely tank like the other teams (at least they didnt look like they were), they have a young core of Roy, Aldridge (better than people realize, and also coveted by other teams), Jack, Webster and soon to be no. 1 overall pick. Plus now they are trying to move Randolph who's value couldnt be any higher, he's coming off a huge year offensively, and any team desperate for post needs (and there's plenty) will overlook his off the court problems.

IMO they should move Miles too if they want that image makeover, but sometimes weird things like "only one" troublemaker on a team just seems to work out, and if this is the case, Miles will be another good athletic contributor.

and as for Aldridge, I watched this guy when he was still playing ball at Texas, and he was simply a beast, I honestly think another year of college would have polished his game even better, being as that may though, he will be huge next year IMO.

not a fan, but I do like their young core, and where they are possibly headed.

[Underdog88]

I could totally see Randolph going to the Bulls, but I don't see why the Blazers would want to gamble on Jianlian when there is so much talent in this years draft pool. WTF position will YI play? From what I've seen he's a great shooter for a big man, but no way in hell will he be able to play PF in the NBA. He's 7-0 230???- way too small to post up against the bigs. He will get manhandled, IMO.

I have to agree with Q- IMO the Blazers have an exceptional core of young players- Roy will be a household name soon IMO, Jack, Aldrige are solid as well. I'm excited to see what they do. They may not be an immediate force, but the talent will certainly be there, IMO....

[BlazerAndy]

I really want the Blazers to keep Zach Randolph, at least through the All Star break. I'm so sick of everyone forgetting what he does on the court and only focusing on what he does off the court. Zach is one of only 4 NBA players who averaged over 20 points and 10 rebounds last season. The fact is he's pretty much kept his nose clean over the last couple of years. The problem with Zach is that he's a follower off the court, and he obviously doesn't associate with the right people. Look at his brother Roger, the guy is serving time in prison for shooting three people in the back one night in an Indiana club. Does that mean I want to trade Zach so we can get another top-10 pick? Hell no. However, if we do trade him to the East I expect two different things to happen: 1- Zach will dominate and play in the All Star game for the first time, and 2- Zach will destroy the Blazers in the two games that he will face us.

With that said I unfortunately do expect us to trade Zach so we can get another top pick in the draft, acquire a much-needed quality veteran, as well as to free up more minutes for LaMarcus Aldridge. The sad thing is that, unlike the local media, I don't think the majority of Blazer fans really find it necessary that we trade Zach so soon. Season ticket sales have skyrocketed since we got the top pick, and the last time I checked Zach Randolph is still on the roster. What further leads me to believe that Zach will be traded is that whenever our GM Kevin Pritchard talks about the "future" of the Blazers, he always conveniently leaves Zach's name off of the list.

As for our roster 1-12 I'd take our team over pretty much any other NBA team. Take the Rockets as as example: sure you have Yao and TMac, but it's been proven TMac can't get a team out of the first round and who doesn't expect Greg Oden to be a more effective player than Yao Ming? I sure do. Defensively it won't even be a contest. I fully expect us to take Oden but even if we take Durant I think we'll be a top-tier team in the next couple of years. I think there is A LOT of jealousy out there that we got the #1 overall pick. Lots of Blazer-haters coming out of the woodwork. Hey I'd be pissed too if I was a Boston or Memphis fan and I purposely tanked the last part of the season and didn't get a franchise-changing pick like the Blazers did.

As a Blazer fan I can honestly say that I wouldn't trade the future of my team for any other team in the NBA. I know that's a homer call and I'm being overly optimistic, but the sky is looking pretty blue here in Portland (figuratively not literally, of course, at least not today).