The Blazers Report By Jeff Robertson for HOOPSWORLD.com Aug 11, 2003, 23:02 Welcome to the August 11, 2003 edition of The Blazers Report. I apologize for the delay in posting this. I had a busy workday and could not get to this until mid-afternoon and then the Sabas news broke publicly and then the rumors started coming in, which you should enjoy. The advertisements are not mine by the way, sorry but the site costs money so support a sponsor and click. A relatively benign summer turned almost interesting last week when Kenyon Martin of the Nets decided that he was a max player and turned to the bank of Paul Allen to try to get his “due.” What is the “due” for a guy who missed more shots than I do in a rec league game in the NBA Finals. What is the “due” for a guy not averaging 20 points or 10 rebounds? Why is that a max player? Guess what Kenyon, it’s not. Today’s report will touch on the Kenyon for Rasheed rumors that Jason Quick of the Oregonian broke late last week and will discuss what else is brewing. Also on tap this week is a Sabonis decision and your friendly neighborhood Blazers Report is here to touch base on all of the above. The Blazers have been in touch with almost every NBA team regarding several Blazers players and the Nets were one of them. The Nets did not have much interest until the combustible Kenyon Martin watched Jason Kidd get $100 million and wondered where was his scratch. To John Nash’s credit, he reacted quickly and came up with a possible deal of Deke/Kenyon for Rasheed/Ruben Patterson that might solve both teams needs and then both sides started to pull back. Understand that this is the way most non-NBA trades go. Someone makes an unofficial proposal, the other side thinks about it and says they might be interested, the other team pulls back and says if you are interested maybe the price should be higher. The Nets are trying to gauge whether Kenyon will be a distraction. It is clear that Kenyon is not going to get a max deal from anyone next season other than Denver or Utah and the Nets could always match. The problem is whether Kenyon ’s attitude would affect what the Nets are trying to do this year if he starts to play for statistics and not in a team atmosphere. The Blazers started to balk about Deke’s salary in 2004-05. Deke will earn almost $20 million next season and for a player expected to get minimal minutes, that is a difficult pill to swallow. Another problem for the Blazers is the team personnel. The Blazers would become quite possibly the worst shooting team of all time if they traded Rasheed and received Kenyon Martin. What I hear, and what is being publicly reported, is that the deal will not go through in its present form. However, a few teams are trying to broaden the pot. These teams are Memphis and Dallas. We’ll get back to this in a second. The Sabonis issue has been determined. I hear that Sabonis has decided not to come back to Portland for this season. I believe this is being reported fairly widely at this point. My sources tell me that Sabonis was told that there was a good chance the Blazers would not pick up the $7 million option and he was not interested in playing for less or for another team and has decided to end his career. An appropriate topic for a column in a few weeks I believe. But for now, the rumors really begin, which is what the 12 faithful really read this for anyway. The NJ to Portland deal will not go through in its present form. I hear that Memphis is trying to get involved to grab Mutombo if they can move Michael Dickerson and his lofty contract as part of the deal. Dickerson will make approximately $40 million over the rest of his trade and the Grizzlies can accelerate this by taking on Mutombo’s contract as well as solve their needs for a big man, although they would vastly prefer a much younger big man. Preferably the Grizzlies would move out both Lorenzen Wright and Dickerson as part of the deal. From what I hear, the deal would look like this: Memphis trades Mike Dickerson, Lorenzen Wright, Wes Person and Shane Battier Memphis receives Dikembe Mutombo and Sabonis’ contract What does this do for Memphis? Memphis receives a big man center to put in the middle of the rotation and help them rebuild into respectability. They pay $40 million for Deke for the next two seasons, but get rid of almost $60 million in Dickerson and Wright leaving them with the extra money necessary to sign Pau Gasol and possibly be a free agent player in 2005-06. On the downside, Memphis loses 2 relatively productive players for a big man center who is past his prime. New Jersey trades Kenyon Martin and Mutombo New Jersey receives Rasheed Wallace and Dickerson What does this do for New Jersey? New Jersey gets Rasheed Wallace who instantly becomes a better player because Jason Kidd is passing him the ball. Wallace’s contract comes off the books the next year and if he does not live up to the team goals the Nets can let him walk and enjoy the savings. For Mutombo’s contract they may actually get below the luxury tax threshold next year but paying out longer due to Dickerson’s deal. If Dickerson ever gets healthy they get a strong 2 guard to replace Kerry Kittles and place next to Richard Jefferson. Portland trades Sabonis and Wallace Portland receives Kenyon Martin, Wes Person, Lorenzen Wright and Shane Battier What does this do for Portland? The Blazers get much younger in one day. The Blazers give up the most talented player in the deal in Wallace and get back tempestuous but much better citizen Kenyon Martin, a shooter in Wes Person, a big man backup in Wright and a small forward in Shane Battier which enables the Blazers to move Ruben Patterson in a separate deal, perhaps to Dallas. The Blazers take a major risk losing their star player for a guy in Martin who has never carried a team, but may improve chemistry with the more likeable group of former Grizzlies and the competitor in Martin. As with all NBA trades, this is conjecture and picked up from different sources . Because of the number of players involved, it has very little actual chance of going down, but it is fun to speculate. To make matters even more interesting, the Mavericks are interested in getting involved looking for big men as well, but are not interested in Mutombo unless they can move out Raef LaFrentz as part of the deal. Interesting that they acquired Van Exel with LaFrentz as the cost of getting LaFrentz and now Van Exel is they guy they want and LaFrentz is the guy on his way out. ESPN’s Insider continues to discuss the Washington Wizards trade of Wallace for Kwame Brown that we discussed well over a year ago. The Wizards are not moving Brown right now and the Blazers are not interested in getting that young and becoming a really poor shooting team instead of just a pretty bad shooting team. The Blazers are also continuing to examine the possibility of acquiring Marcus Camby from the Nuggets for Sabonis’ contract. It is clear that if the Blazers move Sabonis’ contract they will be looking for a big man in return as there is a big hole at backup center. As far as I can tell, there is nothing brewing with Dallas directly. The Blazers do have interest in Raef LaFrentz and feel that Raef would be an excellent player next to Zach Randolph but are not interested in quite the length of contract that Raef managed to sign with Dallas last offseason. The Blazers may consider moving Dale Davis to Dallas for Raef. The Blazers expect things to possibly heat up with the Atlanta Hawks now that they have settled their front office situation. The Blazers are very interested in Nazr Mohammed and may consider moving Sabonis to the Hawks, but would prefer to move Ruben Patterson. The Blazers are also trying to pawn off Damon Stoudamire on Atlanta but nobody’s buying mice these days, except maybe Jason Quick. Until next week when I can write a more coherent column. --

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