I know it's too early to talk trades but i'm curious if Houston would at all be interested in any trades with Portland. Portland fans really fell in love with Ron, for two reasons, the first reason being we have no scrappy defeners besides batum and the second we have no real veteran leadership. Besides Ron Portland really likes Battier, so who would you guys want from Portland and who would you give up? Excluding Brandon Roy here is a list of player Houston might be interested in. Rudy Fernandez-Great shooter, high basketball IQ and a Rookie. Lamarcus Aldridge-6-11 forward that can shoot,run the floor and play defense. Greg Oden-Gets into fould trouble but is expected to be a machine. Steve Blake-Steady and experienced point guard that can shoot lights out. Travis outlaw-Averages almost 13ppg off the bench, but lacks good defense. Nicolas Batum-Rookie that plays scary good defense.
I would absolutely look at trading one of Artest/Battier for Fernandez and Batum. But I doubt the Blazers would be interested, lol.
lol Fernandez is just a rich man's Wafer- dunks and 3 pters, and horrible defense With Yao in his prime, there's no reason to acquire rookies. The only one that fits a need is Oden or Pryzbilla for backup Center.
Short answer: no Long answer: Most of the players you've mentioned are still on their rookie contract. Portland will not be able to keep all of those players. They will not trade their young talents away when they are so cheap right now.
I would trade them Battier if we could get Prince from Detroit..role player that is also a good post entry passer...Portland would be drooling to get that veteran presence.
Aldrige and Roy are the two I would want, Roy is out of the question, so that leaves Aldrige, I think we could get him if they decide to dump salary or something, i have no clue how their contracts or extensions look so i dont know, I also wouldn't mind getting Rudy or Batum but not as the main part of the deal.
No Brandon Roy no trade, although Fernandez is good. Only one situation I want have a trade--Portland can accept T-Mac's expiring contact Oh, my god, I cant agree to trade Battier out. He has leadership only among our team(Mutombo will retire no doubt). Also he can contribute what the atats can show.
The only Blazer I would want is LMA. (Because Roy is untouchable.) LMA would create so many good things for Yao. LMA would just back away from the lane, so as to not create congestion. Yao gets doubled, passes to LMA for the easy 2. And I mean EASY 2.
Like you said, its too early to start talking about the off season. We'll have 4 long, lonely, boring months to hypothesize trades, rookies, and free agents. Why in the hell are we starting already?
I wouldn't mind Lamarcus Alridge. But I like Battier and Artest on this team. You can take Landry or Scola.
