Blazer Trade Rumor Thoughts

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted - sorry for the gap. Work has kept me busy lately and Facebook has also infringed a bit. But the trade deadline is coming up though so it’s time for me to get back into the swing of things. The trade deadline and draft day are my two favorite times of the year. The extra dose of speculation and potential sets my mind clicking in high gear.

My buddy Brad alerted me to a trade rumor that got me excited so I want to convey that here to you. The rumor is: Blazers send Travis Outlaw, Sergio Rodriguez, and Raef LaFrentz to the Bulls for Loul Deng and Kirk Heinrich. I think it would be a great deal. Here’s why:

Firstly, I think Heinrich and Deng are the Bull's two most fundamentally solid players so they would work great in Nate's system. It would keep us young and athletic, and keep our character quality too.

Heinrich is an upgrade from Sergio in a few areas. He is a better shooter and only slightly worse passer when you compare assist per minute. However, I think he is a better passer in the half-court set. Sergio shoots four 2’s per game @ 37% and two 3’s a game @ 29%... below average to be sure. Heinrich on the other hand shoots four 2’s per game @ 42% and four 3’s per game @ 38%... much better! Sergio is a better free throw shooter, 83% compared to 75%, but neither get to the line that often anyway so it’s a moot point. My only reservation with Heinrich is that he’s been injury prone so far.

Deng is a better rebounder than Outlaw, even though he’s not as big. Outlaw gets more blocks but I’d take rebounds over blocks any day. Deng shoots twelve 2’s @ 45% and doesn’t shoot 3’s. Outlaw shoots ten 2’s per game @ 43% and three 3’s @ 42%. Deng shoots 80% from the free throw line and gets to the stripe more often than Travis who shoots free throws @ 68%. Deng passes and steals better than Outlaw but is not quite as good of a shot-blocker. So, we would improve in rebounding, passing, free throws, 2-pointers but lose some of our 3-point capability. But with the addition of Heinrich that would be off-set, thus becoming a non-issue. I need to watch Deng play defense to make sure he’s OK there. Travis is a solid on-the-ball defender but is poor at rotating to the open shooter. If Loul is better in that area then he’d be a big upgrade.
Of course I would rather give up Frye than Outlaw, but I doubt the Bulls would ever go for that.

And we would lose LaFrentz to which I say… Woop-id-ee-do! Who cares?! We would lose his huge contract and gain two long-term contracts in return. So we’d lose some flexibility there. But I think that’s a fair price to pay for two solid players who can contribute and improve the team immediately.

Besides that, I can’t think of too many other players out there who would fit in with our team and improve it. But…

There is one guy who I think would go great with our team and be an improvement over Steve Blake… Andre Miller. He is an unrestricted free agent next year. I think we should do what we can to land him, even it means sending Blake in trade. Andre Miller and Kirk Heinrich would be a Point Guard tandem that could drive us deep into the play-offs, perhaps even the championship.