“We know the most popular Portland trade chip to be run through the rumor mill this season has been Jamaal Magloire, but Insider is hearing that Portland is now "begging" teams to take the former All-Star off their hands. Magloire's $8.3 million contract expires at the end of this season, but big expiring contracts clearly aren't nearly the valuable commodities they were in recent years. That's why we're listing Dixon as the likeliest member of the Blazers to be shipped out. Don't be surprised if he goes to Toronto for Fred Jones.”
A few bizarre items here. First of all, that Portland is “begging” teams to take Magloire off their hands. I’m not quite sure I buy this. Portland can’t be “begging” teams to take him; they can let his contract expire and have no future commitment. Worst case scenario is that he’s gone and they get nothing in return, which actually isn’t THAT bad of a scenario — we’ve got enough guys who need minutes already, more on this later. Secondly, Sheridan intimates that the value of an expiring contract isn’t what it used to be. I’m a bit unclear why that would be the case? We have a fairly strong free agent class this coming summer, and cap room isn’t any less valuable than it once was. Thirdly, we’ve speculated before that Portland could get into the Fred Jones mix for a number of reasons, and if they could land Jones straight up for Dixon (a trade that works under the current cap rules, by the way), that would be a very nice play for Portland. Add Fred Jones to a starting lineup of Rodriguez, Roy, Zbo and Pryzbilla, and you’ve got a nice mix of ballhandling, shooting, athleticism and post play. Jones has only 1 more year on his contract, so it’s not out of the realm of possibilities.
What’s really bizarre to me is that Toronto is a perfect spot for Magloire to land. Looking at the Raps' roster, they break down like this-
PG: TJ Ford, Jose Calderon
SG: Anthony Parker, Mo-Pete, Fred Jones
SF: Garbajosa, Mo-Pete, Joey Graham
PF: Bosh, Bargnani
C: Nesterovic, Garbajosa (yes, their starting SF is their backup C)
So clearly they have plenty depth at wing, with Parker, Pete, Jones, Garbajosa (a good rookie who's underrated) to deal for Magloire, who would fill a role at backup C that they clearly need. A straight-up Morris Petersen for Magloire trade doesn’t work, and Toronto probably wouldn’t do it anyway, but both teams have enough spare parts to make a deal work.
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