Portland Trade

The Blazers made a trade today.

Portland gets:
-#6 pick
-#27 pick
-2006 Detroit First Round Pick (that Utah owned from a previous deal)

Utah gets:
-#3 pick.

Utah desperately needed a point guard, and they weren't going to get it at #6 -- at least not one of the top two point guards, Derron Williams or Chris Paul. Obviously, Portland is not interested in a PG because they drafted Sebastian Telfair last season and feel that he could be a star.

On paper, this deal is okay for the Blazers -- they'll be able to acquire Martell Webster with the #6 pick, and perhaps grab another HS or European project later in the draft at #27 (Martinus Andrieskivicious?), as well as grabbing another piece to use next season (the Detroit pick). However, I do feel that Portland made one critical error: they acted too quickly.

Why make this deal now? I don't undestand it. With the uncertainty around Marvin Williams (it's rumored that Atlanta may pass on him at #2), and the chance he could fall to the #3 pick, there's a chance that the teams trying to acquire Portland's #3 pick would up their offers at the last minute. You've now removed that opportunity, and you've given most of the trade leverage to the #4 pick.

Additionally, they didn't acquire anyone to start at Shooting Guard, didn't get rid of any contracts, and didn't add any additional lottery picks. I was hoping that, in exchange for moving down from #3, Portland could at least have acquired two of those items as opposed to one. They've essentially moved down from 3 to 6 for the low low cost of two late-20's picks.

Again: why act so quickly? Why not make a trade later in the day? It's worth noting that team President Steve Patterson did add "we aren't necessarily done making deals today" at the press conference, but I'm officially disappointed. Now, perhaps the team can go out and hire Nate McMillan, and we can change this website to "WarriorsBlog".