Posted 06/04/2012 6:19 PM

I looked over our options a second time and realised.. I honestly have no idea what will happen. lol I do want the following to happen, or something VERY close to it.
    
    First priority, getting Al Jefferson. Trade Elliot Willams, Kurt Thomas, and future 1st round pick (what ever they want even if that includes the #11 pick this year, but I think we can get around that) *gives them the dynamic SG they are craving in Utah+ A solid veteran Center in times that Favors and Kanter aren't stepping up. Also this frees up TONS of cap space for their team because they would struggle to get under the cap threshold. They already have plenty of quality bigs, so dishing off their highest paid one makes sense.

    Second Priority, draft Harrison Barnes and Kendall Marshall. Barnes will most likely fall to us at 6, but this draft could be tricky and we would be forced to draft someone like Drummond. If that was the case pick up Terrence Jones at 11. I really am staring to like Lillard now, but we would have to move around a lot to pick him before 11. However Marshall "should" still be around, and he in my opnion could be just as good but in a different way.

    3rd priority, retain Hickson and match Batum's offers. We need to try and keep both. We will eventually trade batum, but with him as a RFA, we have to take advantage of retaining his trade worth. By making the trade for Jefferson, we will already dig into our cap space in LARGE way. It will be very hard to retain both players if we do the trade for Jefferson, but still possible. If nothing else retain Batum instead of Hickson for trading purposes.

    4th priority, adding FA/trade batum. With a majority of our cap space taken, we can't sign huge contracts, but maybe pick up a few servicable FA like PG's or bigs for close to the minimum. A great option would be to trade Batum for a player like Kyle Lowry and one of their 1st round picks (14 or 16 after the draft). Rockets want Dragic, and Lowry from what I heard wants out. This way rockets get a very talented SG/SF and we would get lowry and another talented rookie for cheap.

*We need Jefferson though! IMO out of all the truely obtainable big men, he is our best option for both ends of the court. Adding him to the blazers would gives us the best 2-way frontcourt duo behind Bynum and Gasol (better than ZBo and Gasol *defense and offense, Hibbert/West and Ibaka/Perkins *offense, Blake/jordan *defense, and i think even with Stoudimire/Chandler).

Here is the line up;

PG: Lowry, Marshall, Smith (FA, Lillard)  #11pick
SG: Matthews, (Rookie *Ross, Lamb, Rivers) #14th pick from Houston
SF: Barnes, Babbit, (FA, or another rookie *T. Jones, PJ3) #6 pick and different ideas for pick #11
PF: LMA, (Hickson, FA, Freeland, or most likely 2nd round Rookies) #40 and #41 picks
C: Jefferson, Pryz (resigned for cheap),  (FA, Freeland, or rookies) #40 and 41 and maybe even drummond
         depending on picks

    I left a lot of possibilities up there, mainly because this draft is so wild with choices. The core of the players we need though are, LMA, Jefferson, Barnes, Matthews, and a dynamic PG either in Lowry, Marshall, both, or FA yet to be named.  

    MAIN POINT>> We need Jefferson! We really don't have a chance at any other C's better than him. Drummond might wind up being good, but we might not get him at #6, or if we do we can't put the weight of the city on him like Oden. He has no offense and his FT suck..  He is not Dwight! 

    Blazer management, steal Jefferson from our divsion rival and make our team tough again!!