Millsap signs Blazers offer sheet; Be patient, Roy, Aldridge will get paid

While Paul Millsap is at the Portland Trail Blazers doorstep ready to cash in, Brandon Roy wonders when he'll get paid. Don't worry Blazers' fans, Portland will ante up for their star.

In his article titled “NBA Free Agency’s Winners and Losers” Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports blasted Portland Trail Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard, labeling him the loser, and made some inaccurate statements regarding the team’s needs.

He began his drivel of an article with this truth:

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“As the rejections and criticisms mounted lately, NBA executives and agents described Portland Trail Blazers general manager Kevin Pritchard as “agitated” and “panicked” and even “desperate.” He kept returning to teams with the same proposals, only to be dismissed again and again. All his plans had imploded.”

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Pritchard has had a rough offseason so far. He has been trying too hard to make a big move, and has yet to learn from the Hedo Turkoglu debacle. He made his name as a NBA Draft wizard by trading for stars Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge during the 2006 edition. He was hailed as a genius, as a god-like figure who would transform a franchise dubbed “Jail Blazers” into a championship contender. He has done that, and has since built upon his Roy and Aldridge Legacy by trading troubled star Zach Randolph after the duo’s first season, voicing confidence in head coach Nate McMillan, selecting center Greg Oden with the first pick in the 2007 NBA Draft, and surrounding the cornerstones of the franchise with similarly gifted young talents.

He doesn’t want to be known as just a draft wizard, though. He wants to make a move, like signing Paul Millsap, that will continue to improve Portland and fill a need. What’s wrong with that? Evidently, Wojnarowski has a problem with this sensible decision.

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“All this cap space, all these big plans, and Pritchard offered a $34 million offer sheet for Paul Millsap to play behind LaMarcus Aldridge. They need a small forward, but he refused to make a bid for the most talented one on the market – the Los Angeles Lakers’ Lamar Odom.

Odom could’ve been had for the Blazers, but Pritchard has, for now, committed his money to a backup power forward. He could’ve dented the Lakers and met his most pressing need with Odom’s length, athleticism and versatility.”

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He thinks the Blazers most pressing need is a small forward? Did this bone-headed columnist even watch the Blazers this past season? Since he clearly didn’t, all he had to do was look at their depth chart to prove his ridiculous opinion wrong. Portland already has two small forwards–Travis Outlaw, 24, and Nicolas Batum, all of 20–and, in small lineups, two others that can fill the role–Rudy Fernandez and Martell Webster. Yeah, why doesn’t Portland get rid of one of their prime talents to bring in a player with a terrible attitude just so that they can trump the Lakers? Doesn’t he know that Los Angeles just replaced Odom with Ron Artest? I guess not.

If he followed the Blazers at all, he would have realized that their lone weakness was a lack of toughness and consistency from their second unit. Portland had trouble holding back opponents when Roy, Aldridge, and center Joel Przybilla, got their rest. This was because they didn’t have anyone, aside from Oden, who could rebound, defend, and score on a regular basis. Millsap can do all those things to provide a nightly spark that would give the Blazers what they are missing.

Millsap may be a tad overpriced, but he’s only 23-years-old. Outlaw, their current backup power forward, is wiry thin, and has played out of position. He’s just 24-years-old, and has grown into an asset for Portland. Yet, if Millsap is signed, Outlaw may be on his way out since the Blazers would have too much depth and not enough minutes for all of their rising stars.

That’s the predicament Pritchard is in. No matter who he signs, someone has to leave. It’s unfortunate, but necessary in order to upgrade. This means that he can’t be reluctant to move Outlaw if Millsap signs. What makes Outlaw tradeable to bring in Millsap and not regarding Wojnarowski’s Odom is that Millsap is considerably tougher than Outlaw and much younger than Odom. If Outlaw can be replaced by a player of similar youth that can bring more to the table, then Pritchard shouldn’t waste any time making the move.

Then there is another problem: To trade Outlaw, the Blazers have to acquire someone. They wouldn’t need anyone (no, not a point guard), so though this may be 20 cents on the dollar, I would consider taking future draft picks in return. Another problem: they wouldn’t need any of those. To sign Millsap for $9 million annually, they will have to renounce the rights to Joel Freeland, a power-forward selected in the second-round of the 2006 NBA Draft, and Petteri Koponen, a guard drafted in the second round of the 2007 NBA Draft, two players the Blazers never have and never will have room for.

Two players Portland they plan to build around for years to come, Roy and Aldridge, have yet to sign extensions as they enter the final year of their rookie contracts. This was another topic Wojnarowski failed to understand.

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“Now, Pritchard is struggling to convince [Owner Paul] Allen to give Brandon Roy a full five-year max extension. The process has increasingly stunned and angered Roy. Whatever anyone thinks, no one has had more to do with the Blazers’ revival than Roy.”

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Speaking in an interview with KJR, a radio station based in Seattle, Roy vented the frustration Wojnarowski references to, stating that:

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“I sit back and think about all the hard work I put in to my dream…There’s days where I feel like things will get done and then there are days that I feel like, you know … hey, this may not happen…I would love for it to get done.”

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Roy wants to be a Portland Trail Blazers for a long time. Pritchard said, “They [Roy and Aldridge} will be here for a long time.” So, there is no reason Roy won’t get his max-deal. He’s the franchise’s backbone. Fans would be calling for Pritchard’s head if he wasn’t signed. Though Roy’s quotes are sincere, posing the questioning whether Roy and Aldridge will sign is very naive, of course they will.

Did it ever occur to crazed fans expecting the worst and Wojnarowski, a nonsense-spouting columnist, that Portland may be waiting until Millsap’s decision to crunch the numbers and sign Roy and Aldridge? After all, their franchise would be in ruins without either.