NBA Draft 2011: Do Portland Trail Blazers Draft for Need or Grab Best Available?

Growing up in school I recall a dreaded yearly ritual that massed all students together to partake (by no choice of our own) in a tedious yet required test of the knowledge we had acquired up to that point in our educational careers.

Armed with a No. 2 pencil in one hand and a side-arm of the same tool sitting within reach, we settled into our not-so-cozy desk chairs and for the next several hours hammered our brains until we had squeezed every last drop of smarts into our multiple choice answer sheet.

You remember the test I'm talking about—you'd read a question, then select from the multiple choice answers, wishing, hoping that you selected correctly. But of course there was no way of telling, at least not yet; you had to wait a week or two for the results—when you received your exam grade—pass or fail.

Did you ever wish you could give an answer that wasn't an option on the exam sheet? Just what if the solution to problem 23 wasn't A, B or C? Maybe, just maybe the answer was somewhere outside that gray circle you had to fill in with your No. 2 pencil.

In most NBA circles around this time of year you typically get quizzed with a single question that goes something like this: “Does [enter your team here] draft for A: Need, or B: Grab the best player available?” To this day, I have only heard of two possible solutions to this question.

Let's take the Portland Trail Blazers for example. They need a pure point guard who has the maturity to have an immediate impact right now yet be young enough to enjoy a long and potentially bright future ahead of him. They also need a bull in the middle—a center who can be an instant banger and intimidator under the rim, have picture-perfect knees, yet be a young stud where the sky is the limit.

To name a few players circling the Blazers 21st draft pick: 6'8”, 187 lb. SG/SF Tyler Honeycut and 6'7”, 220 lb. PF Kenneth Farried.

I will admit that Farried has shown enough physical prowess to merit some consideration and raise some eyebrows, yet he plays the same position as near-all-star LaMarcus Aldridge. If the big man from Moorhead State comes to Portland, I don't expect him to see starter quality minutes—not next year, or the year after.

And should Farried become a game-changing player that the Blazers covet, it would create a logjam at the starting power forward position potentially leading to division between Farried and Aldridge which I doubt would end with both playing on the same ball club. And so it brings us back to our age-old question: Do you draft best, or draft need?

Quit looking down at your answer sheet with the multiple choice answers Portland, because here comes your solution: Yes.

Yes?

Yes!

Yes, Portland needs to draft a player that will fill a hole on the roster. Yes, the Trail Blazers need to take the best player available. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

The Trail Blazers need to stop limiting themselves to a black or white, yes or no, A or B answer and begin to think outside the box. Push your test paper aside and draw your eyes from the table and begin to look up.

The mediocre regular season play, the disappointing first-round playoff losses—they're all in the past. It's time the Blazers got their head out of the books and into the dynamic game of basketball and take some advice from your English teacher by using a little imagination and letting those creative juices flow.

We know Portland needs at least one game changing player to help get them over the so-called “hump.” Not an all-star, but a superstar. We need a future hall-of-famer to step into a Trail Blazers uniform and lead the charge with a terrific supporting cast already in place and head for championship hill.

We also know that we need a healthy center and a smart point guard to bookend our starting lineup. So instead of limiting ourselves to the best player available at No. 21, lets look at the best point guard and center available in the draft and reposition ourselves to go get 'em. Be bold, be assertive. Besides, what do you have to lose?

And one of the best things about this idea is that we have the tools to make it work. Andre Miller and Marcus Camby are aging vets who still have enough go juice left in the tank to make most teams take serious consideration about paying top dollar for them.

These two guys would make terrific draft-day deals in order to move up in this year's draft and select the player or players we want and need. Or should Portland make an even bolder stroke and ditch the draft picks and a vet or two in exchange for a current NBA superstar who is just hitting their prime? The Blazers' options abound.

Pop quiz, Portland: Do you take door No. 1 and draft to suit the needs of the team, or door No. 2 and take the best player available?

We've gone down this road before, we've seen where doors one and two take us.

Let's take a peek inside door No. 3, shall we?