Especially if the Blazers want to win next year.

I’ve always thought Jack was underrated backup PG. He’s fast, young, and would be moved from starting to backup PG. Less responsibility would be a great thing for him behind Gil.

Good point about the Blazers being able to package the 13 and 18 picks to move into the top 10. That would give them some options.

You forgot to mention him in your guard log jam….maneuvering space for him is definitely going to factor into Portland’s plans…..basically why they want to rid themselves of Jack, but probably not to get Daniels.

I would say that if this happened Ernie Pritchslapped that Pritchslapper on this one. Good thing it would never happen.

First let me say, I’m not a big Jarret Jack fan. But this is what I basically see this trade doing for us.

We forgo our massive cap room in 2009 and a give up a proven rotation player for basically the 18th pick, a point guard who isn’t much better than Steve Blake, and a guy who hasn’t played all year because he had heart surgery. Although it’s nice to see someone so intellectual. I enjoyed his article on The Huffington Post.

Now let me break it down in a more balanced perspective

A. Blazers don’t need to win now and are too young and inexperienced to do so.

Acquiring veteran leadership right now isn’t going to be a need when your core pieces aren’t ready to make a playoff run. I am going to give you the low down on just how young the roster is, Brandon Roy is 23, LaMarcus is 22, Greg Oden is 20, Travis Outlaw is 24, Rudy Fernandez is 23, Martell Webster is 21, Channing Frye is 25, and James Jones, Joel Pryzbilla, and Steve Blake are the oldest rotation players at just 27! Secondly, really what could Brandon Roy learn from Antonio Daniels? I mean Brandon Roy was a Western Conference All star in his second season. He was also the second best player that game (granted kobe didn’t play much), Byron Scott put him in the 4th quarter over Tmac and AI when they tried to win the game. Secondly, I don’t buy into the argument that Antonio would provide leadership when he wouldn’t play. I mean Raef can provide the same role really.

B. We can get more for Raef’s contract
Keep in mind the Blazer’s moved TREC (Theo Ratliff’s expiring contract) and Telfair for the #7 pick + RLEC. The 7th pick was used to draft Randy Foye who was traded to Minnesota for Brandon Roy. Downgrading our 2nd round draft picks and Jack to grab the 18th pick and some filler doesn’t make too much sense to me.

Even if we don’t trade RLEC (Raef LaFrenz’s Expiring Contract) and let it expire we are looking at over 30+ million in cap space. Yeah 30 million. Of course some of this is going to be be eaten away resigning Martell Webster, Channing Frye, and Jarret Jack, but I don’t think all 3 of them will be there. But there is not doubt at that point in time we can offer a player a max contract if needed. Basically if there is any free agent(s) we are looking to add to augment our core we can do it then. I doubt that the Blazers are going to land someone major at that point in time; however, whoever they will add will certainly be better than Antonio Daniels and Etan Thomas.

C. Having contracts expire when LaMarcus and Brandon Roy’s Rookie contracts expire is a mute point.

Unlike Abe Pollin and his luxury tax shenanigans (and this will keep the Wizards as a middling team for the rest of his life I’m sure), Paul Allen is willing to pay whatever it takes to get a ring. He’s just like Cuban in this regard, they are billionaires whose sports teams are not merely an investment but a toy of sorts. If we need to offer Brandon the max for a 3rd year player to match an offer from another team he will sign off on it without any hesitation. As long as LMA and Brandon want to play in Portland they will stay in Portland.

So in that sense the summer of 2009 is the last time the Blazers will really be a player in the Free agency market. In 2010 they need to up Brandon and LaMarcus and in 2011 they need to resign Oden. From that perspective it really doesn’t make any sense to minimize their spending ability in 2009.

D. Why would the 18th pick be more valuable than Jarret Jack?

If I was Kevin Pritchard and I wanted to move up in the draft, before trading Jarret Jack for a draft pick, wouldn’t I try to trade him +13 to move up? Really I think in the eyes of most gm’s getting an established young player on his rookie contract is a whole lot better than the 18th pick. I think that a team like Phoenix might even trade the 15h pick (in my mock Brandon Rush) straight up to land a young, cheap backup/border line start back up point guard (Steve Nash’s old legs will thank Steve Kerr). I doubt that the Blazers would give up Jack AND 2nd round draft picks (especially ones so close to the 1st round) for the 18th+47, not even taking into consideration RLEC.

Oh and I’m a NOVA resident btw so I’ve watched about 100+ Wizards games over the past couple of years. So I’ve watched AD and JJ play.

I think Jarret Jack is a younger possibly better version of AD. Right now he doesn’t have the decision making, but they are similar in that they both have weak jumpshots and make head down bulldozer drives into the paint.