After a successful regular season which culminated in a third place finish in the tough Western Conference, the Portland Trailblazers are now looking forward to further improving their team during the off-season. However, unlike in previous years when the Blazers made noise because of their focus on draft activity, things seem to be different this summer. More specifically, the franchise management supposedly plans on picking up at least one key player through free agency rather than obtaining further draft picks.

Given the fact that Portland is one of the youngest teams in the league it appears to be a justified assumption that some veteran leadership would be desirable for the franchise future. Moreover, the Blazers already have four second round picks on top of their first rounder, therefore it is nearly in inevitable that Portland trades some of their picks. Otherwise they would have to send some of the players to the D-League which hardly is an attractive option.

According to several sources around the league, GM Kevin Pritchard is currently in touch with the New York Knicks to work out a sign-and-trade deal with Knicks forward David Lee. Lee who averaged a career high 16.0 points and 11.7 rebounds last year could most likely provide a low-post presence for Portland that would take some weight of Brandon Roy’s and LaMarcus Aldrige’s shoulders. However, it remains to be seen whether Lee’s salary would put the Blazers over the salary cap which the franchise does not intend to exceed. In fact, Portland has roughly $10 million cap space for which they hope to obtain another key player during the off-season. Thus, the Blazers are also said to be interested in other unrestricted free agents such as Jason Kidd and Hedo Turkoglu. As of now, it seems fairly unlikely that Portland could outbid the Dallas Mavericks if owner Mark Cuban decided to re-sign Kidd. Likewise, Orlando’s success this year might prevent the Magic management from letting one of their center pieces walk. In contrast, the New York Knicks are determined to get as much cap space as possible for 2010-11 and will certainly be interested in any offers for a sign-and-trade deal with David Lee. Whether both franchises can agree on a deal remains to be seen, but it would certainly address some issues that the two teams are currently dealing with.

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