The draft and a side of turkey for free agency

So the draft came and went on the 25th of June, and it was relatively quiet i know. As any Blazers fan whose been with the team at least the last 3 years knows, this is a bit of a shocker. The Blazers have been pretty active on draft days as of late. Very active. As in the MOST active. but it was relatively calm on this draft day. the Blazers only made a few moves, one was the move up to the 22nd pick. The other was trading Sergio (yay!) and the 38th overall pick with cash considerations and our worst pick next year to the Kings for the number 31 pick. its a bit of a head scratcher but it all seems to make sense after a while. So with the 22nd pick KP surprised a lot of people and drafted Victor Claver from Spain, a 6'9'' power forward who received high praises from KP. Now the moves are starting to make sense. The Blazers can moved up just enough to land the guy they wanted for sure and drafted a Spanish player that they can stash over seas and not have to pay him, and they don't have to pay the other 2nd rounders if they don't want to plus they got out from Sergio's contract. They were clearing cap room, presumably to take a run at a high profile free agent, which was absolutely right. So they chose Jeff Pendegraph and Dante Cunningham at the 31 and 33 picks. Two forwards that can duke it out for the back up power forward spot, but i would be shocked if both made the team and even one of them could be a stretch. given the opportunity however both should be solid backups. The really interesting pick for me came at pick 55. As i watched the draft unfold, i noticed that at pick 50, Patrick 'patty' Mills was still available. Patty Mills is an undersized point guard at about 6'0'' but he's lightning quick and he intrigues the hell outta me. We all saw how well Aaron Brooks did for the Rockets did as an undersized lightning quick point guard. So imagine my delight when Peppermint Patty Mills (i saw that on Blazers edge and am now going to steal it lol) was still on the board at 55 and KP scooped him up, what a steal that late in the draft. and He's Australian so he could go play overseas somewhere if we don't want him right now. So today, July 1st is the first day teams are allowed to talk to free agents, and the Blazers wasted no time, they were the first to contact Hedo Turkoglu. We're taking a run at him and by all indications running pretty hard.So what do i think of this? well, I'm skeptical because the report is Hedo wants 5 years 50 million dollars, which is a lot to pay someone whose 30. As i rethought it tho, Turk is a 6'10 forward who can play 3 to 4 positions and is a WHIZ at the side pick and roll, which will really open things up for GO and if Lma can get his 3 pointer down, he could kill behind the arc because the double team on Greg will come most likely from the 4, leaving Lma open from distance. i started to get more and more sold on Turk, the stat that really did it for me was that he's got more playoff experience than all the current Blazers combined, which is something to be desired. i then heard that Rudy is unhappy about this pursuit of Hedo, actually the exact word Chris Sheridan from espn.com used was 'infuriated'. Now i haven't heard anything from Rudy directly yet, but i have some issues with this. the article says he's worried about playing time, and even if hedo wasn't coming over, Rudy will still be playing behind Roy, so he's not gonna make a killer amount of minutes, and it has very little to do with Turk. i heard that Rudy may go as far as to request a trade. and as much as I LOVE Rudy, if he wants a trade because of minutes, we may have to move him, because he cant play ahead of Brandon Roy, so his minutes will always be limited. so my thought is this; If we get Hedo, one of the small forwards is gone, Travis Outlaw more likely than the others. there's just not enough room at the 3 spot. so if Rudy demands a trade, we package Travis outlaw and Rudy Fernandez to pick up another quality player because word is that Rudy has got a fairly high market value and Travis has some suitors as well. All in all, i cant say I'm 100% confident in this move if we do sign Hedo, but i do know that im very intrigued because it has the potential to make us immensely better and possibly even... dare i say it? ... contenders? well we'll have to see. KP has improved the team every year since he's been here and I'm putting my trust in him, i believe that hes still got a couple other moves up his sleeve too after Turkoglu. It's all about waiting and seeing now. check back here I'll post anything as i hear it and keep an eye on Blazersedge.com too, one of my favorite sites, possibly the best Blazers fan site out there, and they'll get you the info as it happens! Get pumped Portland, this is an exciting time! Go Blazers!

Doc