Victor Claver in the 1st round and free agent market preparation

It’s hard to get too excited about Victor Claver right now, who was selected at #22 as the only first round pick by the Trail Blazers in the 2009 draft.   He is supposed to be a great talent, but there is not a lot of information out there about him.  He did not work out for Portland this year, however here is a video from his workout 2 years ago:

Here is a highlight video, I can’t stand the song it’s set to:

What is exciting is what the Trail Blazers appear to be preparing for.  Selecting Claver and stashing him in Europe for a year or two does very little to effect cap room right now.  Trading Sergio to Sacramento for picks frees up almost $2 million.  Potentially dropping Freeman and Koponen would allow even more room, although I kinda like Koponen.  So the Blazers will have as much flexibility as possible to attack the free agent market and add an experienced player to round out the roster, instead of weighing the team down with more guaranteed contracts for rookies.

This is gonna get interesting.   Is Bayless gonna step and be that back up point guard that the Blazers need him to be?  Will the Blazers go after Steve Nash or Andre Miller?  Stay with Blakey?  Or maybe pursue the other names that we have heard so much over the last few seasons like Gerald Wallace, David Lee or Shawn Marion?

I hope we’re gearing up for a giant Pritch-slap.

~ by ripcitytoseoul on June 27, 2009.