Blazers Offer Travis Outlaw to Bulls

RUMOR:

The Portland Trailblazers are desperately looking for a point guard according to rumorpress.net, and have offered the long and athletic Travis Outlaw to the Memphis Grizzlies for Mike Conley, according to the Memphis Edge, part of The Commercial Appeal daily newspaper in Memphis picked up by USA Today. Now they may be offering him to the Chicago Bulls. The deal also includes Joel Przybilla from the Blazers for Kirk Hinrich, someone the Bulls haven't been ready to trade despite a poor season. The Bulls have also said that they won't make any moves until they figure out what to do with Ben Gordon. Gordon also has the last say on where he wants to go.

ANALYSIS:

Trading Hinrich for Outlaw is a bad deal for both teams. Trading for Gordon would be a better deal for both teams but wouldn't get the Blazers a point guard. Both deals, however, leave the Blazers shorthanded at small forward. Even if the Blazers have Brandon Roy running the floor, it looks like that the Blazers are just looking for a pure point guard and feel that Steve Blake and Sergio Rodreguiez aren't enough.

If Gordon was traded to the Bulls, a rookie from the Blazers, Jerryd Bayless or Rudy Fernandez, would have to be offered in the deal. A rotation of Roy and Gordon would be dangerous. After trading Outlaw, Martell Webster would remain the starter but Luke Jackson hasn't been able to perform at the NBA level consistenly. That would be a glaring weakness for the Blazers. They could look for free agency options like 25 year old Kirk Snyder.

If for some reason the Bulls did give up Hinrich for Outlaw, they'd leave the 2008 #1 overall pick Derrick Rose without any help for a back-up, and free agency doesn't offer anything close to Hinrich. They lost Chris Duhon to the New York Knicks and Hinrich is their only hope if they want to contend for the playoffs. So he's out of the picture unless they can get a point guard equal in value and talent in return.

The potential deal between the Bulls and Blazers shouldn't go through because both teams can't get what they're looking for. My guess is it won't happen because it leaves too many voids for both teams.