Blazers officially sign Batum

[JfizzleBlazer]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3501855

So the Blazers officially signed Batum which takes their roster to 14. KP has said he wants to keep it at 14 to keep his option flexible. So I'm guessing Koponen stays in Europe another year and they risk him being signed to a multi-year deal in Europe.

Maybe Sergio is traded for a future pick, then they sign Koponen?

 

[Dark Defender]

Ugh, I forgot the Blazers also got Batum as well as Bayless.

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Dark Defender @ Jul 24 2008, 07:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Ugh, I forgot the Blazers also got Batum as well as Bayless.</div>

He actually didn't perform that well in the Summer League. The rumblings are that he is being brought in to work with Monty Williams (a blazer assistant coach) to become a defensive stopper.

 

[Dark Defender]

Doesn't matter.

Batum on the Blazers is such a low risk/high reward type thing, that its almost unfair for other teams. Is Sergio really that expendable with Bayless coming in?

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

Well Sergio isn't a Nate McMillan kind of player. He's kind of lost Nate's confidence and a lot of people think he will only be on the roster next year because of his friendship with Rudy Fernandez.

I just brought up trading Sergio as a possibility because he is going to be unhappy about his playing time, and we already have 14 guys which our GM stated was what he wanted to keep it at to give him flexibility.

This sucks because Koponen is going to stay overseas when in my opinion he would be a better guy to groom for the future than Sergio.