As the Trail Blazers look to return to .500 tonight in Boston, here are a few Friday rumors out of Portland:
- Like most other teams, the Blazers won't make any trades that compromise their long-term plans, as acting GM Chad Buchanan tells Joe Freeman of The Oregonian.
- Within Freeman's piece, a source says the market for Raymond Felton is "soft" and that shopping Gerald Wallace has been a challenge as well — since Wallace has a pricey player option for next season, teams who just want to rent him are worried he'll exercise the option, while teams who would prefer to keep him next season are concerned he'll opt out.
- Freeman notes that if Wallace and Jamal Crawford decline their player options, and the Blazers hang on to the expiring contracts of Felton and Marcus Camby, the team could have about $23MM in cap space this summer. So Portland's not necessarily feeling pressure to make a deal.
- Freeman doesn't believe the Blazers are interested in Jose Calderon, but thinks Eric Bledsoe would make a good trade target (Twitter links).
- Peter Vecsey of the New York Post says the Timberwolves aren't going to send Luke Ridnour to Portland in order to acquire Crawford. The two sides had reportedly discussed a trade involving those two players.