After Paul Allen fired Portland general manager Kevin Pritchard an hour before the draft, most people thought it would be an uneventful day for the Blazers organization.
Instead, Pritchard was allowed to retain his position for the remainder of the draft, and he pulled off yet another big draft day trade, acquiring Ryan Gomes and the rights to No. 16 pick Luke Babbitt, in exchange for Martell Webster.
Gomes' contract runs through 2012-13, but has a team option that must be exercised by June 30, and if the team exercises the option then the final two years of Gomes' contract will become guaranteed at a little more than $4 million per season.
If the Blazers opt to not exercise that team option and allow Gomes to become a free agent, the team would only have to pay $1 million this season and $2 million the next 2 years, essentially freeing up some more cap space to spend money elsewhere.
It's a win-win situation for the Blazers. If they retain Gomes, they get a quality backup who can fill the void left by trading Webster. If they choose to opt out of the contract, they lose Gomes but they get considerable financial flexibility while still having Luke Babbitt backup Nicolas Batum.
Rudy Fernandez, who was already being pursued by the New York Knicks, now becomes even more expendable after the Blazers drafted guard Elliot Williams.
By selecting Williams, Portland allows him and Jerryd Bayless to backup both PG Andre Miller and SG Brandon Roy, which would send Fernandez even further down the team's depth chart.
Fernandez is considered a very valuable player around the league for two reasons. First of which, he can play some good basketball. And if his rookie season is any indicator, Rudy can certainly bring a lot of fire off the bench for a team in need of depth. The second reason is his contract; He's on the hook only for the 2010-11 season, and has expressed interest in returning to Spain when that deal ends.
With a very tradeable contract and plenty of players able to step in ahead of him for Portland, the Blazers can now set him at the top of their trading block and look to get a valuable piece in return.
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