2010 NBA Draft: Trail Blazers Team Needs

Portland's Biggest Need for the 2010-11 Season Won't Be Found in the Draft.
The Portland Trail Blazers' wish list for the 2010 NBA Draft is likely a short one.

The thing Portland needs most, after all, isn't going to be found in the draft.

The Blazers were hampered by injuries throughout the 2009-10 season — with 13 players missing a total of 311 games — and still made the playoffs, battling the Phoenix Suns before losing in six games.

So what Portland needs most for the 2010-11 season is to stay healthy.

Well, that and a sharp-shooter who can drain three-pointers when needed, but we'll come back to that.

In recent years, Portland has been one of the NBA's least-predictable teams come draft time.

General manager Kevin Pritchard has engineered brilliant draft-day deals that have landed players such as Victor Claver and Jeff Pendergraph in 2009, Nicolas Batum and Jerryd Bayless in 2008 and Rudy Fernandez in 2007. As the assistant GM, Pritchard was also involved in the 2006 draft-day trades that brought Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Sergio Rodriguez to Portland.

The team has a solid nucleus of youngsters, including all of the aforementioned players except for Rodriguez, who was traded on draft day in 2009, and Claver, who is playing professionally in Spain and has yet to join the NBA.

None of these players appears to be headed anywhere any time soon. In fact, the most likely of the bunch to leave the team before the start of the 2010-11 season is Pritchard himself. Team president Larry Miller and owner Paul Allen are said to be evaluating Pritchard after becoming disenchanted with the team's front-office situation this past season. They fired vice president of basketball operations Tom Penn during the season, and Pritchard is the next to face some scrutiny from the higher-ups. Allen has said he has no timeline for making a decision about Pritchard, but one would think the team will make a move — one way or another — before the draft.

Assuming Pritchard stays, don't expect the same type of draft-day theatrics he's directed over the past few years. But don't be surprised if he pulls off a deal or two, either.

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