Le Basketbawl

Back in September former Utah Jazz center Greg Ostertag told members of the media that he was seriously considering a return to the NBA after retiring three years ago. The former Utah center told reporters that the Dallas Mavericks were the team he truly wanted to play for. The man who played in the pivot with Karl Malone and John Stockton told reporters “Everyone knows how bad I’ve wanted to play in Dallas. I grew up there. They were my favorite team growing up. I’d play there in a second. … That would be the ultimate way to end my career.”

As far as New York Vinnie knows things never progressed from that point on. There were no further reports that Ostertag and the Mavericks had any conversations. He was not with the team during NBA Training Camp. The reason that New York Vinnie is bringing up the former journeyman center is I am wondering if Portland Trail Blazers General Manager Kevin Pritchard has made any attempts to contact him on Wednesday. For the Blazers are in desperate need for a center after their game against Dallas on Tuesday night.

Portland lost their second starting center of the season Tuesday night as they defeated the Dallas Mavericks by a final score of 85-81. With 3:12 left in the first quarter Blazers center Joel Pryzbilla went up to grab a rebound and some how landed in the worst possible way.

 The Portland big man fell to the ground like a Frickin bag of cement with excruciating pain in his right leg. Turns out that Pryzbilla according to the “Oregonian“ ended up with a ruptured right patella tendon and patella dislocation. He will need surgery to correct the problem and there is not even been a guess ventured about when he might return to playing. He very well could be gone for the rest of the season.

This is the second time this month that Portland has lost their starting center as former number one pick in the 2007 NBA Draft Greg Oden was hurt on December 5. The brittle big man fractured his left kneecap in the first quarter of a 90-89 Blazers victory over the Houston Rockets. Oden would be injured as he was trying to guard Rockets point guard Aaron Brooks. He has had season ending surgery which took away the Trail Blazers first and best option in the middle.

Now with Pryzbilla out for for at least the foreseeable future the only player they have on their roster that even resembles a center is 24 year old Anthony Tolliver who has played a grand Frickin total of 21 NBA games and is in his second year in the NBA.

He has played 2 games so far this year for the Blazers and played exactly 2 minutes and has yet to score a point this season. Last year with the San Antonio Spurs Tolliver played in 19 game and averaged 2.7 points and 2.1 rebounds per game. Clearly he is not the answer for the Blazers at the pivot spot; so what does  the team do?

Well they could go the desperation route and try bringing in Ostertag for a tryout; however New York Vinnie has the feeling he will not be much of an upgrade over Tolliver. They do have players that could be assets for other teams in Steve Blake or Andre Miller but who do they go after? Another thing to keep in mind is the NBA salary cap and how much money they have to play with. There are some players who could do the job for them but they are making pretty hefty salaries.

Three names come to mind pretty quickly and that would be Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman of the Los Angeles Clippers and Brad Miller of the Chicago Bulls. The problem is all three of these guys are being paid pretty Frickin well; Camby is making $9,150,000, Kaman is being paid $10,400,000 and Miller is pulling down $12,250,000. The Portland player who is making the most this year is Andre Miller who in the first year of his Free Agent contract is making $6,730,800. That is no where near within the 20% flexibility range that the NBA allows in trades; and Miller would not be a good fit for either Chicago or the Clippers.

New York Vinnie wrote at the beginning of the season that Portland could be one of three teams along with Dallas and the Spurs to  be there at the end if they stayed healthy. That has not come to pass  and what could have been a very promising season for Portland could now be just a long and gloomy one.