Agent Mark Bartelstein said the Blazers have also shown interest in two other clients: point guard Chris Quinn and forward Louis Amundson.

That’s two more names to add to the list of players that Portland has been talking to during Free Agency. It’s clear Portland is going after another rotation player to fill a hole. The interest in Quinn is a head-scratcher if you ask me. Sure he has proven to be a great three-point shooter at times, but it would seem to make more sense to just develop Patty Mills than recycle Quinn. Amundson on the other hand makes a ton of sense for this team, I thought we should have gone after him last year. He showed tremendous toughness, rebounding ability and defense in the playoffs. Considering his hairdo, hustle and the fact that he rides his bike everywhere, he’d fit right in to the Portland culture. Obviously there are a lot of teams interested in him, but it’s good to know Portland is at least reaching out.

As Quick points out in his article, Portland is moving very slow in free agency. If you ask me that’s a very good move. Obviously when you’re a team with out a General Manager, things have to be taken a big slower. Not to mention, this is a Blazer team with great depth. They are not at the point where they have to pull the trigger on a move without completely thinking it out. If they make a move in free agency it really has to be the right one. It’s also a wise move to take your time because you have to be cautious with how you use the Mid-Level Exception and who you use it on. For every time it’s used wisely on a Ron Artest or a Trevor Ariza, it’s wasted on a Jason Kapono or Antonio Daniels.

Just kidding, this isn’t one of those pieces. Outside of some courtesy phone calls, the Blazers aren’t going anywhere near any of the many free agents expected to get max or near-max contracts. Beyond that, those guys aren’t worth your time discussing. What is worth discussing is what Portland can do with the Mid Level Exception.

Since the Blazers will be over the salary cap once the extensions to LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy kick in, Portland will have the MLE in hand to offer any free agent a contract of up to five years at the league-average salary, which will probably come in a little over $6 million per year. That may not seem like much, but both good and overrated players sign for the MLE every year, and if used correctly it’s a great tool to fill out a rotation with specialists and role players.

It can also royally screw your salary cap situation if you either A. Use the MLE too often or B. Use it to overpay players like Marcus Banks, Chris Duhon or Brian Cardinal.

That said, let’s take a look at some of Portland’s potential options this summer. Clearly, Portland’s strategy in free agency will hinge on the sort of players they get in the draft, so when going down the list, assume we’re talking about each player as though they wouldn’t be overly superfluous with recent picks. As you’ll see after the jump, the primary theme is shooting, shooting, shooting.
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In the 22 pick-and-roll possessions shown, the Suns scored 23 points, so a little over a point per possession. They also got quality shots on 12 of those possessions, committing two turnovers in the process. Those numbers fall right in with the Suns’ season averages, where they scored 0.95 points per possession when the ball handler (Nash, normally), used the possession — the top ranked such play in the NBA.

You’ll notice how the Blazers didn’t rely on show-recover tactics to avoid switching on the screens. In fact, at times Amar’e only needed to stand in the area of a pick and the Blazers would switch men in order to keep both players on the perimeter. The most effective defense, though, was when they didn’t switch, but used whatever defender was in the paint at the time — usually Camby — to step up and stop Stoudemire’s roll while Nash was pushed off his drive line. Packing the paint like this left a number of three-point shooters open and, even with the relatively quick recovery closeouts we saw from the guards in this video, it’s fair to assume that the Suns are going to catch fire and win a game with those threes Nash creates.

But that might be OK. Better than letting Nash weave his way into the paint on any of the 457 picks he uses, or letting Stoudemire roll to the hoop unhindered. As long as the Blazers can run off a reasonable percentage of three-point shooters, the overall effect will be limiting the Suns to a streaky, perimeter based offense rather than the unhealthy Dunk-Three-Open Nash Jumper rhythm the team can get into.

Keep an eye on the guards in all those switch situations tonight. With Miller and Bayless shadowing Amar’e into the paint, the Blazers were often at a rebounding size disadvantage — allowing 17 offensive boards. That’s part of the reason why Camby outrebounded Aldridge 17-3 — the onus is on Camby to compensate for his guards in the paint while Aldridge is busy chasing guys at the arc.

We’ll see what adjustments the Blazers and Suns make in Game 2 tonight and compare it to the Game 1 defense tomorrow. Defensively, everything starts with that pick-and-roll, and the Blazers are going to have to play it at least as good as they did in Game 1 to win the series.