Darius Miles : Will he stay or will he go?

So, the Blazers roster has been almost totally overhauled. The question on most fans' minds is "what is happening with Darius Miles?!?"

There were murmurs last week of a trade with the Knicks for Quentin Richardson -- Q-Rich and D-Miles were running mates with the Clippers -- but that seems unlikely now, given that the Knicks are due to sign Jared Jeffries today from Washington.

A player such as Q-Rich would suit the Blazers. For starters, he's a SG that can stroke the three -- outside of Martell Webster we don't have a player in that mould. Secondly, he doesn't need to have a lot of the ball to make an impact: Richardson is the type of player that can hang on the wing and make the three (as he did with Phoenix) or mix it up with a bit of rebounding assistance.

It is clear that if the Blazers are going to trade Miles, unless it is to the saviour of 29 teams in the NBA (aka Isiah Thomas), they are going to have to accept less that 100 cents in the dollar. The ideal situation would mean a swingman who will not rock the boat, can play some defence and possibly shoot the three. A Ruben Patterson without the attitude would be great. The last thing the Blazers want is a player likely to be a bad influence on the young guns of the team -- thus the necessity to shift D-Miles.

A package with Zach Randolph (another malcontent) and/or Juan Dixon (our undersized SG who is likely to lack minutes behind Brandon Roy and Webster) would be the best situation. Most teams are interested in picking up either Roy or LaMarcus Aldridge in the deal. To do that trade would be nearing on luncacy.

Should the Knicks still be interested in D-Miles after the acquisition of Jeffries, one deal that would work under the Collective Bargaining Agreement would be a straight-up swap of Miles for Jamal Crawford. A possibility.