Frankly, I think Blake is the only one they're willing to sack--charting some Blazers preseason games, I think it's hard to get Rodriguez now that he's resurfaced as passer extraordinaire he was always made out to be on draft day--and besides, they might like their Spanish factor in Rodriguez-Fernandez with all those lob passes, and he'll probably supplant Blake soon in the starting lineup. I don't think they're playing him to strengthen his value, and if we really wanted him I think the best time to take him would've been last year when he was basically irrelevant for them. Blake has always been the sort of dead man walking for them, basically a holdover solid PG until someone more talented--whether it be Rodriguez or someone else--replaces him. And considering that we're a cellar-dwelling team, and Blake is 28 and won't improve much from here on out, there's no point in taking him either.
Batum is someone who intrigues me and may be had, considering all the athletic freaks stockpiled already on that team, and he may be a carbon copy version of Travis Outlaw, perhaps with less offense/more defense. However, probably not this year--Pritchard holds on to his super young talent right up onto his vest, and probably wants to have a look at him first. He's actually producing in the steals department right now so I think Portland would keep him. Same goes for Bayless--super young talent, probably would take a year or so to evaluate; they'll look to see if he can develop some PG skills to perhaps contest Blake for the future PG spot.
Obviously, Channing Frye and Ike Diogu could be had in the right deals; both are still relatively young, and scouts do see them as mild "value" players considering that Diogu has shown some extreme scoring potential in the past, and Frye was a very good rookie long ago with the Knicks. OF course, though, as Brick, one is soft and one is earthbound, and in effect they replicate many of the problems our team has. So no to both.
