Mid-Valley Sports

It didn’t take long last night for Portland’s management to reveal that the team was interested in acquiring Orlando forward Hedo Turkoglu. GM Kevin Pritchard called Turkoglu as soon as it was allowed and it looks like a trip to Portland is in Turkoglu’s immediate future. Now we’ll have to wait and see if Portland has enough cash available under the salary cap (roughly $8 million) to seal the deal (Detroit is one team that could offer more. Right now they are said to be chasing Ben Gordon, but the Pistons have so much cap room they could conceivably land Gordon and Turkoglu).

One unexpected result of Portland’s move is to annoy one of its current players, Spanish guard Rudy Fernandez. Fernandez, according to this report, isn’t completely thrilled with how last season went and is concerned that if the team adds Turkoglu his role could be further reduced. The truth is, he’s probably right. Adding Turkoglu could cut into Fernandez’ minutes. But I don’t see that there’s a whole lot Fernandez can do about it. Yes, he may have European suitors, but he’s also under a valid contract. Not much leverage there for Rudy.

One thing I messed up yesterday was listing Kirk Hinrich of the Chicago Bulls as a potential free agent target of the Blazers. I had seen so much discussion of the Blazers’ interest in Hinrich that I came to think of him as a free agent. He is not. For the Blazers to add Hinrich, they would have to make a trade with the Bulls. (I have seen suggestions that would send Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw to Chicago for Hinrich. That trade would work under the NBA’s trade rules. I’m not sure Chicago would go for it, however, especially if they lose Gordon to Detroit).

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