Blazers Trade Jerryd Bayless to New Orleans for Draft Pick

By Deb • October 23, 2010

According to the Associated Press, the Portland Trail Blazers have agreed to trade point guard Jerryd Bayless to the New Orleans Hornets in exchange for a conditional future first-round draft pick. The Blazers did this to create extra room and salary cap space on the roster.

Bayless has showed some shining moments with the Blazers in his past two seasons, but has been struggling as of late. The third-year point guard will now be entering New Orleans, playing with fellow point guard Chris Paul. With Darren Collison gone, the Hornets could use a nice, valuable back-up at the point guard position, and general manager Dell Demps helped make that happen.

The Hornets brought in Willie Green via trade to help out Marcus Thornton and Paul. However, New Orleans have been highly interested in Bayless. Bringing in the young, hopefully-soon-to-breakout star will also help bring up attendance with Hornets. Since Hurricane Katrina, the Hornets have struggled to bring in high attendances for each of the 41 home games each season. Bringing in Bayless will help spark that up, considering that the NBA may start contraction with teams.

The Blazers now have 16 players left on the roster and need to get rid of one in order to get by the Monday deadline.

The Blazers recently signed Fabricio Oberto, who will help out with the center position. With injuries suffering to Greg Oden and Joel Pryzbilla lately, the Blazers need to use Oberto, as well as LaMarcus Aldridge and Dante Cunningham at center. Currently, aging-veteran Marcus Camby is the only fully-healthy center available for the Blazers.

Paul is recovering from an injury. He has a lot of high hopes for this season. When Paul needs a break during the games, Bayless will be the huge spark coming off the bench. He could be the potential sixth man New Orleans need.

Meanwhile for the Blazers, they may waive Pendergraph if they can’t trade him by Monday. According to Oregonian, Patrick Mills will make the roster over Pendergraph.

Both teams have pretty much helped from this acquisition. Best of luck to both for the season.