The Trailblazers have inked 23-year old shooting guard Wes Matthews to a 5-year, $34 million dollar offer sheet. Matthews was a undrafted rookie for the Utah Jazz last season. He played in 82 games (48 starts) for the Jazz last season and he averaged 24.7 minutes, 9.4 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. The Blazers did this same thing to the Jazz last season when they offered Jazz’ power forward Paul Millsap big bucks as a restricted free agent. The Jazz have 7 days to match the Blazers offer or Matthews will be playing in Portland next year and beyond.

The Portland Trailblazers are a good basketball team right now. It surprised the heck out of me that the Blazers fired GM Kevin Pritchard right before the NBA draft started last week. The Trailblazers are courting ex-Cavaliers’ GM Danny Ferry for Pritchard’s old job. If Ferry takes the job look for him to immediately talk to his old team about Mo Williams. A trade of Andre Miller, Rudy Fernandez and either Dante Cunningham or Jeff Pendergraph to the Cavs for Mo Williams and Delonte West would make perfect sense for both teams. That means it’s too good to happen. The Blazers could be one of the teams to beat in the Western Conference in 2010-11 especially if Marcus Camby and Greg Oden can stay healthy all year. I don’t see the Blazers being very busy in free agency but they need to reward Juwan Howard for a job well done and bring him back for another year.

The Trailblazers selected 21-year old point guard Armon Johnson out of Nevada with the 34th overall pick of the NBA Draft. Johnson played in 34 games (all starts) for Nevada last year and he averaged 15.7 points, 3.4 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game. He played in 101 games (99 starts) in his college career and he averaged 14.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game. Johnson won’t get much P.T. in 2010-11 as the Blazers are stacked at point guard.

The Trailblazers have picked 21-year old shooting guard Elliot Williams with the 22nd overall pick in the NBA Draft. Williams is rail thin at 6′5″, 180 pounds but he can put the ball in the basket. He played in 34 games (all starts) for Memphis last season and he averaged 17.9 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.3 steals per game. Williams played in 68 games (46 starts) in his two years in college and he averaged 11.1 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game. Williams will be Brandon Roy’s backup in 2010-11 so he won’t have any pressure right away.

The Timberwolves picked 21-year old small forward Luke Babbitt out of Nevada with the 16th overall pick of the NBA Draft. They then traded Babbitt and 27-year old Ryan Gomes to the Trailblazers for 23-year old SG/SF Martell Webster. Babbitt played in 34 games (all starts) for Nevada last season and he averaged 21.9 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.0 steal per game. He played in 68 games (all starts) at Nevada and he averaged 19.4 points, 8.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. The Blazers really like Babbitt but they will likely bring him along slowly. Ryan Gomes played in 76 games (64 starts) for the T-Wolves last season in which he averaged 29.1 minutes, 10.9 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. He has now played in 374 games (307 starts) in his NBA career and he is averaging 29.2 minutes, 11.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. Gomes is a solid basketball player who should provide good depth along the front line for the Blazers and he is more than capable than starting if they need him to. Martell Webster played in 82 games (49 starts) for the Blazers last season and he averaged 24.5 minutes, 9.4 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. He played 5 years for the Trailblazers appearing in 301 games (164 starts) in which he averaged 23.2 minutes, 8.5 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. This was a solid trade for the Trailblazers.

UPDATE: (6/29/2010) - The Trailblazers have released Ryan Gomes to create more cap space. I definitely don’t like this trade near as much as I did on draft night for the Blazers.