The Portland Trail Blazers have reportedly offered Utah Jazz restricted free agent Paul Millsap a four-year contract worth anywhere between $32-$36 million. The Jazz can match the offer and retain Millsap, but cannot do it without going over the luxury tax, which the Jazz do not want to do. So, how can they re-sign Millsap, not go over the tax, and get Millsap in a Jazz uniform again?

Trade Carlos Boozer and his $12.7 million contract for the upcoming season.

And the Jazz are trying really hard to do that, but need to find willing trade partners, which has actually been discussed with the Chicago Bulls... and the Blazers. It seems that the trade is hung up because the Blazers don't want to trade away Jerryd Bayless, whom the Bulls covet. So, could this Millsap signing be a ploy in order to make the proposed trade happen faster without the Blazers giving up the promising young guard? Could be, but getting back to the title of this post - What if Paul Millsap does join the Trail Blazers?

It's a distinct possibility that the Jazz can't find trade partners to take on Boozer, in which case, they'd probably let Millsap go. But then what will happen with the Blazers' four and five spots already filled with LaMarcus Aldridge who has to be the second-most important Blazer after Brandon Roy, and Greg Oden, a player the Blazers took first overall and can't give up on yet as a matter of saving face at the very least? And you cannot forget the Vanilla Gorilla, Joel Przybilla. However, for the sake of looking at the youngsters and future of the Blazers, we'll leave Przybilla out of this convo.

In any case, I cannot see a frontline of Aldridge, Oden, and Millsap ever taking the floor together at the same time. Just not going to happen. So, who starts? Aldridge is an automatic to start at the four, leaving Oden and Millsap to fight it out for the starting center spot. While Oden has shown flashes, Millsap has produced for long stretches becoming a double-double machine while he started in place of an injured Boozer last season. However, at only 6-8, he is too short for the five. So, here are some possible options as I see them:

• Slide Aldridge to the center spot and play Millsap at the power forward position with Oden coming off the bench. However, how would this affect Oden's psyche? He was chosen over Kevin Durant, who is well on his way to being a superstar, in the 2007 NBA Draft and the ghost of Sam Bowie will haunt Oden forever until he does some damage worthy of the first overall pick. The ghosts of Michael Olowokandi and Pervis Ellison are also over Oden's shoulder.
• Keep Aldridge at the four and Oden at the five, but does it make any sense to pay a guy $8-$9 million a year to come off the pine? Okay, fine, so Andrei Kirilenko will make about $16.5 million in 2009-10 doing just that, but he signed his contract some time ago when the economy looked good. However, in these current economic times, you really don't want to pay a bench player that much money for limited minutes, even though it would be like "the rich getting richer" as you don't lose much when Aldridge sits and Millsap comes in.
• Don't sign Aldridge to an extension when he's eligible and let Oden stay as the center with Millsap eventually taking over at the four. I highly doubt this happens as Aldridge still has untapped potential and is better offensively than both Oden and Millsap. But, who would have ever thought in 1992 that Shaquille O'Neal would play for five different teams thus far in his career? So, you never know.
• Trade someone. As the Jazz are finding out, it's easier said than done.

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