NBA Free Agency 2013: Portland Trail Blazers, Zaza Pachulia Have Mutual Interest
By Josh Hill
The Portland Trail Blazers are having one of the finer offseasons they’ve had in a while and the team is hoping that it equates to more wins next season and an even more serious playoff push. With star point guard Damien Lillard clearly being the leader and face of the future of the franchise, Portland is trying to piece together players that will take them to the next level and one of those guys is Zaza Pachulia.
According to a report from Blazers beat writer Joe Freeman, Portland and Pachulia have had preliminary talks but any deal that is made will occur later on in the free agency period.
Talks between #Blazers & Pachulia were mostly preliminary. The sides have not set up a meeting, but agreed to talk later in free agency.
— Joe Freeman (@BlazerFreeman) July 1, 2013
Pachulia is a peculiar name to consider as a target but he’s not the worse option out there. Clearly the Blazers are in the business of looking for help off the bench and that’s what Pachulia could be for Portland should he sign there.
He had some productive years with the Atlanta Hawks but never became anything more than a fine player. In the NBA, it seems you need to be elite to stand out or perhaps you just need to be surrounded by the right players.
While Pachulia isn’t a top name on the market, he’ll likely try to secure the starting center spot for the Blazers although Meyers Leonard seems to be a guy that Portland wants to make a part of the future. Still, there are worse options out there for Pachulia than coming off the bench for one of the up and coming young teams in the NBA.