07/29: Bucks Magloire headed to Portland BY GERY WOELFEL The long-awaited trade of Jamaal Magloire is all but official. The Bucks have verbally agreed to deal the veteran center to the Portland Trail Blazers for guard Steve Blake, forward Brian Skinner and center Ha Seung-Jin. The teams have been talking for the last several weeks, with the only holdup being the Blazers' reluctance to depart with Blake, who had been the team's starting point guard last season. The trade hasn't been officially announced and, barring one of the players failing to pass a physical exam or some other unforeseen snag, won't be formally approved until Monday after all the necessary paperwork with the league office is completed. The Bucks' decision to trade Magloire was hardly surprising, considering Bucks general manager Larry Harris has publicly stated he was attempting to deal Magloire. Harris said he wanted to move Magloire with the intention of switching Andrew Bogut from power forward to his natural position at center. It is also known that Magloire wasn't happy with his situation in Milwaukee and how he was being used by Bucks coach Terry Stotts. Magloire became especially disgruntled with Stotts during a five-game stretch in late March, when Magloire never played more than 22 minutes a game. In four of those games, Magloire played 20 or fewer minutes. Despite being the Bucks' best rebounder and interior defender, and going against a tall Detrot frontline, Stotts never played the 6-foot-11 Magloire more than 29 minutes in any of the five first-round playoff games against the Pistons. Magloire, 28, came to the Bucks in a trade with New Orleans/Oklahoma City just before the start of the regular season. The Bucks gave the Hornets small forward Desmond Mason along with a first-round draft choice. The Hornets used that pick in the June 28th draft to select power forward Cedric Simmons of North Carolina State. Magloire started every game for the Bucks this season. He came close to averaging a double-double during the regular season with 9.2 points and 9.5 rebounds - 10th best in the NBA - in 30.1 minutes a game. Magloire's move to Portland is surprising, however, since the Blazers recently re-signed their starting center Joel Przybilla, a former Buck. The trade is also interesting in the fact that the Blazers gave up Blake, who started 57 games last season and appeared in 68. Blake averaged a modest 8.2 points and 4.5 assists in 26.2 minutes a game. The 6-foot-3 Blake is an excellent perimeter shooter, having connected on .413 of his 3-point attempts last season. That ranked 16th in the league. Blake is also regarded as a smart player who keeps his mistakes to a minimum. That was vividly reflected in his assists-to-turnover ratio of 3.69, third-best in the NBA. Blake is expected to complete for the starting job with Mo Williams even though Harris, after trading T.J. Ford to Toronto last month, told Williams and his agent, Mark Bartelstein, that Williams would be the Bucks' starter this season. Skinner and Ha were basically thrown-ins to make the trade work from a salary-cap standpoint. Skinner, 30, played in 66 games last season, first with Sacramento and then with Portland. He averaged just 2.9 points and 3.5 rebounds. The well-traveled Skinner, who has played for six NBA teams, had his best season as a pro in 2003-04 with the Bucks. That's when he started 54 games and averaged 7.3 rebounds. As for Ha, the 7-3 South Korean is raw and needs considerable coaching, if he does remain with the Bucks. Ha played in 27 games last season and averaged only 1.6 points and 1.3 rebounds. http://journaltimes.com/nucleus/index.php?blogid=24 --

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