After a weekend of speculation, fueled by Ian Furness’ reporting that Portland was looking into trading for Jamaal Magloire, it’s official. As of the two o’clock hour today, Jamaal Magloire is a Blazer.

Portland, continuing perhaps the single most exciting off-season in years, made it’s seventh trade of the summer and traded away Steve Blake, a useful and serviceable PG, and two relative non-entities (Brian Skinner and Ha Seung-Jin) to the Bucks in exchange for Jamaal Magloire, a 28 year-old former All-Star.

Ha was the picture of pure speculation. Portland took him in the 2nd round of the 2004 NBA Draft as a flyer, hoping that his mind would catch up to his 7’3″ body. It never happened, and Ha has spent most of his NBA career on the bench or in the D-League trying to figure out why he’s getting paid three-quarters of a million bucks.

Brian Skinner was serviceable as a gap-filler in the front court, but I don’t think anyone thought that he was going ot amount to anything more than a back-up on this team, just waiting for a chance to shop for a new contract.

The only real value in this trade from Milwaukie’s end is Steve Blake. Blake, who Portland acquired via trade from Washington, proved to be a crucial addition to the team last year, taking over for an injured Sebastian Telfair and demonstrating great heart that exceeded his skill as Portland blundered its way through a 21-win record that ranked as nearly the worst in team history, and absolutely the worst in the league last season.

This trade is an absolute “10” from Portland’s standpoint. As the summer has been progressing, there has been concern over a stuffed roster, a log-jam at PG, and an uncertain future for Ha. Many thought the Blazers would consider waiving him going into the next season. Now, instead of getting nothing from him, they were able to use his height to help get a valuable trade in return.

What isn’t certain is how Magloire fits into the team’s long-term plans. He is a quality player in the front-court, but bringing him in is inconsistent with the notion, advertised recently with the re-signing of Joel Pryzbilla, that Portland’s hardest-spelled name would also be a key to its resurgence. Magloire is probably a better player, and will certainly challenge Joel for the starting center job.

Unless…

The rampant speculation is that Magloire is being brought in to serve as trade bait. As Portland continues to shop Darius Miles, and continues to find no takers, one wonders if Portland may be getting ready to make a run at dumping Miles along with Magloire for, perhaps, a Kevin Garnett-type player. Portland would have to throw-in something else. My thought is that maybe, just maybe, we could see the team making a run at getting Garnett (hell, why not?) and Allen Iverson, who many think may be available if we trade Zach Randolph to Philly.

All pie-in-the-sky. But the news is sure encouraging from Blazer-land. Stay tuned for more…