Portland was down by 23 points with 15 minutes to play when they handed the ball to Brandon Roy and let him go to work. This is what happened:

What a great series of moments for a guy who has had a very rough season.

It’s never a good thing when people describe your knees as “bone on bone,” but that’s the case with Brandon Roy, and that makes what he did in Game 4 all that more amazing.

The Blazers trailed by 23 points (64-41) with 2:47 to play in the third quarter. Over the final 15 minutes, Portland outscored Dallas by a 43-18 margin, winning Game 4 by two, 84-82. And it was mostly due to Roy’s playmaking and shot-making.

He hit a three-pointer to close the third quarter, and then scored 18 points (on 8-for-10 shooting, including a backbreaking four-point play) to go along with four assists in the final period. He was involved in 30 of Portland’s final 38 points of the game, including a nine-foot driving bank shot with 0:39 to play that gave Portland the lead for good. It was truly a masterful performance from one of the bright young stars who will unfortunately never have the career he was supposed to have due to those balky knees.

The series is tied at 2-2 as it heads back to Dallas for Game 5 on Monday night. No word on whether or not Mark Cuban has come down from the ledge.

Via his Twitter page, Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that Brandon Roy is going to have knee surgery, which will likely sideline him for the rest of the season.

Portland’s Brandon Roy will undergo surgery to repair meniscus tear in right knee, Blazers say. He will miss the first-round playoff series.

Team says out for at least Phoenix series, and source close to him says “There’s no way” he’d return this season, even if Blazers advance.

Recovery on Roy’s surgery is typically 4-6 weeks. As badly he wants to try, there’s just no way anyone would let him take such a risk.

I’m not saying that the Blazers are done, but they’re going to have a tough road ahead if they’re going to beat the Suns without their star player.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

It was a busy Monday for the Portland Trail Blazers. First, they learned that Brandon Roy has a torn meniscus in his right knee that will require surgery. The doctors said it can’t get any worse, so he is going to try to play on it, but there’s no telling how effective he’ll be.

The Blazers rallied to beat the Thunder on Monday night, effectively avoiding a first round matchup with the Lakers in the process. Marcus Camby posted 30-13, while Andre Miller added 22-4-7 and four steals in the win. The loss means that OKC will meet L.A. in the first round, which should be a fun matchup.

If the Blazers win their final game (against Golden State), they’ll assure themselves of the #6 seed. It’s not clear how Portland will fare with a hobbled Roy. He has had a very good start to his career, but one of the concerns coming out of college was how his knees would hold up to the rigors of an NBA season. This is terrible timing for a Blazers team that was gelling at just the right time. Portland has won 18 of its last 23 games and seems/seemed poised to pull a first-round upset in the postseason.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Bayless has had trouble getting consistent minutes in his year and change with the Blazers, but Portland was without Rudy Fernandez and Travis Outlaw due to injury, so Bayless played 29 minutes last night against the Suns. He responded with 29 points, four assists, three rebounds, and hit 9 of 15 shots from the field, spearheading a 105-102 win for the Blazers at the Rose Garden.

Here is what John Hollinger said about his rookie season:

The combo guard had a rough rookie year, but the problem wasn’t the oft-heard mantra that Bayless is a shooting guard trapped in a point guard’s body. There are lots of players like that in the league and many of them are thriving. No, Bayless’ issue was that he was a shooting guard who couldn’t shoot trapped in a point guard’s body. That’s a problem.

After the game, Bayless commented about his role with the team:

“Me and Brandon talk about it a lot,” said the second-year guard from Arizona. “He can be Lebron (James) and I can be the Mo Williams of our offense.

“Mo’s not a pure point; he’s a guy who can make plays. That’s what I tried to do tonight — make plays for myself and everybody else.”

If Bayless can shoot the ball well, he can play alongside Roy in the backcourt. The Blazers want a player who can space the court and keep double-teams off of their superstar. Bayless’s FG% has risen from 37% in his rookie season to 53% and his 3P% has risen from 26% to 36% over the same span. If he can keep shooting the ball like that, he will get minutes.

Per ESPN…

Agent Bob Myers confirmed to The Associated Press late Wednesday night that Roy agreed in principle to a contract at the NBA maximum salary. The fifth year is at Roy’s option. Specific numbers won’t be available until the NBA salary cap is set next July. This year a starting max contract would be worth $82 million over the course of five years. However, next year the cap is expected to go down between 5 and 10 percent. That means the value of Roy’s contract will go down, too.

The 25-year-old Roy will earn just under $4 million this season, the final year of his rookie contract. The new deal is likely to net him around $14 million for the 2010-11 season, and he will receive 10.5 percent raises on his base salary each season from 2011-2012 through the end of the deal.

From the start, this looked like it should be an easy deal to negotiate. Brandon Roy is a franchise-type player, so he deserves franchise-type money. And he got it.

His knees are a bit of a concern, but they haven’t slowed him down much in his three-year NBA career. Last season, he averaged 22.6 points, 5.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds in 78 games. While his overall field goal percentage (48.0%) is outstanding for a shooting guard, I’d like to see him continue to improve his three-point accuracy, which was a decent 37.7% last season. However, it’s tough for franchise players to post efficient shooting stats because they’re asked to take so many shots up against the shot clock.

This is obviously a good signing for the Blazers. Now they can turn their attention to re-signing LaMarcus Aldridge.

Players drafted in 2006 are eligible to sign an extension this summer. A couple of months ago, I tried to estimate what some of the big-name guys would sign for.

Brandon Roy, G, Blazers
Age: 24
PER: 24.08
Comparables: Kobe Bryant ($23.0 M), Dwyane Wade ($15.8 M)
The Blazers hit a home run with Roy. In his third season, he averaged 22.6 points, 5.1 assists and 4.7 rebounds per game. Moreover, he did it efficiently, shooting a stellar 48% from the field, 38% from long range and 82% from the line. Simply stated, he is one of the league’s best all-around players. I’d be shocked if the Blazers didn’t offer him a max contract, though he may elect to sign a shorter three- or four-year deal (like LeBron and Wade did) to give him more flexibility in the future. (Just to throw a little salt in the wounds, the Bobcats, Bulls, Hawks and Celtics all had a shot at Roy on the night of the draft and passed.)
Value: $14.5 M – $15.5 M per year, depending on the salary cap

Well, count me as mildly shocked. The two sides actually disagreed on the length, but it was the Blazers who reportedly wanted the shorter deal, not Roy. While one would think that the team would want to lock up their superstar for as long as possible, it is a huge investment. Roy does have a history of injury, so if he were to suffer a major setback, it would be a blow to the Blazers’ books.

But as ESPN has reported, the two sides are nearing a deal.

“We’ve had very productive discussions recently and are optimistic we will reach a deal soon,” Roy’s agent, Bob Myers said, according to the newspaper.

According to the report, Roy has been seeking a four-year deal with a player option for the fifth year at a maximum $82 million.

That works out to more than $16 million per year, which is a pretty penny. But a healthy Roy is worth it.

- The Clippers are interested in signing Allen Iverson, and if he’s interested in a big market where he can rehab his image, this might be the place. It looks like Miami isn’t willing to offer much money, but if cash is more important than playoff potential, then the Clips are a good fit.

- According to GM Mitch Kupchak, Lamar Odom and the Lakers aren’t on the same page. The team has offered $8 million per season but Odom wants $10 million, and the contract’s length may be an issue too. Dallas, Miami, Phoenix and Portland (if the Jazz match their offer for Paul Millsap) have emerged as possible landing spots for Odom. He doesn’t have much leverage if the Blazers aren’t interested. The other three teams would have to work out a trade and it would take a good player (Josh Howard, Michael Beasley, etc.) to get the Lakers to bite.

- The Jazz have until February to move Carlos Boozer before the luxury tax implications of keeping both Boozer and Paul Millsap kick in. Right now, it looks like the Jazz are planning to match, even if they have to take out a loan to pay Millsap the huge signing bonus that is a part of his deal with the Blazers. If the Jazz do match, it will be interesting to see if the Blazers have a Plan C after missing out on Hedo Turkoglu and Millsap.

- After a brief flirtation with the Bucks and the Bobcats, Josh Childress is heading back to Greece. The Hawks still hold his rights, and his camp was unable to work out a sign-and-trade with Milwaukee or Charlotte, so Childress’s best option was to play for Olympiakos for another season.

- Brandon Roy wants a fifth year option, but the Blazers have only offered four years. It’s not clear what the Blazers are worried about; I’d want to lock him up for as long as possible.

There is a possible three-team trade brewing…

Sources stressed to ESPN.com that no deal was imminent Thursday and that both Portland and Utah are still evaluating multiple trade scenarios. But two sources with knowledge of the three-team proposal confirmed that there have been substantive talks regarding a trade that would land Boozer in Chicago, Hinrich in Portland and Tyrus Thomas in Utah.

A deal featuring those main components would deliver the elite low-post scorer that the Bulls have been chasing for years in Boozer and furnish Portland with a lead guard in Hinrich that the Blazers are known to rate highly as a potential backcourt mate for Brandon Roy. It’s possible that other players would be added to balance out the transaction from a salary-cap perspective if the three teams elect to take these talks further.

It’s not clear whom the Blazers would have to give up to land Hinrich, but they have cap space so they have some flexibility with regard to how the salaries match up. For the Bulls, this looks like a decent deal depending on whether or not anyone comes over with Boozer. Hinrich and Thomas for Boozer sounds about right.

The Jazz would like to move Boozer, but want to get something in return, and in this case that’s the up-and-coming Thomas. He’s more of a face up forward, so his game should compliment Paul Millsap’s pretty well.

As for the Blazers, they’ve long been rumored to be interested in Hinrich, who can initiate the offense and is a good enough shooter to create space for Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. More importantly, he’s a pesky defender that can cover the other team’s best guard, allowing Roy to get a breather on defense. The Blazers need a point but they don’t really want to go too young at the position. They need veteran leadership and Hinrich fits the bill.

Per TrueHoop…

Although a verbal commitment may be announced sooner, the terms of the contract cannot be finalized until Wednesday when the NBA informs teams what the 2009-10 salary cap will be.

The Orlando Magic’s recent trade for Vince Carter, who has a large salary and plays small forward — which is Turkoglu’s position — made it highly unlikely Turkoglu would be back in Orlando.

The Toronto Raptors expressed interest in Turkoglu, but were constrained by their other efforts to keep Shawn Marion and Carlos Delfino.

Turkoglu, a 6-10 forward from Turkey who played a prominent role in the Magic’s recent trip to the NBA Finals, had been looking for a five-year deal in the neighborhood of $50 million.

Five years and $50 million is a lot for Turkoglu, who is already 30 years-old and isn’t particularly efficient statistically. But his game is a pretty good fit for the Blazers, who want to space the court for Brandon Roy. Turkoglu is a good enough shooter to do that, plus he can handle the ball really well for a small forward, which help to take the pressure off of Roy. In fact, with Roy at the two and Turkoglu at the three, there’s enough ball handling there that the team doesn’t have to play with a traditional point guard. This may open up minutes for Rudy Fernandez, who was reportedly upset about the Blazers’ interest in Turkoglu.

The other thing to remember is that the Blazers’ cap space wasn’t going to last. They have to sign both Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge to big extensions as soon as this summer and Greg Oden will be eligible for an extension next summer. It was sort of a “use it or lose” it scenario for the Blazers, and owner Paul Allen has never been afraid to spend. They added a versatile, experienced small forward who proved in the playoffs that he knows how to win. $10 million per season is a lot for Turkoglu, but his game should age pretty well, so at worst the Blazers should get quality play for the first three or four years of the deal.

What’s lost in all of this is the fact that Orlando will not be bringing back the core that went to the Finals this year. Chemistry is a rare quality and the Magic may rue the day that they brought in Vince Carter and waved goodbye to Turkoglu. After all, there were two overtime games in the first four, and the Lakers won both. Had those games gone the other way, the Magic would have led the series 3-1 with Game 5 at home to clinch the title. They didn’t need to tinker this much, and GM Otis Smith may eventually regret it.