Updated: February 16, 2010, 10:10 AM ET
Sources: Camby may head to Portland
By Ric Bucher
ESPN The Magazine
The Portland Trail Blazers are close to acquiring the Clippers' Marcus Camby, the center they've desperately needed since they lost both Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla to season-ending injuries.
The deal being discussed would send point guard Steve Blake and small forward Travis Outlaw to the Clippers for Camby, multiple sources said late Monday night.
One source close to the situation originally said the sides had agreed on the deal, but multiple sources later clarified that the trade is several steps from completion. A league source said "serious substantive talks" have been held and that the deal is at the "goal line" but has not received approval from either Clippers owner Donald Sterling or Blazers owner Paul Allen.
Neither team could be reached for comment and no trade call has been scheduled with the league. Nothing was expected to be consummated until Tuesday at the earliest.
All three players being discussed are in the final years of their respective deals, so it would be a swap of expiring contracts.
In a text message to ESPNLosAngeles.com, Camby said that he "hadn't heard anything about it" from either his agent or the Clippers. He has said that he would prefer to remain in Los Angeles, but he understands why his name continues to come up in trade talks.
The deal still could unravel, a source said, because of the players involved. There has been a season-long debate in Portland over whether Blake or Andre Miller, whom the Blazers signed as a free agent last summer, is a better fit at point guard next to All-Star shooting guard Brandon Roy.
Outlaw, meanwhile, has not played since breaking his left foot in mid-November and is just on the verge of returning to action.
The 35-year-old Camby is the league's second-leading rebounder (12.1) on an underachieving Clippers team that has lost four straight and fallen out of the Western Conference playoff race.
With several playoff teams -- Denver and Miami, to name two -- looking to add a big man for the stretch run, there's still the chance of a last-minute bid for Camby that would beat the Blazers' offer.
Portland is currently clinging to the eighth and final playoff spot, with Roy missing Sunday's All-Star Game in Dallas because of a nagging hamstring injury.
Blake, a 6-foot-3 guard, is putting up 7.6 points and 4.0 assists per game. He's coming off a 20-point, 12-assist game in a win over the Suns before the All-Star break.
Ric Bucher covers the NBA for ESPN The Magazine.
