Trail Blazers GM Rich Cho: Excerpts from his Q&A with reporters

Your thoughts on the season?

"You know I was disappointed to lose. I want to win as much or more than anybody else, but after I had some time to reflect, I thought it was a really good season. If you had looked at it, and someone said to you at the start of September, 'Hey, what would constitute a successful season if you had three guys out for the season — one would be Greg, one would be Jeff Pendergraph, another would be Elliot — and you knew Brandon was going to miss 35 games, if you knew Joel was going to miss 26 games and then you knew Marcus was going to miss 23 games — what would constitute a successful season?' And I think if we said making the playoffs and going six games against a very good Dallas team who won 57 games, then I think you could say it was a successful season."

Is Greg Oden the top priority in the offseason?

"The season just ended four days ago. We can't even tender Greg a qualifying offer until the day after the Finals, and we have until June 30 to do that, and he'll be a priority during the offseason."

Is there any question that you'll do that?

"As long as he's working hard and his rehab is going well, I'm pretty sure we'll put in a qualifying offer."

"No, we have until June 29 and it's something that we're going to evaluate and I think we'll have a lot of different options, but I really thought Andre did a good job all year. He's one of those guys that if you're on the outside looking in you might not appreciate him and his play as much, but he's a great pro, a warrior, and once I saw him day in and day out, you really get an appreciation for his game."

What are the differences between having assurances about Greg, but not so sure about Andre?

"I think part of the difference is Greg's 23, and he's 7 feet and 280 pounds, and so that's definitely something you have to consider."

How would you characterize the state of the point guard spot, minus Andre Miller?

"I thought Patty did a good job filling in. We didn't even know if Patty would be on the team last fall, and he did a really good job. Armon came in  and he did a really good job in the D-League. We want to get better at every spot so it's one of the positions we're going to address."

But you feel comfortable going into the season with those guys?

"I don't know, it's going to be time for evaluation and reflection during the offseason."

How do you view Brandon's role going forward?

"Brandon had an up and down year. He missed 35 games coming off of two surgeries, but he did a really good job at the end of the year, obviously especially Game 4 and we'll just have to see how it goes."

Where do you size this team up now? Where is it?

"Now that we've added Gerald, and if we add Greg to the mix, then I don't think we're that far away."

Do you foresee Greg being a popular player on the free agent market?

"It's hard to say. I'm not sure to tell you the truth. I do think teams in general like 7-foot guys that play well. In his 20-or-so games last year, he was playing pretty well."

What's your scouting department telling you about this draft: deep, not-so-deep?

"The draft is not as deep as in other years, but there will be some good players in the draft."

Will you go for need or best player available?

"I always like to go for best player."

How much more difficult is your job this offseason, not knowing exactly what you're going to get from Brandon Roy next season?

"Well, it's definitely hard, and it's probably even harder on the coaches. I hope Brandon comes back and that he's playing at a level where he can play 35 minutes and be the starter. But we've got a deep team, and I know Wesley wants to start, too, and Nick wants to start and everybody wants to play a lot of minutes. The cream always rises to the top, and we'll see what happens."