"The Blazers have insisted for weeks that guard Andre Miller, no matter how many rival teams describe him as available and despite Portland's obvious need for big men after losing Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla to season-ending knee injuries, will not be traded.

Yet it had to be asked last Saturday after Miller's eruption in Dallas: Does a 52-point game make Miller even less available ... or more desirable?

"I don't know," Miller said. "It's one night. It's still a business. Whatever happens, happens."

It has been widely suspected from the moment Portland signed Miller in the offseason, after failed free-agent bids for Hedo Turkoglu and Paul Millsap, that the Blazers snagged the 33-year-old purely to make sure they acquired a tradable asset without letting last summer's salary-cap space go to waste.

The ongoing skepticism about Miller's co-existing with Brandon Roy, since both need to see so much of the ball to be effective, has been temporarily hushed while Roy is sidelined by a hamstring injury. Yet Miller admits that he does "glance on the Internet" on occasion to read the latest chatter, expecting to hear his name tossed around until the deadline passes because he's a vet who knows how the league works.

"I hear more [trade speculation] from friends, but if I'm on the computer, why not?" Miller said. "You can try, but you can't shut it out [totally]. I take it in stride.""