Believing that they are on the outside of the playoff picture and coming off back-to-back humiliating losses, the Portland Trail Blazers decided to clean house on Thursday.

In addition to firing Nate McMillan, they traded away Marcus Camby and Gerald Wallace in a pair of deals. Camby was sent to Houston in exchange for Jonny Flynn, Hasheem Thabeet and a second-round pick.

Wallace, meanwhile, is the newest member of the Nets, as Portland received a top-three protected first-round pick in 2012, Mehmet Okur and Shawne Williams.

The move is a shrewd one by the Blazers, who are hoping to speed up a rebuilding process they didn’t anticipate a few years ago when they had a young core consisting of Brandon Roy, Greg Oden and LaMarcus Aldridge. Roy has since retired because of knee issues and the oft-injured Oden was released on Thursday to make room for the deadline additions. Aldridge is an All-Star, but he’s the only one left from a roster that was supposed to be challenging for a title right now.

Wallace holds an option for the 12-13 season that will pay him close to $10 million and this deal allows Portland to avoid the risk of having to pay him that kind of money. Okur’s $10.8 million contract is expiring, while Williams holds a $3.15 player option for next year that will almost certainly be triggered.

In essence, the Blazers are saving close to $7 million towards the salary cap without the rookie scale contract of the draft pick taken into account. New Jersey is headed for the lottery, but if the season ended on Thursday and lottery stayed true, they would have the seventh pick. They aren’t going to suddenly challenge for a playoff spot, but they aren’t as bad as New Orleans, Charlotte, Washington, Toronto or Sacramento, so the pick will likely be conveyed to the Blazers this June.

Grade for Trail Blazers: B+ 

The logic for the Nets is dubious.

Wallace isn’t the player he once was, although he has never played with a point guard like Deron Williams. That is the only saving grace in this deal for the Nets – that Williams can bring out a level of play from Wallace that we never saw during his glory years with the Bobcats. Chronic injuries have robbed him of his athleticism since then. He does fill a void for the Nets, who have seen a number of their wing players miss time with injuries.

Adding talent is one thing, but giving up a high pick in a deep draft will hurt the franchise as they continue their singular goal of building around Williams. It’s not as though Okur and Williams were leaders on the court, if anything they’ll be a touch better over the final five weeks of the season. The Blazers clearly were willing to walk away from the deal if the pick protection went beyond the top-three, but that price becomes prohibitive for the Nets.

Even after striking out on Dwight Howard this month and watching him commit to the Magic for another season, forgoing free agency this summer, the Nets still have their sights on a potential acquisition down the road.

Wallace was reportedly one of the players Orlando sought in a multi-team trade package for Howard previously and the Nets still have Brook Lopez to use as well.

Here’s the issue – there is no guarantee that Wallace stays even though he’s unlikely to fetch that type of money on the open market. If he elects for free agency, the Nets just traded a high lottery pick to Portland for a rented player over the final weeks of a season that is going nowhere.

Another underlying theme here is whether or not Williams will ultimately decide to remain with the Nets without Howard.

Grade for Nets: C-