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The Roy Ultimatum: Only superstars can walk into a general manager’s office, make demands, and expect to be listened to. Most players will get told to just shut up and play, but the league’s best can have their opinions taken into account.

New Orleans Hornets point guard Chris Paul has been like a member of the front office ever since Dell Demps took over as GM. Nothing’s been discussed without him knowing, and things are really similar in Los Angeles with the Lakers and star guard Kobe Bryant.

The Lakers have made it a habit to go after players in free agency Bryant respects and he’s also often served as one of their lead recruiters.

Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy is an elite level player himself and according to reports he recently went into Blazer GM Richard Cho’s office with an ultimatum to either trade himself or starting point guard Andre Miller.

Now, this may not sound like the typically humble and team-oriented Roy that we’ve come to know and respect, but he has been acting out of character recently. After a loss on Monday to the Memphis Grizzlies he said the following that was a direct shot at Miller:

"I wasn’t that slow until you put a guy who is kind of slow next to me. I’ve always been kind of slow. Not to be controversial at all, but I was slow my rookie year, and now it’s…"

In Roy’s defense both his agent and Cho have denied the reports about the ultimatum, but there is no denying that Roy is not comfortable in the backcourt with Miller. The pair’s skill sets simply don’t mesh together - in fact they’re probably the worst possible fits for each other.

Yet it’s hard for the Blazers to cater to Roy’s needs when Miller is an ironman who rarely misses games and Roy is frequently hurt. The knee issues that hurt his draft stock in 2006 have persisted and been problematic for his entire career, especially this season. Roy will be inactive for the next three games, something the Blazers have become quite accustomed to.

"It’s nothing new, same swelling, same soreness," said Roy. "It’s just really stiff right now. I felt like it was getting worse. I felt like my play was getting worse because I really couldn’t elevate."

"It’s tough," added Blazers head coach Nate McMillan. "He’s dealing with trying to be productive and having a sore knee. It’s a mental thing a lot of times. You want to be productive and your body is not allowing you to. (I am) numb to situations like this now."

Considering the failed investment of Greg Oden the Blazers are likely going to be really cautious about building around Roy. When healthy he’s a franchise player worth making major changes for, but his health is currently too big of a concern to do so. When Roy is out Miller steps up and most importantly he only misses games when mandated by NBA Vice President Stu Jackson.

Brooks Talks Yao: Earlier this week news broke that Houston Rockets center Yao Ming once again suffered a season-ending setback after playing just five games this year and missing all of last season due to injury. There is a lot of talk now that Yao will probably never play again in the NBA and teammate Aaron Brooks, who has also been injured for most of the year, really feels for Yao.

"You just gotta feel really bad for him," said Brooks on KILT. "Not basketball or team wise, but for Yao in general. I’ve been around a lot of people playing basketball and there’s not one person that loves basketball more than Yao Ming and there’s not one person that works harder than Yao. He’s the first person in there and the last one to leave and that’s not just saying it, he is actually that guy. He worked so hard to get ready and get back and some stuff you can’t control. I just feel bad for him and my heart goes out to him.

"Yao is a fighter. I know this took a lot for him after going through the first one so we’ll see. I don’t know. We’ll just have to see what’s going on and how he feels about it."

{AUTHOR_BOX}Because Yao has missed so much time over the past few seasons the Rockets aren’t going to have to change up a whole lot in his absence. As Brooks explains, most of the team is more used to playing without Yao than with.

"We’ve been in this situation before," said Brooks. "Most of these guys haven’t played with Yao so the team that we have is the team that we have. I think we’re starting to build on somet higns right now, guys are starting to learn their roles, Luis (Scola) and Kevin (Martin) are playing great, and Kyle (Lowry) is playing great. We just have to keep building. I think we’re doing a pretty good job on it and we’re going to keep building on it the way we have."

Brooks has been out of action since November 6th, the day before Yao went down, but is hoping to play sometime in the next three games.

"I went through practice, about half of it and it went pretty well," said Brooks. "I’m still having a little bit of complications but I feel I’m around 80 percent or so. For the next couple of games, hopefully one of them I can test it out. I think I will test it out once in the next three games or so and we’ll see."

The Rockets host the Memphis Grizzlies tonight and then embark on a three-game road trip with stops in Sacramento, Golden State and Los Angeles for a game against the Clippers.

Replacing Noah: For the first time this season the Chicago Bulls are going to be without starting center Joakim Noah. Noah was having a career-year with averages of 14 points, 11 rebounds and two assists a night, but will miss at least the next 6-8 weeks after getting thumb surgery. The Bulls are currently contemplating making a move to help fill his shoes while he’s out, but right now they’re going to stand pat.

"We’ll continue to look at it," said Bulls GM Gar Forman to ESPN.com. "We’ve already talked some about the possibility of looking into either a trade or picking somebody up, but at this point, we’ll go with what we have. We do think we have some depth. Taj Gibson has stepped in, obviously in the past and done a very good job. I think it’s an opportunity for guys. It’s an opportunity for Omer Asik to play some.

"Kurt Thomas, even a year ago when he was with Milwaukee found himself in this type of situation, ends up starting late in the year when Andrew Bogut comes back and did a very good job. I know coach Tom Thibodeau has been comfortable playing Luol Deng some at the four position, so for now we’ll go for what we have."

Even if Noah recovers as quickly as possibly he’ll be out for six weeks, which is a long time for a team to be without their starting center. Even if the Bulls experience some success early on in his healing process they’d be better off bringing in some insurance because you can never have enough size, especially in the bigger and tougher Eastern Conference.