The Blazers' future just got a little brighter today following the news that Rudy Fernandez, a first-round pick last summer, has decided to leave Europe to play in the NBA:

"They have pushed hard for me to join them and have assured me I will be an important figure for them," Fernandez said at the news conference. "It wasn't an easy decision to take but it is the time for a new challenge after a fantastic year with Joventut."

Fernandez will make about $900,000 as a rookie next year, or about half of what he could have made were he stay in Europe. As mentioned yesterday, the NBA rookie pay scale is an awfully big stumbling block for a lot of teams trying to convince their foreign draft picks to come over, but Fernandez is apparently willing to make the financial sacrifice to take on the challenge.

I'm sure the fact that Sergio Rodriguez is already on Portland's roster makes the decision even easier -- the two are teammates for Spain's national team, and even a quick search on YouTube reveals no shortage of Sergio-to-Rudy alley-oop highlights. That kind of chemistry can't be created overnight, and it won't be a surprise at all if Nate McMillan pairs those two up as much as possible.