The Portland Trail Blazers had a big decision to make on draft night, whether to trade their third pick or to select a top prospect with it and they went with the latter.
The Blazers drafted Scoot Henderson and the decision to not trade the pick did not sit well with Damian Lillard, as per team insider Sean Highkin. It appears their reasoning for going that route, was that they believed Henderson was a better option than any player they could have gotten by trading that pick, as per Chris Haynes.
“[The Blazers] felt like picking [Scoot Henderson] was better than any other trades that could have been had… They’re trying to sell to Dame that they’re not in a rebuild.”
“[The Blazers] felt like picking [Scoot Henderson] was better than any other trades that could have been had… They’re trying to sell to Dame that they’re not in a rebuild.”
— @ChrisBHaynes 👀 pic.twitter.com/rzSZZniKLU
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) June 26, 2023
You could make the argument that Henderson has the potential to be better than anyone they could have gotten for that pick. It is a different story when talking about right now though, as there would be quite a few players who’d be more impactful than Scoot over let’s say the next two seasons.
Haynes had reported previously that Lillard wants to win now and he doesn’t want to wait for young players to develop. With this Henderson pick though, that is exactly what is going to happen. One certainly can’t blame Lillard at this point if he was unhappy with how events unfolded on draft night.
The Trail Blazers GM Released A Statement On The Team’s Plans Moving Forward
Lillard and his agent had a meeting with Blazers GM Joe Cronin on Monday to discuss the team’s direction. Cronin stated after the meeting that the two sides had a good dialogue and that the franchise is committed to building a winner around Dame.
We haven’t heard anything from Lillard or his representatives after the meeting, however. It was reported though that his dream scenario would be for them to re-sign Jerami Grant and add Draymond Green in free agency. Perhaps the Blazers gave reassurances that they would be making win-now moves along those lines and it’ll be very interesting to see what pieces they target when free agency starts.
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