I watched very few NCAA or Euro games this past year for some reason, but with the Blazers having the 24th pick and 78 2nd rounders, I wanted to start learning about some possible draftees. So, who are you interested in if the Blazers don't move up?
The first person that came to mind was Danny Green. The people I'm mainly interested would need to be traded up for: Flynn, Teague, Maynor, Lawson. Other late 1sts/2nds that could fit: Patrick Patterson Al-Farouq Aminu (probably mid-first, and I haven't watched much of) Patrick Mills Terrence Williams Jon Brockman Dante Cunningham Taj Gibson Other late 1sts/2nds that have talent, but not sure how they'd work into this team: Sam Young Nick Calathes (would rather have one of the earlier PGs listed above) Wayne Ellington
Late 1st: Victor Claver: The athletic 6'10" PF from Spain. Think Hedo, minus the passing. Was a lotto pick before he went down with his knee injury. Patrick Mills: Underrated scoring PG. He was a big pest against Team USA. Kinda reminds me of Jameer Nelson. Tyler Hansbrough: He could develop into a PF you can bring off the bench in a Najera type of role. BJ Mullens: Big upside with big bust potential. Worth a shot. He's very explosive at 7'0" but lacks any feel for the game what-so-ever! But we cab afford to shoot for potential when we are pretty much stacked at every position.
Another player that I kind of like as a risk reward type draftee is Michael Washington. He is still quite raw for his age but a lot of that is because he did not get any playing time till this season. And he is a very good rebounder and one hell of an athlete. I think he would make a great end of bench player for a couple seasons and see if we strike it rich.
The only two players in this draft that even interest me in the slightest (outside of Griffin and Rubio) are Eric Maynor and Patrick Patterson and I'm sort of on the fence about DeJuan Blair. Frankly, I really hope KP is able to package picks, money and player together and get veterans and some established players. This draft is going to be rife with busts.
None. Unless Pritchard can trade multiple picks and perhaps a player to move up in the draft, I hope he uses all of the picks in trades for proven players. Given that the Blazers have Koponen and Freeman waiting in the wings already, the last thing we need is another rookie who won't sniff playing time.
Sergio Llull. Mainly because you want a player who can develop overseas (the Spurs model that Pritchard has followed) and because this guy has star potential.
Victor Claver Rodrique Beaubois both have worked out for POR...Beaubois twice...IF POR keeps 1-2 of those 2nd round picks then these would be the perfect candidates to stash overseas for a few years....Omri Cassipi is also an intriguing player... I like Patrick Mills as well....though I think he will go in the 1st round.... I expect Pritchard to deal away his 2nd round picks, either for future picks or as part of a deal to trade up and get a player they are targeting....
sadly as a husky fan, i highly doubt brock will get drafted, although portland could probably just bring him into camp for cheap after the fact. he's a tenacious rebounder with some amazing hands, but that's about it. he's a pretty poor defender for a pf while also being very limited offensively, he's also undersized, so he'd probably be a poor fit for portland.
if the blazers are ready to give up on bayless(which they shouldn't) and sergio(which they should), they should move up a little and get eric maynor. he does everything well that you could want from a pg. if the blazers are looking to thin out the perimeter with consolidation moves, terrence williams would be a really good pickup in the first whenever they could get him. he's an athletic wing who can do everything but shoot. he should be able to help any team defensively and with ballhandling/playmaking right away. those are the only two guys in the second half of the first round and on that i'm fairly confident will be starting caliber players(and should be fairly soon). other than that, the blazers should be looking at a dejuan blair type as a backup pf and to stash some more guys overseas.
