2024 NBA Draft, Round 1: Trail Blazers Add Two Good Basketball Players
In drafting Donovan Clingan and trading for Deni Avdija, Portland continued adding pieces that make sense with their rebuilding timeline.
📍 TUALATIN, Ore. — The Trail Blazers entered the first round of what is now a two-night NBA Draft with two lottery picks. They came out of it with two good basketball players, one in the draft and one in a trade they agreed to an hour before the festivities started.
Wednesday night wasn’t the fork-in-the-road moment for the franchise that last year’s draft was. Getting Scoot Henderson at the No. 3 overall pick was viewed as a win but didn’t feel like one in the building, in the moment, because of what it would inevitably mean for Damian Lillard’s future. Things were a lot lighter this year.
The biggest moments of the rebuild are still ahead—drafting whoever the No. 1 centerpiece is. Maybe that will be Cooper Flagg or Ace Bailey a year from now, if their lottery luck is better than it was this year. But Joe Cronin got a few things done on Wednesday that were important to get done.