Trail Blazers Begin Post-Lottery Draft Workouts
Plus, Carmelo Anthony retires.
TUALATIN, Ore. — One thing about the Trail Blazers' draft position, as it stands exactly one month out from June 22, is they have picks all over the board.
Most of the attention has been on the No. 3 overall pick they won in last week's lottery, but Portland also holds the No. 23 pick and the No. 43 pick. That means projected high lottery picks could come in to work out, but so could projected late first-rounders and projected second-rounders. Really, anyone besides presumptive No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama is in play for them to at least look at and could reasonably go in one of those three spots.
The Blazers' first set of post-lottery workouts on Monday morning focused mainly on the latter two categories. At some point, both Scoot Henderson and Brandon Miller, the two most likely players to go second and third, will come through the practice facility in Tualatin for an in-person workout. On Monday, it was two projected late first/early second-rounders in Xavier's Colby Jones and UConn's Andre Jackson; one projected second-rounder in Dayton's DaRon Holmes; and three other prospects, Dayton's Toumani Camara, Colorado's Tristan da Silva and French guard Nadir Hifi.
"You've only got that one impression," Jones said after the workout. "It's really just playing hard. I feel like the hardest thing is being in shape. A lot of guys aren't in shape, and it's hard to do what you normally do in a game if you're not in shape. That's the tough part for a lot of guys. I was definitely expecting it to be different."
Both Jones and Jackson fit the profile of the type of prospect this Portland regime has favored—versatile, defensive-minded wings.
Jackson in particular impressed in his post-workout media session, which is to be expected for a three-year player from a major program like UConn. His self-awareness and understanding of his role at the pro level reminded me of Jabari Walker coming in last year. When we asked him a pretty standard question for one of these things—which of his skills he felt would translate the best to the NBA—he didn't mention scoring but he did mention "deflections."
"My rebounding ability, my boxing-out ability, setting screens, guarding the ball, playing off-ball defense, being able to rotate, and also passing the ball," he said. "I think I pass the ball pretty well. Hockey assists, stuff like that, getting the ball to the right person on-time, on-target. Little things like that. I can be a connector piece, a good influence in the locker room, not making it about myself."
For non-lottery picks, knowing what you are and what you are not is just as important as your actual ability. You can make a lot of money being a glue guy if you commit to it.
The likeliest outcome is still that the Blazers will trade the No. 3 pick for win-now help. That's what much of the focus will be on for the next month. But their other first-rounder could be important, because they'll still need to fill out the rest of the roster and being able to add a player on a cost-controlled contract is a good thing.
Jackson appears at first blush to check most of the boxes for that spot, but there's a lot of work left to do and a lot of intel still to gather for the front office.
Stay Mel00
On Monday morning, Carmelo Anthony announced his retirement from the NBA in a video posted on social media. He last played for the Lakers in 2021-22, so you'd be forgiven for thinking he was already retired. But he made it official, which gave the NBA world a good opportunity to celebrate his 19-year career.
Anthony's two-year stint in Portland may be the most unequivocally positive piece of his career. It's certainly the one with the most good feelings from the fanbase. His time in Denver ended in messy fashion, and he never fulfilled the championship expectations in New York after forcing his way there in a trade in 2011. But his brief time in Portland, after being out of the league for most of the previous season, was nothing short of a great story for the league, city and organization.
I only got to cover Anthony on a real level for half of one of his two seasons in Portland before the pandemic took away in-person media access, but I really enjoyed the brief time I got to know him. Maybe it's just because he was at a different stage of his career in 2019 and was just grateful to be back in the NBA, but I always found him to be thoughtful and easy to talk to.
The respect from Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum was obvious, too. Lillard and I are around the same age, and we talked shortly into Anthony's time in Portland about the 2003 draft, when most people knew LeBron James would go No. 1 but there was a section of fans that gravitated to Anthony's title run at Syracuse. And Lillard was a Melo guy.
"I loved LeBron, but I was the one telling people, 'Man, Carmelo Anthony's gonna be good,'" Lillard told me at the time. "I've always been a fan of Melo."
That's why Lillard didn't feel threatened by the attention and accolades Anthony got when he arrived in town. To him, it never stopped being cool that one of his favorite players growing up was on his team, or that he got to be a part of Anthony's comeback.
After he washed out in Oklahoma City and Houston, it looked like Anthony's career was going to go the way of his former Nuggets teammate, Allen Iverson, who refused to accept a lesser role and adapt his game and went from perennial All-Star to out of the league essentially overnight. In Portland, he got to have his late-career Vince Carter moment, coming off the bench as a reliable spot-up shooter and rebounder.
My favorite Melo moments in Portland:
His #00 jersey immediately selling out at the team store before tipoff of his first home game following the signing
The Western Conference Player of the Week award he won early on in his tenure, which made a lot of people mad online, because a Player of the Week award is definitely something worth your energy
Frequent '60s and '70s soul music playing at his locker after games
After a game against the Hornets during the 2020-21 season, he gave LaMelo Ball his official blessing to not only be called "Melo" but to do his patented "3 to the dome" celebration. That's another thing I've always appreciated about him, and something that's also true of Iverson: he's never been an older player who feels threatened by the younger generation or insecure about his place in the game's history
Blazers fans singing "Happy Birthday" to him during a playoff game against Denver, one of the first games fans were allowed back in Moda Center since the pandemic hit