The Trail Blazers Have the No. 3 Overall Pick. Now What?

CHICAGO — The morning after the Trail Blazers moved up two spots in Tuesday night's draft lottery to the No. 3 overall pick, the team sent an email out to season-ticket holders that read, in part:

We've secured the #3 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Our Basketball Ops team is working behind the scenes to improve our roster and build a team ready to compete alongside Damian Lillard, who had his best season to date last year. Stay tuned, this offseason is sure to be exciting!

A season-ticket sales email is not a legally binding document. But if Lillard's comments at last month's exit interviews about not wanting to play with more 19-year-olds didn't already telegraph their intentions for the night of June 22, what they're messaging to their paying customers sure does.

The Blazers are going to do their due diligence on the draft. Joe Cronin's entire front-office staff—assistant GMs Mike Schmitz, Sergi Oliva and Andrae Patterson; director of basketball planning and strategy Asjha Jones; director of player personnel B.J. Domingo; and scouting manager Sheri Sam—are here in Chicago for the NBA's annual predraft combine, along with head coach Chauncey Billups and president of business operations Dewayne Hankins. Over the next six weeks, they're going to host prospects for individual and group workouts at their practice facility in Tualatin, and having possession of picks 3, 23 and 43 means everyone with any expectation of being drafted (besides Victor Wembanyama, obviously) is someone they should and will take a look at.

But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the most likely course of action is trading the third pick, and nothing I've heard this week makes me think otherwise. Nothing is certain, of course. This time last year, I would have been shocked if the Blazers didn't move the No. 7 overall pick for more win-now help for Lillard, and they had serious discussions with Toronto for O.G. Anunoby right up until they decided to keep the pick and take Shaedon Sharpe. So it's theoretically possible they like Scoot Henderson, Brandon Miller, Amen or Ausar Thompson, Cam Whitmore, Jarace Walker or any of the other projected high lottery picks enough not trade out.

But if they're truly still committed to building around Lillard, and there is nothing right now to indicate they are not, then it's not really a discussion. There's one player in this draft that will (allegedly) be ready to contend from day one, and that guy is going to San Antonio. Anyone else they'd take that high is a project, and Lillard has made it abundantly clear he doesn't have any more time for projects.

Here's the good news: the way the lottery shook out has put Cronin and the Blazers in a very advantageous position. Maybe more so than any other team looking to get in the big-game trade market.

The only part of next month's draft that's 100 percent set in stone is who the Spurs are taking at No. 1. Charlotte landing the second pick makes things interesting after that. The majority of draft evaluators think the best non-Wembanyama talent available is Henderson. But the Hornets already have a franchise point guard in LaMelo Ball, and there's a real belief among the executives at the combine that Miller could be their guy.

That would make things very interesting once the Blazers are on the clock. Henderson doesn't do much for them—he's a point guard, and they've already got one of those who's pretty good. But if the consensus second-best player in the draft is still on the board at No. 3 because the Hornets drafted for fit, they could have a bidding war on their hands. And if the goal is putting veteran talent around Lillard, that's not a bad place to be.

After the lottery results came in last night, I asked a rival team's GM how valuable the third pick is as a trade chip. "A hell of a lot better than the fourth pick" was his answer. There's no bad place to be in the top 10 of what most people think is a very good draft, but the way this year's class breaks down, the top three is where you want to be, and the ping-pong balls put the Blazers there.

With this pick (plus, presumably, Anfernee Simons and whatever other salary is needed to make the money work), they might be able to get someone in the Mikal Bridges/Jaylen Brown/Pascal Siakam tier without dipping into their future picks. If they had moved up just to No. 4, stayed in their pre-lottery slot at No. 5, or moved back a couple spots, they probably wouldn't get anything meaningful done without attaching more assets.

Whatever they do with the pick is probably going to come down to the wire. Once Charlotte makes their decision at No. 2, every team that wants to trade up for whichever of Henderson and Miller is still on the board will have a few minutes to get their offers in. If you're waiting for a trade, you'll likely have to wait until the Blazers are on the clock.

One way or another, the Blazers' roster will look different five weeks from tomorrow.