PORTLAND, Ore. — If the Trail Blazers’ world didn’t revolve around Damian Lillard, imagine the celebration today in Portland after Thursday’s NBA Draft.
Scoot Henderson — a tantalizing collection of muscles, explosiveness and charisma — fell into the Blazers’ lap with the third pick.
“A chance to be a transcendent player in this league,” general manager Joe Cronin said.
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And it was a delightful surprise for the Blazers’ scouts to see small forward Kris Murray — the twin brother of Sacramento rookie sensation Keegan — stick around long enough for Portland to take him at No. 23.
“He does what we are trying to do, and do more of,” Cronin said, noting Murray’s defense and basketball intelligence.
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And even the second-round pick — Rayan Rupert, a young guard from France — was good enough to be invited to the green room in New York, making the 6-foot-7 defensive specialist a no-brainer for the Blazers to grab at No. 43.
“Very successful draft,” Cronin said.
As much as Cronin used superlatives to describe his picks, he delivered them with a decidedly hollow and flat tone.
It doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe what he said — he knows he put some talent into the barn — he just knows the Trail Blazers’ world revolves around Lillard. And that world — from Lillard to the fans — wanted something more than Cronin delivered Thursday. They wanted something bigger, something more immediate, something that would live up to Cronin’s boast in April that he was itching to “go all in” with his chips.
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Of course, there is still time to accomplish his big swing, or his big all-in move. Free agency starts next week, and Cronin hinted he made inroads on possible deals.
It was Lillard who in April said he wasn’t on board for using the draft to bolster the next iteration of the Blazers. He made it clear his time was now, and that if the Blazers chose the path of youth, it was not a path he was interested in walking down.
It’s been like this for much of the past three years, but Cronin said he interprets Lillard’s messages as passion to win rather than ultimatums. As a result, he said he doesn’t feel in danger of losing Lillard by way of the star asking for a trade.
“I don’t. I think Dame badly, badly wants to win,” Cronin said. “He is probably being more vocal about that than ever, but I don’t look at that as a negative. I look at it as he is passionate about this. It matters deeply to him, and it matters deeply to us. And I think the reason you haven’t seen major issues from us, or the reason you still see Dame in our gym, and meeting with me and Chauncey (Billups), is because he wants this to work. He has bought in and he wants it to work here, and he is challenging us to get it done.”
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Cronin said he and Lillard haven’t talked since Tuesday (Lillard is in Europe this week), so he doesn’t have a great sense of where Lillard is with the direction Cronin took Thursday, but Cronin did say he told Lillard on Tuesday he was leaning toward making the pick at three instead of trading it.
If Lillard wasn’t expecting a trade, much of the fan base was, especially after Cronin’s spirited postseason press conference where he boldly stated that now was the time to take big swings and go “all-in” with his chips. There was a feeling that Thursday was another go-round on the hamster wheel. That’s when Cronin had a direct and impactful response to a question of what he would tell the fan base that is once again being asked to be patient for the “big move.”
“I would say we made the biggest move possible by drafting Scoot Henderson,” Cronin said. “He’s going to be better than any player that would maybe be perceived as that big move. And then you start to factor in other things that matter in this league — the salary cap, (Henderson) on a rookie scale — that allows us to build a lot more depth than we would have been able to otherwise.”
That Cronin was defending his pick of Henderson showed how blurred reality can become in the pursuit of instant gratification. Is there any other situation within a fan base around the league that would be so “yeah, but” about a talent like Henderson? Cronin seemed almost incredulous that he had to explain his reasoning. He noted Henderson is “not your normal 19-year-old” while adding that he is a “special, special player” who “has a chance to be a special player in this league.”
There will be questions. Henderson was measured at 6-foot-2 1/2 barefoot, and even though he and Lillard are ball-dominant guards, Cronin thinks they can play together because of their talent and smarts. But Cronin said with a talent like Henderson, you don’t pass or trade it, simply because he has a guard-heavy roster.
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“You draft best player possible, then figure it out,” Cronin said.
Of course, the Blazers can complement Thursday’s draft with their “all-in” move as early as next week. Free agency begins June 30, and Cronin hinted that while gathering his draft intel, he made inroads on possible deals.
“There’s still a lot of movement to be had,” Cronin said. “We’ve planted a lot of seeds on deals. The goal now is to add some veteran players who can continue to ramp up this team.”
The Blazers have a stable of bouncy, dynamic guards with Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe and Henderson, and are hopeful to retain Jerami Grant in free agency. Their pursuit will be to add a starter at wing that is preferably a defensive standout, and bolster the center position. But for a day at least, if you allow yourself to get out of the Lillard orbit, the Blazers had an accomplished day.
“There’s other stuff to do here,” Cronin said. “I feel like we’ve done a good job of putting ourselves in good position to make these moves and start to get aggressive and push our chips in. We’ve got good picks, good players … got good talent in this building.
“Now we just have to fine tune it and get it balanced and ready to go.”
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(Photo of Scoot Henderson: John Minchillo / Associated Press)
