With draft night fast approaching, a number of trade possibilities are still in play, says Chad Ford of ESPN.com (Insider link). According to Ford, the Bobcats (2), Kings (5), Trail Blazers (6, 11), and Raptors aren't entirely sold on the options available to them, and are open to moving their picks. The Bobcats are seeking multiple assets, the Kings and Raptors are targeting veteran talent, and the Blazers are open to "anything and everything," writes Ford. Here are the rest of the highlights from the ESPN Insider piece….
- The Hornets (10), Rockets (14, 16), and Timberwolves (18) are also willing to trade their picks if they can acquire young veterans.
- The five players behind Anthony Davis on virtually every draft board are Thomas Robinson, Bradley Beal, Andre Drummond, Harrison Barnes, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, in some order. There's no consensus on where those players will be drafted though, and there could be as many as 10 different scenarios for Nos. 2 through 4 alone.
- Of those five players, Drummond is the biggest wild card. Says one GM: "He's the riskiest of the five by far and you have to be pretty confident as a GM that your owner is going to allow you to take that risk. Whoever drafts him is going to have to be patient and patience is a very rare commodity in our league."
- It's still not 100% clear who made the guarantee to Dion Waiters, but if it's the Suns, Ford isn't sure Waiters will last to No. 13. The Raptors, Blazers, and Hornets all seem to have interest.
- The deadline for players to withdraw from draft consideration is today at 4:00pm CT. NCAA players aren't likely to pull out, having already lost their college eligibility, but a handful of international players could withdraw, as Mindaugas Kupsas did earlier. Our full list of early entrants can be found here.
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