Assuming there are no major surprises in next Tuesday's draft lottery, the Trail Blazers are expected to have the 10th overall pick in the 2013 draft. By that point, Indiana guard Victor Oladipo will certainly be off the board. According to Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com though, the Blazers are one of a few teams that "really like" Oladipo and are considering trying to move up to get him.
I'd imagine any serious talks about a trade would happen next month, or at least after next week's lottery, considering we don't even know how the top 14 picks will line up yet. If Portland gets lucky on lottery night, the team could end up talking about trading down, rather than up, to draft Oladipo. If the Blazers did end up in a position to take the 21-year-old, he'd be all for it, as he tells Haynes.
"I would really love to go to Portland, and I'm not just saying that," Oladipo said. "I hope, and I don't think I'm dropping that far, but if they decided to move up somehow, I think that would be a great situation for me. It's a place where you can just concentrate on basketball."
In his latest mock draft, ESPN.com's Chad Ford has Oladipo going fourth overall to the Suns, so to have a real shot at landing the young guard, the Blazers would probably have to be picking somewhere in the top five. Portland has three second-round picks it could dangle in a trade offer, though I think it would take a little more than that to land a top-five pick.