LSU forward Tari Eason, who headlined the Trail Blazers‘ six-player workout on Friday, already has some connections to the franchise, writes Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. A Seattle native, Eason’s high school coach was one-time Portland star Brandon Roy, and the Blazers’ roster already includes another recent LSU standout, Trendon Watford.
Although Portland likes Eason enough to see him in person, he probably won’t be in the mix for the seventh pick, which is the Blazers’ only current selection in the first round. Fentress notes that Eason has a wide variety of projections in mock drafts and has worked out for other teams ranging from Washington at No. 10 to Minnesota at No. 19. Eason says he’s tried to avoid such predictions as he prepares for draft night.
“I don’t really have a preference or really look into that sort of thing,” he said. “I don’t really get caught up in that. I just control the things that I can control.”
There’s more from the Northwest Division:
- New Timberwolves president of basketball operations Tim Connelly is approaching the draft with an open mind, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. Minnesota needs more size, but may not find any attractive options with the 19th pick. The team also has three second-rounders at 40, 48 and 50 that may be used to facilitate a trade. “We feel good about adding another valuable piece, a good player at 19,” Connelly said. “There will potentially be some pretty cool opportunities to use that as a trade asset as well. Anytime you have four draft picks, it’s exciting. It’s the one day of the year where you really control what you can do, largely.”
- Six players worked out Friday for the Timberwolves, tweets Andrew Slater of Pro Insight. They are Christian Braun of Kansas, Jordan Hall of St. Joseph’s, Dereon Seabron of North Carolina State, Jalen Williams of Santa Clara, Bryce McGowens of Nebraska and Donovan Williams of UNLV.
- ESPN’s Jonathan Givony (Insider link) tries to build an ideal draft for the Thunder using their four picks. Givony’s simulation gives Oklahoma City Gonzaga’s Chet Holmgren at No. 2, Kentucky’s Shaedon Sharpe at No. 12, Wake Forest’s Jake LaRavia at No. 30 and Khalifa Diop of Gran Canaria at No. 34.
- Jason Terry had his interview today as the Jazz search for their next head coach, tweets Tony Jones of The Athletic. Utah assistants Alex Jensen and Lamar Skeeter also interviewed this week.
In the past the folks at the top of the Timberpuppies had no clue as to what the heck to do with second round picks. They traded them away towards players, they traded them away for other picks, they traded them away for the all mighty dollar or they drafted and stashed overseas players who never play for them.
Anybody want the rights to (Hardware) Henk Norel?
Watford and Eason never played together. Eason transferred from Cincinnati
Very unlikely to happen but Teooves should fully commit this years picks to just getting rid of DAngelo Russell and getting back someone decent.
I’d go Russell, picks 19 and 50 plus a protected future first or Julius Randle and Kemba Walker.
Knicks get a starting point guard in Dlo and get draft capital for two players it seems they no longer want. TWolves jump at the chance to buy Randle at a low price and Kemba ain’t a bad addition too.
TWolves then flip Malik Beasley for Danny Green and Mattise Thybulle and the Wolves buy Green out of his deal.
Wolves then line up
1. Beverly. Kemba. McLaughlin
2. Ant. Bolmaro.
3. Thybulle.
4. Randle. Vanderbilt. McDaniels
5. KAT. Reid
They still have picks 40 and 48 in the second round and have FA. With those picks I’d grab Jean Montero and Johnny Juzang. Plus go to FA with abit of money to spend adding wings
Knicks would likely accept
Russell and Barrett is nice plus picks.
Trade Fouriner, IQ and pick 19 for Jerami Grant.
11th in the draft select Jalen Duren.
End up with a side like
Russell Barrett Grant Toppin Duren and a bench of DRose Burks Reddish and Noel.
You’ve got pick 42 in the second, a future first coming from the TWolves and still left with cap space to spend in FA.
Sixers definitely accept Beasley for Green and Thybulle.
Maxey Harden … Harris Embiid need to find a two way SF to start with this lot but that shouldn’t be hard. Off the bench Beasley is the 6th man type scorer we need. Wendell Moore would be perfect at 23 in the draft for us.
Why would a rebuilding team like Detroit want Fournier contract
He’s a good option at SG and they don’t have many options at SG.
Solid vet that is happy to start or play off the bench. Can be a scorer or ball handler. Not a terrible player to have around.
They get back a first and IQ which is two good assets for a rebuilding team
This whole thing makes everyone in the Timberwolves front office puke. Two thumbs down.
Randle > Russell
Thybulle > Beasley
and you get Kemba and all it cost is 1 first round pick….
But then again TWolves have never achieved anything so it probably would
I don’t think a first needs to be added to Russell to get Randle. They are basically the same but Russell is an expiring. Russell faded late but he was having a pretty good year last year.
If they swap overpaid volume chuckers with questionable defense I would want the kne without the extension kicking in. Wolves got a new GM and the last thing he needs to do is give Julius Randle a defacto extension to come and give up a million points playing defense next to KAT.
Randle is on a 4/106 with a 15% trade kicker. 117 with incentives, plus 15%. So if traded he’s 4/122 with possible incentives that are All Star and 65 games for basically 3 million a season.
Minny would be smart to get Noel. And start him next to KAT.
If he could ever get on the court, I’d love that. But dude is made of glass.
Vanderbilt and McDaniles are better