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The Portland Trail Blazers didn’t trade the No. 24 overall pick on NBA Draft night, opting to use it and select Anfernee Simons. However, Jon Krawczynski and Michael Scotto of The Athletic (subscription required) report the Minnesota Timberwolves contacted Portland about moving down in the draft. Minnesota owned the No. 20 overall pick:
League sources told myself and Mike Scotto that the Wolves had discussions with at least three teams — Indiana, Portland and Atlanta — below them in the first round about moving down. This could have been either to accumulate more picks or to try to unload a contract that they don’t want. The Wolves have a history of making exploratory calls all over the place as a means of doing due diligence, and probably putting a few smoke screens out there as well.
The Timberwolves ended up selecting Josh Okogie with the 20th pick, and Portland eventually made a trade with the Sacramento Kings for the rights to Gary Trent Jr.
As pointed out, the talks could’ve just been exploratory and nothing serious. But if Portland moved up, how would their draft have looked differently? Let us know in the comments.