What Have Blazers Done With No. 8 Pick?

With the NBA Draft Lottery coming later this month, we are working on a series looking back at every possible Portland Trail Blazers pick solution and seeing how the team has performed in the past at the position.

After looking at the 10th pick, we now move on to the 8th pick since the Blazers have never held the 9th pick in their history.

In fact, the first-ever draft pick in franchise history was the 8th overall pick in 1970, when the team selected Geoff Petrie.

Petrie only played six seasons in his NBA career and made two All-Star games with the Blazers before the team traded him to the Atlanta Hawks in 1976 for Maurice Lucas. Petrie never played a game for the Hawks and injuries ended his career.

The team didn’t hold the 8th pick again until 1995 when it drafted Shawn Respert, but traded him on draft night to Milwaukee for Gary Trent.

Trent spent 2.5 seasons with the Blazers before being traded to the Toronto Raptors in 1998. Ironically enough, the Blazers repeated history in 2018, drafting Trent’s son Gary Jr. And 2.5 seasons later, Trent Jr. was dealt to the Raptors alongside Rodney Hood for Norman Powell.

The Blazers hold a 20.5 percent chance to land the 8th pick, the second-highest amount of any possible pick, so hopefully if given the opportunity again in 2022, they’ll repeat history.