Three weeks out from the 2011 NBA Draft and we've got our first real draft rumor involving the Trail Blazers. According to Kerry Eggers at the Portland Tribune, the team is looking to move up into the "top seven" in order to select 6-1 combo guard Kemba Walker. Eggers opines Andre Miller and the No. 21 pick might be the potential offer.
A couple things to consider.
First off, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that whoever this "league source" is, he isn't working for the Portland Trail Blazers (I asked a decision-maker in our front office this morning about the rumor that we're looking to move up. His reply: "We are?"). The team had already adopted a hush-hush approach to media relations under Rich Cho, and I would expect that to continue after Cho's dismissal. Perhaps even more so than before. And if by some chance the league source was a member of the Trail Blazers front office, you'd have to wonder why they would say such a thing at this stage in the process. Who tips their hand this early?
Here's my hunch. Eggers sets the top seven as the range in which a team would need to be in order to have an opportunity to acquire Walker. The Kings hold the seventh pick. Eggers is close (at least in journalistic terms) with Geoff Petrie, who played for the Trail Blazers and also served as the team's vice president of basketball operations. And what does Petrie do now? Sacramento Kings' president of basketball operations!
Also worth noting Eggers has mentioned Petrie numerous times as someone the Trail Blazers should strongly consider for their open general manager position. And to top it off, Chad Ford, who is about as plugged in as any journalist when it comes to the draft, has the Kings taking …. you guessed it, Kemba Walker!
Given that, I think there are some solid conclusions you draw regarding the location of said "league source."
But onto the actual meat of the rumor. Including Andre in any deal possess a cavalcade of issues for the Trail Blazers, first and foremost being such a move would leave the team without a starting point guard. You may think the world of Walker, Patty Mills and Armon Johnson, but you'd be hard-pressed to argue that any one of those three is ready to be a starting point guard for an NBA team with playoff aspirations. And even if one of those guys were able to take the reigns, who's the backup? I don't have the proof in front of me, but I'd wager the number of teams that have gone to the playoffs with a rookie/sophomore point guard tandem are few.
After LaMarcus Aldridge, no one had more to do with the successes the Trail Blazers experienced in 2010-11 than Andre Miller. Also worth pointing out that, after a bit of a rocky start, Miller has become one of the most beloved figures in the organization. Does that mean the Trail Blazers wouldn't consider making such a move? Not necessarily but, in my opinion, it makes such a move much less likely.
I know I say it every year, but It's worth repeating: lies and misinformation are the currency of the NBA Draft. Maybe this league source is putting out feelers because they want to drum up some interest in their pick, and using the Trail Blazers as a jumping off point makes sense because, as an organization, we're active during the draft. Adds to the plausibility. Or maybe it's an agent trying to preempt a draft day free fall, a fate not all that uncommon for undersized combo guards who commit the sin of spending more than one season in college. Or maybe the Trail Blazers love Kemba Walker and want the whole world to know, before they've even hosted a workout, that they've decided who their target is. One of those scenarios strikes me as much less plausible than the other two.
It's liars poker, and teams are just starting to ante up. There will be more reports claiming the team's intentions of moving up, down and out of the draft. Some might be true, others will be complete fabrications. The key for the Trail Blazers front office, and those fans out there whose blood pressure rises and falls with ever new rumor, will be deciphering fact from fiction. There still a lot of time to do that.
Oh, I almost forgot the most damning argument as to why we should be suspicious of this report: Mike Rice says Kemba Walker is going to be available at pick No. 21! No trade necessary.
