Portland Trail Blazers: Final second round mock draft consensus
Ed Stein
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After trading their first-round pick to Houston, the Portland Trail Blazers won’t draft until 46th overall this year.
Through the NBA draft in November, Pacific Northwest Sports will compile data from various mock drafts. Rather than our readers chase across the internet for information about who the Portland Trail Blazers pick, we bring you the consensus.
For the final mock consensus, we used 40 mock drafts. NBC Sports, CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, and The Athletic were among the sites we audited this time around. 12 of them had all 60 picks.
Due to COVID-19, the 2019–20 NBA Season was unlike anything else in league history. Before the pandemic induced break, the Portland Trail Blazers played through a staggering amount of key injuries. For most of the season, the Blazers played without Jusuf Nurkic, Zach Collins, and Rodney Hood.
Portland entered the Orlando bubble in ninth place in the West, three-and-a-half games behind Memphis. They claimed the eighth and final playoff spot with a strong 6–2 performance. Ultimately, the eventual NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers proved to be too much and eliminated the upstart Blazers from the postseason in the first round.
That earned them the 16th overall selection in this year’s NBA Draft. On Tuesday, the Blazers traded that pick and next year’s first-rounder (lottery protected) to Houston for small forward Robert Covington. That means Portland doesn’t go on the clock until pick 46. Although this is considered a weak draft class, there could be some hidden gems in the mid-second round.
Breaking: The Rockets are finalizing a trade to send Robert Covington to Portland for Trevor Ariza, a 2020 first-round pick and a 2021 protected first-round pick, sources tell @wojespn. pic.twitter.com/RWbkyfWOVI
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) November 17, 2020