Blazer brass eyes draft prospects

Fernandez injury not serious

By Kerry Eggers

The Portland Tribune, May 29, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (8 Reader comments)

PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU / GETTY IMAGES

Trail Blazer officials remain optimistic that they can lure Spanish guard Rudy Fernandez to the NBA for next season.

If the Trail Blazers hang on to their three second-round picks in the June 26 draft, the team's management and coaching staff is getting an eyeful of the prospects during this week's NBA pre-draft camp in Orlando.

The top 15 U.S. players eligible for the draft are in Orlando for skills and medical testing only. The rest of the domestic first-round crop – players such as Arizona's Chase Budinger, Florida's Marreese Speights, Georgetown's Roy Hibbert and Memphis' Chris Douglas-Roberts – is skipping the pre-draft camp.

That leaves only one for-sure first-round pick – North Carolina point guard Ty Lawson – participating in the four-day showcase for NBA scouts, with California big man DeVon Hardin predicted to go late in the first or early in the second round.

Oregon's trio of Maarty Leunen, Malik Hairston and Bryce Taylor are on hand, each hoping an opportunity to display their talents will get them chosen in the second round.

"It's a diamond-in-the-rough situation for us here," Portland general manager Kevin Pritchard said Thursday, the third day of the event. With the Blazers' second-round selections, "we're trying to find a player who can make our team and become an impact guy later down the line. I can't tell you there's a guy here who would make an impact immediately."

Most first-round prospects expected to go after the lottery have opted not to attend the pre-draft camp because they prefer to set up individual workouts with teams they regard as best fitting where they will go in the draft.

Also missing are several international players expected to be selected in the first round, including small forwards Danilo Gallinari of Italy and Nicolas Batum of France and center Alexis Ajinca of France.

It won't much affect Portland, which has the 13th pick in the first round. The Blazers have "five or six players" they have targeted to consider for that pick, most of them in Orlando for testing only.

"As we go through the process, some will get eliminated and some will get more consideration," said Pritchard, who will begin bringing players to Portland for individual workouts next Wednesday.

Might the Blazers try to move up in the draft, as has been owner Paul Allen's custom in previous years?

"Don't know yet," Pritchard said. "It depends on if we can get a trading partner, but also if there is a guy we have targeted, and that's our guy."

As for trading any or all of the second-round picks, Pritchard said, "I have no idea. I don't know what's out there for them yet."

Pritchard, assistant GM Tom Penn, scouting chiefs Chad Buchanan and Mike Born, coach Nate McMillan and assistants Dean Demopolous, Maurice Lucas and Monty Williams are surveying the talent in Orlando, primarily looking for candidates for the second round or free-agent invites to pre-summer league training camp.

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