The Ringer’s Draft Show podcast discusses Portland’s interests in moving up the draft, and debate the goals.

In the latest episode of The Ringer’s NBA Draft Show podcast, Kevin O’Connor and J. Kyle Mann discussed murmurs that the Portland Trail Blazers want to move up in the 2024 NBA Draft, along with the Cavs and Raptors. You can listen here, and the conversation starts at around the 12:00 mark and lasts approximately four minutes. They’ll cover more than we discuss here.

It’s unclear if “move up” means Portland using the #14 to gain a second top-ten pick, or if they want to move into the top five. This led to all kinds of questions. The first: What picks or assets are they attempting to trade?

The second question: Would any players be included? They discuss the idea that Portland has an inevitable odd-man-out situation with their back court of Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe, and Scoot Henderson. So perhaps they’d consider moving Simons as a way to sneak into the top of the draft.

Lastly, they discuss who might be a fit for Portland, even if they haven’t been publicly linked with the team. Top on their list is the G League’s Matas Buzelis, but that might require trading up:

Our own draft expert, Steve Dewald, wrote a profile of Buzelis. Here was his conclusion:

The Portland Trail Blazers currently own the #7 and #14 picks in the 2024 NBA Draft. The first round takes place in two weeks, on Wednesday, June 26.