Hornets Made 'Concerted Effort' to Force Portland to Trade Up

Bleacher Report's Jake Fischer went on the Basketball Illuminati Podcast follow the NBA Draft. During the appearance, Jake discussed about the confusion regarding the Hornets at the top of the draft.

"Can I say one thing about the Scoot, Brandon stuff?" said Jake Fischer on the Basketball Illuminati Podcast. "There definitely was word Thursday morning. I got a text from Houston. And Portland had been checking in with me throughout the draft about what Charlotte was trying to do here. There was definitely a late rumbling, let's say, sent from Charlotte out to other actors in the NBA world. Like 'We're still considering Scoot here."

"I do think that was a last ditch effort to try to get Portland to trade up from three to two to take Scoot. I think that's where all this came from. I don't think this was done [with] betting markets, conspiracy, blah, blah, blah. I think the Hornets tried to get a little savvy... And as I tweeted out, as I wrote in my book, Mitch Kupchak back in 2015, when he was GM of the Lakers, had the No. 2 pick. D'Angelo Russell and Jahlil Okafor were there two top choices. And they refused to tell two pretty powerful agents, Aaron Mintz at CAA for D'Angelo Russell, and Bill Duffy now at WME for Jahlil Okafor, they just refused to tell either side what they were going to do."

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