Overall, the Portland Trail Blazers had an excellent 2023 NBA draft in a vacuum. The team had Scoot Henderson, the second-best prospect in the draft, fall to them at No. 3 and made an awesome selection at No. 23, picking up Kris Murray from Iowa, who should immediately become a legit 3-and-D wing in the league (just like his twin brother Keegan with the Sacramento Kings). However, all that said, there was a glaring Blazers' draft mistake, and that was not trading Damian Lillard.

The Blazers' draft mistake was not pulling off a Damian Lillard trade

The 2023 NBA Draft should have been an unbridled joyous affair for the franchise. The team has the ping pong balls fall in their favor at the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery, and they miraculously jumped into the top three picks. That is a franchise-altering moment.

Plus, the team in front of them, the Charlotte Hornets, had more need at forward than guard, so the No. 2 prospect on most NBA pundits’ big boards, Scoot Henderson, slipped to No. 3.

So, the Blazers made the draft pick, the city has a new potential superstar, and everything should have been wonderful in the City of Roses.

Unfortunately, there is still a dark storm cloud hanging over the franchise in the form of Damian Lillard because the team made their selection on draft night, despite the current superstar making it clear he’d rather see them trade the pick for a veteran.

And this isn’t a shot at Lillard. He’s right.

Lillard and Henderson could be good together. They are both supremely talented and despite his 6-foo-t2 size, Henderson can be a tenacious defender in the NBA, which would make up for some of Lillard’s deficiencies in that area. Also, Henderson is a playmaker unlike any other guard Lillard has ever played with.

All that said, Blazers fans have seen this show before. As good as Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum were, there was a ceiling on how much two undersized, offense-first guards could achieve together in the modern NBA.

Lillard was right in that if the Blazers were serious about giving it one more go with him, they needed to trade for a more complementary player like Zion Williamson or even Karl-Anthony Towns. And if they are ready to usher in the Scoot Henderson Era, that’s fine, but Lillard doesn’t have time at (about to be) 33 to mentor a literal teenager.

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There is still plenty of time for Portland to pull off a Damian Lillard trade after the NBA draft. But not doing it on draft night was a missed opportunity and the biggest Blazers draft mistake.

This is for the simple reason that Portland could have got more players now to pair and grow with Henderson. Any package that comes in a Lillard trade will include draft picks and young players. Now, though, those draft picks won’t be walking through that door until next season at best.

The most likely Lillard trade destinations include the Miami Heat, New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, and Brooklyn Nets. That’s to say nothing of dark horse destinations that could have popped up at the 2023 NBA Draft like the Memphis Grizzlies or New Orleans Pelicans.

Just sticking with the top four, though, trading Lillard to one of them on draft night could have netted picks 18, 21, 22, or 25. The players that went there we Jamie Jaquez Jr. from UCLA, Noah Clowney from Alabama, Dariq Whitehead from Duke, and Marcus Sasser from Houston.

Honestly, all those players would be solid to good fits with Henderson and could have started the rebuilding core of the Blazers’ rebuild. Additionally, players like Cam Whitmore from Villanova (the draft’s biggest faller), Olivier-Maxence Prosper from Marquette, and Brice Sensabaugh from Ohio State were also on the board at several of those picks and would have been great running mates for Henderson.

Lastly, if the trade happened right before or early in the draft, Portland could have packaged No. 23 and whatever other pick(s) they got and used them to move up (although Murray was an excellent selection).

In the end, there is still time to remedy this Blazers' draft mistake before the season starts or even at the trade deadline. Still, pulling the trigger now with one or two more rookies would have supercharged the franchise’s rebuild and still got them the future assets and young veterans they will also get in a trade later.

Blazers fans will be OK as long as this all works out in the end, but it may be hard to watch if one or more of those prospects listed above blow up as future NBA stars.