Even though the Portland Trail Blazers ended their 2016-17 season woefully short on big bodies due to injury, they didn’t necessarily set out to address that issue through the 2017 Draft. But in the end, President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey’s strict edict of selecting the best player available regardless of position or need just happened to result in Portland coming away with two players who should ensure they finish next season with plenty of options in the front court. On a night when many thought the Trail Blazers might try to flip their three first-round picks to shed salary or trade for a veteran, they did neither, instead using their first two picks to move up to select Gonzaga center Zach Collins while keeping their third pick to select Purdue forward Caleb Swanigan. Portland acquired Collins by trading the draft rights to the 15th overall pick, North Carolina forward Justin Jackson, and the rights to the 20th pick, Duke forward/center Harry Giles, to Sacramento in exchange for Gonzaga product, who the Kings selected with the 10th overall pick.“(Collins) is a big time rim protector, he’s a great one-on-one defender, he’s a big time post defender, he can really pass it — any of you guys who were at the Gonzaga/Portland game I’m sure saw that,” said Olshey after the draft. “He put on a clinic. He can stretch the floor, he’s got range, he can score over both shoulders. He’s everything you want to look for in a big man in our league today because he can play inside and out, he can defend the rim, he can defend one-on-one, he can defend pick-and-roll.”
Olshey said he and his staff were enamored in Collins “really early in the process”, but knew that, as the collegiate season wore on, their chances of acquiring the 7-0 Las Vegas native dwindled with every great performance he turned in. “We went Mountain West, Pac12, WCC to go scout, and it wasn’t just for the sunshine,” said Olshey. “We sat there, (Collins) just kept playing better and better and we kept getting more frustrated knowing the more minutes he got, the more the rest of the country was going to catch up. I was talking to his agent about it tonight, he said ‘You guys were on this in January,’ and I said ‘Yeah, unfortunately he went on a run in March that got everybody else up to speed on it.’”
That wait ultimately paid off, with the Trail Blazers getting a player they hope to consider a “franchise-level building block.” And while Collins himself wasn’t expecting to end up with the Trail Blazers, he was nonetheless excited at the prospect meshing his talents with those already on the roster. “I think I can bring my shooting ability,” said Collins. “I think I can stretch the floor, and I think in today's game shooting the three, regardless of position, is really important. I think I can bring some toughness, some shot-blocking, rebounding, and I just think I can bring a winning mentality.”After finishing the deal with the Kings for Collins, Olshey once again was stuck playing the waiting game in hopes that Swanigan, who worked out for the Trail Blazers prior to the draft at their facility in Tualatin, would last until the 26th pick. Even though Swanigan, who overcame bouts of homelessness and weight issues before moving on to a stellar career with the Boilermakers, put up some of the best stats in college this season, there were questions of how a player of his stature and athleticism might fare against NBA bigs. But if the Trail Blazers had those concerns, they certainly weren’t grave enough to stop them from using the 26th pick to select the Indiana native. “What he’s overcome off the court, on the court, the dedication and passion that he has to be the kind of person he is right now, it’s pretty incredible, it’s a great story,” said Olshey. “But he’s bought into it now. It was a means to an end, he’s turned his life around. What we really evaluated more than anything with him is he’s just a big time basketball player. You talk about a guy who shot 45 percent from three, he was number two in the nation in defensive rebounding, he can bang, he’s tough, he scores around the block. He’s just one of those guys we all keep talking about — non position basketball — you just put him on the court and let him play.”