Morey also fooled the Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs in this draft. Perhaps Morey found out that Memphis wanted Darrell Arthur and also knew that both San Antonio and Portland were going after Nicholas Batum. So, here's what Morey did:
First, Morey drafted Nicholas Batum with our 25th pick and prevented the Spurs from taking their guy. Note that this was the second time he has done this to the Spurs (last year with Aaron Brooks).
Selecting Batum gave Morey the option to negotiate with both the Spurs and the Blazers. However, knowing that the Blazers had more draft picks than the Spurs had, Morey began his negotiations with Kevin Pritchard.
Morey told the Blazers' GM to take Darrell Arthur with Portland's 27th in order to initialize a trade between the two teams. At that point of the draft, the Darrell Arthur rumor (Batum for Arthur and Portland's 2nd-round pick) surged.
Since Arthur was gone, Memphis was forced to take Donte Greene with their 28th. Now, Donte Greene was not only the best player available at that position but also was the player that Morey wanted. Once Greene was drafted, Morey forced Chris Wallace into a 3-way deal and demanded Wallace to give up Memphis' future 2nd round pick.
Hence, Morey was able to finalize this 3-way deal by drawing Chris Wallace's attention into thinking that this was a 2-way deal between Portland and us. And I am not sure if this was a coincidence; this whole process screwed over the Spurs, which is totally sweet because they are our division rival.
San Antonio got pwned. Chris Wallace also got pwned.
p.s.: This doesn't change the fact that I am still mad at him.
