On the day of the draft, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that the Charlotte Hornets were still considering drafting Scoot Henderson despite for weeks being linked with Brandon Miller. The Hornets brought in both players on Monday of that week for follow-up meetings and workouts.
“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.
“I believe the Hornets did not tell Brandon Miller or Scoot until right on the clock that they were going either direction to continue that misdirection, mystery or whatever you call. I think it was a concerted effort by the Hornets to drum up some trade interest there.”