Sidy Cissoko Was Destined to Land With the Trail Blazers: 'It's a Small World'

📍DENVER — In some ways, Sidy Cissoko was always destined to one day end up with the Trail Blazers.

Even after the Blazers passed on drafting him one pick before he went 44th overall to San Antonio in 2023, there were too many connections to ignore.

The player Portland took instead at No. 43 was Cissoko’s close friend and fellow Frenchman Rayan Rupert.

The player they took third overall that year, Scoot Henderson, was Cissoko’s teammate with G League Ignite.

Shortly before the 2023 draft, the Blazers hired Pooh Jeter, the longtime point guard who was one of the veteran mentors on that Ignite team, as an assistant coach.

One of the coaches Cissoko worked with during the predraft process, Gil Abraham, was hired by the Blazers later that summer as a player development coach.

And Blazers assistant GM Mike Schmitz, who’s as plugged-in on the international basketball scene as anyone, had long been a fan of Cissoko as a prospect, projecting him as a first-round talent in his previous job as an NBA draft analyst at ESPN.

“It's a small world,” Cissoko said Wednesday after meeting the Blazers in Denver for the first time since signing on a two-way contract earlier this week.

It’s been a whirlwind week for him since the weekend before the trade deadline.

On Feb. 2, the Spurs dealt Cissoko to the Kings as a throw-in piece in the massive three-team deal that sent De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio and Zach LaVine to Sacramento. His tenure with the Kings lasted just a few days; he was quickly traded again with two second-round picks to Washington for Jonas Valanciunas. The Wizards immediately waived him.

“It's part of the business,” Cissoko said. “It was a tough situation in San Antonio because they wanted to playoffs, so nobody was safe. The Kings, too, when you go there and you don't see the GM, it could be a sign.”

The Blazers had brought Cissoko in for a predraft workout ahead of the 2023 draft and kept him on their radar over the last year and a half, as he rarely played for the Spurs and spent most of his time in the G League.

“They were interested in me since I got to the league,” Cissoko said. “The Spurs drafted me, but we still had a good relationship. The day I was waived, my agent talked to them and they said they wanted me.”

Nobody was happier about the way it worked out than Henderson. In the locker room before Monday’s game in Denver, his eyes lit up when a Blazers staffer broke the news to him that Cissoko would be joining the team.

“That's my guy, man,” Henderson said. “I remember the first couple of days before the game when [Ignite] played [Victor Wembanyama], he pulled up to my room and we just chopped it up about the upcoming season. I was trying my hardest to lead that group, and Sidy was one of the guys to help that. I was happy for him to get a chance to showcase his talent even if it wasn't here, because that's my man. But the fact that he's here, that's God.”

After the All-Star break, Cissoko may get a real opportunity to play for the Blazers. The calf injury Deandre Ayton suffered on Monday will sideline him at least four weeks, putting a major damper on the team’s hopes to capitalize on a recent unexpected hot streak and make a push for the play-in. The stretch run of the season could see a lot of minutes going to their less-proven young players.

Cissoko may be a part of that.

“I was really happy about it,” Blazers coach Chauncey Billups said after the signing became official. “I liked him when we worked him out before the draft. I liked his size and skillset. He had a little 'nasty' in him in the workout that I saw. I'm excited to be able to work with him and see how far we can take him.”

Cissoko didn’t join the Blazers immediately after signing. He flew to Portland on Sunday and played for the Rip City Remix on Monday. He dominated in his G League debut with the organization, with 22 points on 7-of-8 shooting, five three-pointers, five rebounds, seven assists and four steals in a 139-119 win over the Sioux Falls SkyForce.

“He's a crazy passer,” Henderson said. “People don't know because he hasn’t had a chance to show it, but he's an unselfish player. Athletic, strong, defensively sound, defensively aggressive. He can shoot it with confidence. When he has that confidence, he can knock it down. When we were with Ignite, he won us a few games by hitting open threes. But he's also capable of attacking the paint. He's flashy. He plays with confidence and it's fun to watch.”

Cissoko, likewise, is excited to be reunited with Henderson after their season together with Ignite.

“It's great that we both made it to the league,” Cissoko said. “It's funny that we ended up together.”