What is up, fellow thermonuclear a f First, I am Dampa Valley coming
at you with another Hardwood Knocks NBA look ahead not previews, not outlooks,
not outlines. These are bougie or more in depth or something because they're called
look aheads instead of previews. I'm excited not only because we're onto the Portland
Trailblazers, but I get to talk to one of my favorite people in the
world, a friend of the podcast, a very frequent guest of the podcast.
At this point, you might be up to double digit appearances by now,
Tara Bone Biggs. She's the host of that We Have a Take podcast.
I would encourage you to check out that podcast, but first follow Tara
on Twitter immediately at tc b b i ggs and she's called t Mom.
That's what she calls her on Twitter. That's just a fantastic name. And
you can follow the We Have a Take podcast at We Have a Take spelled
exactly as it sounds. Which also fun about that podcast, among many other
things, is you can call it the what podcast. If someone asks you
what you're listening to, just say what, and it can you could probably
have an awkward conversation like that, Tara, welcome back. Thank you for
coming on. The most important question I will ask, how the heck are
you? Hi? Dan, I'm so happy right now because I'm talking to
you. I'm going to be talking about the Blazers. It's a gorgeous fall
day. Just everything is high right now. Well not everything is high right
now. I have to go places after this, but we are feeling good
and I am ready to talk Blazers. And like I said before, it's
always a thrill to talk to you. I love talking to you about the
Blazers and basketball. So you can ask me to come on as many times
and as long as your listeners will tolerate it, I will be there.
They love it and they know too based on some of the questions that I
got for you specifically, they know which is great okay? And isn't this
a great time of year? In the sense that I'm not really a big
fall weather person overall, but the optimism leading into the NBA season, I've
even noticed it with myself this year. I'm going through team wind totals in
every outlook that I've done or look ahead, excuse me, I'm smashing the
over without regard for like how that really can't work out. It's just everyone
has gained ten pounds of muscle while losing percentages of body fat. It's a
glorious time of year. It is. It's the best time of year.
I love it and I was just thinking about it today and as I was
on my walk and I was enjoying the weather part of it also. But
just just like the vast potential and with the Blazers, I anticipate that things
are going to be very different this year. We had a very curious year
last year, which I think we never really got to touch base about.
But I am really excited because I think this year the Blazers might look a
little bit different in terms of like how they play. And I'm just really
excited to see how it all plays out. Just like you know, I
wonder how all the trees are gonna look this year. Are there going to
be more reds and blues? It's like, are we actually gonna dunk?
Are they actually going to pass the ball? What's it going to be like?
Are we actually gonna dunk? I think that's a question that you've been
asking since the genesis of this podcast. So and this isn't even an off
season question. I think you can date back to the trade deadline of last
year, but are there any just like lingering thoughts, themes and impressions that
are sticking with you as we enter this regular season for the Blazers, definitely.
I look, last year was kind of a cleanse for me and maybe
for other basketball Trailblazer basketball fans as well. The year started off rough and
got rougher. Like last year's off season was rough. The handling of the
hiring of the coach. We talked about that a little bit. That was
a little bit rough. And then the season started and the play wasn't great.
Damien didn't look right. Things were just not jelling. Then we found
out that, you know, Damien was shut down. And then the new
GM took over, which was like wild because they actually like had this press
conference where instead of like all the reporters coming in there to be all that,
like the GM and the basketball operations guy, they sat there with their
shirt sleeves all rolled up on little stools, like not even behind a table,
and they were like, hey, how's it going. It was like,
what's going on? This is a whole different feel. There's no codified
water bottle drinking at all going on. No, they had their water bottles,
but they were just drinking them. It was wild. But this is
all to say that once the expectations for winning and just like knowing what was
going to happen, you know, went away. I had a ball last
last season, and you know, I feel bad for all those guys who
had to get in there and get blown out by thirty points every night.
But watching those guys play hard. I love watching young players, you know
this. The things that I love. I love dunks, I love assistant
I love watching young players play. None of those things have been hallmarks of
the Trailblazers for the last ten years. How are you a fan of this
team? Is the real question? Exactly? So we got it's not like
you know, it was like, you know, drastically different, but things
looked different, and like, to me, that was the most exciting thing.
We didn't know what to expect. We didn't know what plays we're gonna
run. We didn't know who was going to be playing. We didn't know
what guy they were going to call up from the G League to come in
for you know, another ten days. But all in all, as a
fan, being able to sort of let go of those expectations which just hound
us every season and just sit back and watch these guys play really really hard
to like for their careers, and even if they didn't win, you know,
it was like who cares it was? I don't know. For me,
Like I said, it was kind of a cleansing situation, and I
feel like I'm ready to look at this season with kind of new eyes.
Hopefully it's going to be a you know, a new kind of basketball.
Some of our old favorites are back, but some guys who we just barely
got the tiniest glimpse of We're going to see more of the season and I
personally am very excited about that. Did it make it lack because you can
look at like what some of the younger players did, and I think you
can read into that, But the way that last year unfolded make it difficult
for you to evaluate Chauncey Billups the coach at all. Oh yeah, I
have no idea what kind of coach? We have no idea whatsoever. One
of the things that I noticed last year's media day, the buzzword of the
day was accountability, and everybody was going to be held accountable and they were
all gonna be accountable to each other blah blah bla blah blah, and right
out the gate that looked like everybody was just cranky. And this season the
buzzword is connectivity or something like that. That sounds like something that would be
at like a corporate luncheon, synergistic connectivity or some shit. Totally, but
feels more. It feels more at home to me than accountability did. And
it feels kind of like the coach took stock of like what he learned from
last year, and then accountability did like immediately going in and holding everybody accountable
maybe wasn't the best way to to buy in. And so this year they're
trying really hard to connect with each other. And I know it's just like
you said, corporate buzzword, but it makes me feel like the coach kind
of evaluated sort of the way that he came out initially and saw that it
didn't really work. And I have to give him a lot of credit for
these guys who showed up and like I said, we're getting blown out by
twenty thirty points, they still played hard, and I think the coach helped
with that, and I think he also had like a you know, a
pretty very involved group of assistant coaches, and I think they were all like,
you know what, you guys, we need to come in. We
still need to play all these games, play your hardest, and if you
do well, then you're going to be able to like have a career that
you know, maybe people didn't know you had in you. Like, watching
Trendon Watford earn a contract was so cool. I'm officially We'll get in a
later, but I'm officially a fan of Trendon Watford and that never then,
never would have happened. Drew Eubanks. I don't know if you know,
but Drew Eubanks is actually from the Portland area. Yeah, just from a
town outside of Portland called Troutdale. So we call him the Shack of Troutdale.
That was started by Mike Richmond from Lockdown Blazers. So the Shack of
Troutdale got to come back. He played on maybe four or five ten day
contracts, but then in the off season he got officially picked up and again
just another like feel good story that never would have happened likely, you know,
had that you know last year not gone gone the way it went and
also just as a fan, it's just nice to just it was just nice
to just let go not care, especially because it's different when there's no weight
or validity to the idea of they have to break it up or this could
happen. But with the Blazers it had been in the ether maybe too early,
but there was a legitimacy behind the logic at least, and that has
to get exhausting. You and I talked about on the podcast year after year
or podcast or podcast of is this are they gonna they need to break up
Damon CJ? And what does that look like? And there was also I
don't want to call them a series of half measures, but like they kept
hitting, going after these like doubles and singles on the trade market, Robert
Covington, Norman Powell, And it was never something that to find a direction
or got like that. It was that all in type of trade And I
liked all those moves independently. Let maybe be clear, but it was just
refreshing to be like, Okay, they're back there. They're tanking at this
point, and they're evaluating youth and like you said, being able to purge
those expectations and then also just ripping off the band aid of Okay, CJ's
gone, Norm Powell's gone as well. That's clarifying in and of itself.
They chose a direction. They they just finally chose a direction, and it
was just like okay, finally, like we know what we're going for here,
we know what you're aiming for. And so it was just nice that
they finally chose a direction and we could like understand it. And you know,
don't get me wrong, this was not intended in the fans perspective.
This is not meant to be a multiple year tank. This was meant to
be a temporary situation, and you know, it was just perfect that what
happened was the Blazers had a chance to have two different draft picks, and
it was just perfect that they only got one and that they lost it to
the Pelicans, and like that was just all so perfect, Like all the
storylines played out exactly the way you would expect for the Trailblazers. But they
did get a draft pick, which we haven't really had a high one for
a while. I'm gonna tell you at some point, you know, this
poor kid, but all his hopes and dreams, like all my hopes and
dreams for the next decade are wrapped up in his success. No pressure or
anything, but this is all to say it was just exciting that they chose
a direction and we all got to like ride along with it, and that
better be the end of that direction, right and to that point, and
we'll get into some of the like this ties into the roster moves and the
players want to ask you about I'm not sure if people were surprised, but
they were kind of critical of the Dame extension and looking at it as,
oh, this isn't like an actual rebuild. They're just trying to do this
one year thing. And whether you think that's the move or not, they
were pretty clear that that Cronan said it like maybe we don't take executives at
face value, which is fine. I don't know how I feel about this
team looking ahead two, three, four years, but they decided they were
still going to be on Dame's timeline, but it was time for a reboot
of sorts and they did that. And so like, you can't criticize the
execution yet until we see what they've been because so far they've done what they
set out to do, which was we need to give the Dame era,
you know, a shot of adrenaline, a different look, and they've done
that. We don't know how again, we don't know how it's going to
work out. But like you said, it was never meant to be a
multiple year tank. And just because some people think that they should have traded
Dame and moved on, that's not what their vision was. And so the
Dame extension in essence to me, aligns with that vision. And I'll also
be a big believer. And this isn't to actually get into the trade market
of it, but if you ever, if Dame ever wants out, or
they ever want to move Dame, the contract is going to be movable.
We've just we've seen it too many times before. For Russell Westbrook got moved
like eighty times and what was considered the worst deal in the league. So
I didn't understand the I don't want to say it was widespread criticism. But
just like like quasi shock of oh, they really gave him that extension,
Like, yes, of course they decided that they were going to retool around
him, That's why they gave him the extension. Yeah, I don't and
I don't know how much people around the you know, the national scene,
like, are ever really truly gonna understand what Damien means to the community,
And that's fine. We just want everybody to stop asking about it, you
know, like this summer, you know, last last summer was kind of
like the peak of everybody asking him about whether or not he was gonna go
out, and we saw how that all went this summer at or this year
at media Day, sure it was almost all local guys. Not one of
them said, so are you going to stay in Portland? Like not one
person asked that question and not trade eligible. Probably maybe that's why they you
can't really push that narrative when he's not even trade eligible. No, everybody's
sick of talking about it. Everybody's sick of talking about Damien. Lollard has
like every Damian Lord has said it so many times that like we all understand
that things can happen and things can change in a moment, but we also
know that every time Damien says it, he means it. And where we
are now is that he is going to stay. And the way I look
at it is we could like they could have signed they signed Damian Lillard to
this extension and someday they could trade Damian Lillard, but trade to me,
trading away Damian Lillard doesn't like increase their chances of winning a championship in the
next you know, like you might as well hold on to Damian Lillard.
Like you could have Damian Lillard and not have a championship, or you could
not have Damian Lillard and not have a championship. And I would rather have
Damian Lillard even if we can't get a championship out of it. I would
understand the blastpheymore if they did nothing over the off season two, it's like
we're just going to run it back with Dame and all these like young kids
and like, no, that's not what they did. And I guess to
skip ahead to actually Damian load himself here. Is there any concern about one,
what he looked like before going under abdominal surgery and that now him coming
back or is this just a situation of this dude played at least basically twenty
four hundred minutes in every other season of his career, but the last one
this might be like good for him, like he was forced to take a
rest for a half season. Yeah, there's no concern from this fan.
I mean, I think like I'm so glad that he has had a chance
to rest, He's had a chance to rest his mind, and just like
all of the weight that has been on his back in terms of just carrying
the franchise, for him to get away, for him to take time off
physically, mentally, emotionally, you know. I to me, it seems
like a great thing. It's possible that with the new coach and the new
GM and you know, new decision makers in the front office, maybe they'll
be able to convince Damien to take a little bit of time off here or
there. I also know that they're like big fans of the abdominal surgery because
in addition to Dame getting the abdominal surgery, Nazi or Little and Gary Payton
also have it. So apparently they're getting a deal or something. Everybody's getting
a surgery now. But are they like ab implants? Like his day's been
like shirtless a lot more often, has been shirtless a lot more often as
I no, but it just it fits like everything I've heard about Damien Lord
that like he put it off for so long. Finally I think it was
was it holiday? You know, convinced him that he should go get it,
and then Dame got it, and then suddenly he came back and he's
like, everybody needs to get the surgery right. Everybody who's having these issues.
Don't put it off any longer. Yeah, and look, I point
too as well. He was dealing with the injury, which is could account
for why he was playing the way he was. And also before he went
and out, they still had a top twelve offense and they were awful afterwards
on purpose. They still have top twelve offense, and that team was like,
I don't want to say it was a dumpster fire beforehand, but like
that season, everything from Dame to everyone else was everyone was banged up and
felt like was not going really according to plan. And he still, to
me, gives you that offensive baseline, like forget about the ceiling, because
I don't know if they have an offensive ceiling if you have Dame in surround
them with the right talent. But having Damian Lillard is akin to you're going
to be fine on offense. It's still just how I look at it.
And if you get a better version of the Damian Lillard we saw last year,
which you're why Why wouldn't you guess that we would? That would be
like a huge Like I understand players get older, but like you don't just
fall off a cliff unless it was so I am optimistic that Dame will still
be in that. I don't know where i'd have him, but that top
ten to fifteen player conversation, and by extension, that just means that Blazers
are going to be okay on offense. And that's just like that's my read
on the situation. Yeah, I like I said, this fan not worth
and I think most fans are not worried. And I think that the way
it was so clear that he was laboring and then he'd like get a court
of his own shot and be like yeay, Dame's back and then it would
wear off and he you know, it was just that and he would probably
be horrified to think that we could even tell that he was laboring. But
he just couldn't get that elevation and so like his shots were short, and
we're like, what's going on, Like we know that he can hit these
like tremendously long shots, but they were just like falling short and that just
it just didn't look right. And I just have all kinds of confidence that
he's going to get back and it's just gonna be, you know, like
riding a bike right. In other news, This podcast officially sponsored by Pacific
Northwest Abdominal Surgeries LLC. So, the biggest new addition to the roster Jeremy
Grant. Well, I guess Shade Sharp could be, but Jeremy Grant,
they're big offseason acquisition. How do you feel about I don't even have to
ask you how he felt about the trade, because they got him for way
less than I think anyone just assumed Jeremy was gonna be for. But how
do you feel about his fit on this roster and what he brings in terms
of his impact? I am really excited to see what he does. A
he is gonna like up the fashion game by like ten times because he just
is like such an amazing fashionable dresser. So but in addition to that,
I mean, because you know, you look good, you feel good,
you play good, right, so that's got to help. But I am
really interested. And this kind of goes back to like not really knowing what
style these guys are going to play with the new coach, new sets,
but I really see that there's gonna be a more of a deliberate effort to
play small and that Jeremy Grant's going to be an important part of that.
But I also think, well, and I think we're going to have like
a distinct a big lineup and a small lineup. And last year it was
kind of like, let's throw some smaller guys out and see how it works.
But I feel like this year they went out and got players who necessarily
fit the small thing instead of like, well we're small, we better play
him. So I think Jeremy Grant's going to be an important part of that.
He's just the best power forward the Blazers have had for a really really
long time. And do you think since Lamar Case probably prompt that's yeah,
I think so. I mean, you know, I love Alpha Rukamino,
but you know that was that. I think Jeremy Grant is a better player
than he was, and I think that just he's gonna bring He's gonna unlock
some interesting things that we haven't seen in a long time. Yeah, and
like his defense is huge, just in especially with because I think with NRK,
who's still good, I'm probably like more excited to watch a Drew Eubanks
or trend and Watford the Nurkich at this point because we know what he is
and I feel like he's sort of just he didn't look the same defensively to
me. And now that you have Nerk and Jeremy Grant, Jeremy Grant can
very much be the type of four that is playmaking. Like behind Nerk,
who's who is going to be a good helper in addition to Okay, if
he can't, if you need him to go be like your one on one
guy, he can do that too. So I think he opens up a
lot of doors for them defensively. And I was a huge you know,
if they were going to give up the sixth pick whatever they had a fifth
pick for Jeremy Grant, like, yeah, I'm there, I probably would
have an issue with that. But they got him for just that Bucks pick
is going to be a fringe second rounder and it was. It took cap
space in that Bucks pick basically, and so I thought it was a home
run, no brain or trade for them, And I was again shocked that
the Pistons ended up prioritizing flexibility over inbound assets for Jeremy Grant. I am
super excited to be interested to see how Nerk and Grant played together, because
he's definitely going to be the best person that Nerk has played with. And
you know, there's been a lot of talk out of training camp. You
know, take it with all the optimistic grains of salt that you can,
but it sounds like those two are are really working on how to play together
on the court. And I think that's exciting. And I think it's just
been not to bring up dunks like for the millionth time, but like so
yeah, I kind of have to ask yourself, why were the Blazers like
dead last in the league, like dead dead last in the league in dunks
for you know, two years ago, previous year's safe. I mean the
last time they were in the top ten and dunks I think was when JJ
Hickson was here and he can't wake up without dunking the ball. And it's
just like it tells me that there was like scheme involved. You know,
this was not a team that was set up to allow that. Like we
had Derek Jones Junior and like he couldn't get to the rim, Like why
would you have Derek Jones junior on your team and not let him get to
the rim. So what I'm hoping is that this new iteration of the team,
with their new plays is going to clear out a little bit of runway
for some of this to happen. Maybe Jeremy Grant is involved in that,
but maybe the way Jeremy Grant and Nerk play together will open up space for
some of those you know, lanes for guys to come in and dunk as
well. I'm also hoping that it kind of the way that they're built might
juice up the spat of their offense at points like, yeah, when you
have Dame Simon's having the ball, it's do the deliberate, methodical stuff.
And I get that they can actually slowed down their average possession time after Damian
the Lord's injury, which feels counterintuitive, but then you're like, well,
look at who was playing and they probably need to figure out what the hell
they were doing, So I get it. I would like to see them
be like more opportunistic in transition with a lot of these guys, because Jeremy
Grant is someone who can run the floor too, and if you have the
extra space, even if you're in the half court, like as you already
mentioned it opens pathways to the rim, which should be able to just accelerate
the speed at which you operate your offense, which I think would be just
more dynamic for this team as much like you know, different layers that you
can add, especially in this year's Western Conference, is going to be pretty
important. Yeah, I've heard fast breaks are really exciting and I can't wait
to see something. And look, they're banning, They're gonna be Yeah,
the take faul that more closely officiate it anyway, and so that is exciting
just in general, but maybe that leads to more dunks for the Blazers.
You ever know, fingers crossed, how did you feel about the Gary Payton
signing? And then how do you feel about his overall fit with the team.
So this is one of those ones where I was like, Okay,
what's going on here? Because I've been conditioned over the last few years based
on listening to smart people who know a lot of things about basketball saying,
oh my god, the Blazers keep getting six three guards, Like why do
they keep getting six three guards? Over and over and over again? And
you and I think talked about, like joked last year about how the Blazers
might play a four guard lineup, and I actually thought that that would be
like if they traded for Ben Simmons. But no, they actually played a
four guard lineup last season, and people think that that was sort of Chauncey
just like sticking it to the man, like, really, this is what
you're giving me, Okay, we're playing four guards anyway. I've been very
sensitive for the last several years about six three guards because I've been told that
this is not what the Blazers need. So the Blazers get a six three
guard and everyone is like, hallellu, yeah, they got Gary Payton,
another six three card. I feel like it's very understandable that I was like,
hold on a minute, like, how is this different than what you've
been telling me all this time about how you know? And they're like,
oh, he's the tallest sixthreegard you'll ever play with or whatever. So like
I get it. I get that Gary Peyton is different, but also like
I feel like I should not have, you know, should not be questioned
for questioning it, you know what I mean? Like you guys drilled this
narrative in my head that we have all these you know, six three guards,
and now that we have another six threegard and I was like asking questions
about it, like you understand where the questions are coming from, right,
So that's all to say how I felt about the Gary Peyton signing. I
was very conflicted and confused. I absolutely see why the Blazers are excited about
him, because, you know, he's just we haven't had that guy who's
willing to just like who's like starter or like right off the bench level player
who's willing to pick up a guy from one end and chase him all the
way down to the other hand. You know, we get guys who are
trying to earn their spot who are willing to do that, but we haven't
really had that in a player who's part of the regular rotation and it's just
ready to just make someone's life miserable. So I'm kind of excited about that
for sure. Yeah, them playing a backup guard more than the league minimum
is actually quite shocking that they always just for someone they subsisted on, like
guys on rookie deals like Anthony Semons or was just like these you know,
just coming in one year flyers that we're cheap, so you go and you
spend the mid level on someone who your concerns are totally valid. They like
kind of flit because I think defensively you don't care about his size because of
the way he defends. But on offense, it's like what makes it work
is he can set screens and you could have him in the quarter. He
could be a good cutter, but he dealt with elbow stuff towards the end
of last year. If that three ball is not falling, if his screens
aren't is effective. You have a different type of concern with the three guards.
But I like the signing overall, and you're you're absolutely on point with
his defense, like he is going to just ruin people's souls when he is
on the court. Yeah, that's gonna be fun to cheer. Four.
Uh see, here's the big question that I have with regard to Anthony Simons,
and it comes from listener Ian in our discord. Is he really six
five? I have no idea how tall Anthony is. I have no idea,
And like I was going to the pictures to try to do that,
Like, Okay, if you're standing next to Damian, how much taller is
he's in Damian? If you stand next to the coach, how where is
he according to the coach, But I gave up immediately. I don't care
how tall he is. You know, he's as tall as he is and
he's like, we can't change it, right, He's just as tall as
he's gonna be. He certainly does look like he has bulked up. And
whether that includes height, I don't know. I mean, he was so
young when he came here, and it's also very complicated with him because he
has such a baby face. It's hard to right, Well, he's not
anymore though, Like twenty three is like he's been in the league. This
is his fifth year coming in the league, so he's not a baby anymore.
You know, he's a mature man, and it would make sense that
he has grown. I think it's weird that like we always act like whatever
somebody was when they came in the league, like that's their hype forever,
because like most I know keep growing until their early twenties. So it would
not surprise me if Anthony Simons was actually six five, and that would be
exciting because then he would have somebody even taller next to Dame than we did
with CJ. Maybe like yeah, and maybe he just looks taller because like
you said, he put on muscle. Maybe the hair was just looking like
particularly high in that video. Well, his hair is actually shorter than it
used to be, so his hair was kind of made him look deceptively tall.
But now he's wearing it a lot shorter, so I think that he
probably has grown. It would not surprise me, but I don't know where
he is in between that six three six five range. Nationally, Again,
the qualifier there was nationally there was this mini fur over his four year,
hundred million dollars contract. I think one that people still need to look at
these deals in the context of what the salary cap is about to be,
and less than twenty percent of the salary cap for or about twenty percent of
the salary cap for Anthony Simons is fine. I also think he's viewed as
just someone who is a good score, an excellent his catch and shoot like
three pointers just it's money. And then he's also shown it dipped a little
bit last year, and a part of that I think was just the extra
responsibility. But he's a good like off the dribble jump shooter as well,
like someone who can hit the pull up three at a fairly high level,
especially when he's playing off game. That's not even something that CJ did at
the volume Anthony Simon's ken and there's no compared like CJ. McCombs in between
game, which just like a hot knife through butter so smooth. So but
what is it, Like, what else did you see from him maybe last
year after the Dame injury or even just overall since he's been in Portland about
where he's actually improved that people do not talk enough about. Well, I
think you're absolutely right. In his you know, pull up threes, there's
just you know, he's got a beautiful shot and it goes in, and
like that's what we want. We want somebody on the team who other teams
are wanting to guard. And I think one of the most important things that
Anthony did last year is let everybody know that you need to guard me.
And that's going to help Daming a lot. It's gonna help a lot of
other people a lot. Watching him handle the ball and be the floor general,
it was great to see that he was able to do that. Even
there was this really short like four games stretch before everybody got shot down,
it got sorry shut down, and where the healthy players were still healthy playing.
It was before you know, we saw a lot of bench players and
they played really well, and he did a really good job of you know,
playmaking and that I don't know that how long he would have been able
do that after teams started planning for him. I think part of it is
people were like not really scouting him as much during that brief period, and
they would have started to do that more. But it was nice to see
that he can run an offense like and so I don't know if you know
how much people are are talking about that. I'm excited this season to see
I've been trying to figure out what's the difference between Damon CJ and Damon Anthony,
and I think what I've settled on is that Damon CJ were like two
point guards that were taking turns, and Damien was the lead point guard.
But then you know a couple of possessions when they're in there together, CJ
would play the point guard and they kind of took turns playing the point guard.
And I think that what we might see is a little bit more of
Damien playing the point guard and Anthony playing the shooting guard and like truly being
in that position and being you know, mindful of that from the get go.
That I think that kind of goes back to that whole connectivity thing,
because when you're thinking about two point guards taking turns, they're not like super
connected. They are in the way that they understand like who's got the ball
and who's going to be like running this set or whatever. But I'm looking
for that connectivity where they move the ball around a lot because you know they've
they're they're running their plays and they are looking for that additional pass. So
I think it's going to be really great to see Dame and Anthony playing together.
And what I hope is that it looks different from what damon nothing.
I mean, I loved watching, like you said, watching him drop people
was so much fun. But I think this might be, in the long
run, a better combination. I think you're right too. And there's also
I think you you basically alluded to this. It feels more organic because of
how used to Simons is one working off the ball and two spending a lot
of time beyond the arc and taking shot that way. And I also think
and this is you know, you mentioned his passing as a floor general.
That is one of his biggest areas of improvement. They're not like he's not
throwing Luca don Chi's James Harden like one handed bullets, but like he is
reacting quickly to what defenses are throwing at him. And part of that,
I think too is while he still doesn't get to the rim a ton,
he is more explosive on his drives and he actually shot I was looking before
it was like fifty three percent on drives after the Dame injury. And so
what's mixed into there is like those were some pretty rough games that he played
in after the Dame injury as well. So the fact that there was almost
probably less space available, I think that's big for the pairing to where CJ's
game not that it's stalled out, it was built to work in the in
between. Specifically, I think aftery Simons is going to give you a lot
more explosion and maybe an extra level when you look at going downhill than CJ
did. And so that's just more natural to me then you know, and
look, the Damon CJ pairing was pretty natural to It was good, But
I just think that the Simons Lillard one, it probably to me, it
has a higher ceiling on the offensive end and the CEJ Dame one did.
Yeah, I think that's a good way to put it. I think it
might it might have a higher ceiling. Are you concerned about or this just
same old, same all, Like we have these two well allegedly two small
guards. Afrey times might be six eight, could be immediate of small and
the medium. Yeah, so he could be all defense, That's where he
said. But are you concerned about that aspect of this at all? Or
do you think that the Blazers have surrounded them with enough of defensive talent to
make it work. This could just be me buying what they're selling me,
but I think that they have added more defensive capabilities. And I also think
that with if Damien is feeling better, that he could improve on that end
and you know, maybe might be able to bring a little bit more to
the table than he was in the last couple of years. So I'm hoping,
I'm hopeful, let's say that way. I'm hopeful that the Blazers have,
you know, have added the right amount of defensive players without sacrificing too
much of their offensive style. Shade and sharp. I think it's fitting based
off when I know about a game that the one basket he makes in Summer
League before he gets injured, like this ridiculous baseline jumper. Any thoughts on
his game overall, but I think also the bigger question is for a team
that wants to make the playoffs, how much should we expect him to be
a part of this year's rotation. Yeah. I have a lot of thought
thoughts about Shade and Sharp. One of my favorite things these days is listening
to people who've actually had eyes on him and seen him play try to describe
it, because they get kind of tongue tied, and that's so intriguing to
me. They can't. They're just like, you just know, they just
like can't really actaculate it. Yeah. Yeah, So I'm really curious to
see with my own eyes and with my own eyes. I did see that
one shot that he made at Summer League, and it looked to me like
he just the way he took it. I was like, oh, he's
mellow, you know, just like it just looked like a Carmelo Anthony shot.
But he's so much more athletic than the mellow I saw anyway that I
think he has a lot more in his bag. But the I think it's
far. I have no idea if they're going to pla him or not,
like I would love it. But this is gonna be where we're gonna We're
gonna learn a lot more about the coach in the front office when we see,
like who's in the starting lineup and who's in the rotation. Are we
gonna stick with vets like we've done for the last decade, or are we
gonna let these guys play? And like I told you, I loved that
about the end of last season as they let those guys play. Now we're
in a whole different situation. So are they gonna let Nas start still a
pretty young guy, still fairly unproven, or are they going to give that
position to Josh Hart or Justice Winslow. Are they gonna make sure Trendon is
in the rotation or is he gonna go all the way back to the end
of the line. I'm super I have no idea what they're gonna do,
and I can't wait to find out. Who would you start at the three?
Next to what we know are the four locks and Grant nor Gage,
Damon Simmons. I would start not, I would start Nuss. You're a
little I partly because I also like what Josh Hart does with the ball in
his hands, and I really would love to see him running the second unit.
Before it was like either Dame or c J was always on the court,
and whoever was on the court was the point guard. I think I
would love to see you know, like I was saying, you know,
Anthony, you know, really truly being the number two and then for a
section of the bench play Josh Hart run that and have him be like and
I know he's not really a point guard, but he reminds me a little
bit of Evan Turner with the ability to shoot. Like Evan Turner was actually
quite good with the ball in his hands, running plays, playmaking, getting
people the ball, passing, he was really pretty good at all of that.
And I see a little bit of Josh Hart having that ability as well
as being able to shoot. So that's why I would start nases because I
loved part of this, because I'd like to see Josh Hart with the second
unit. We don't people, so I think if you trust Jeremy Grant to
knock down enough of his threes, and you have Simon's and Dame, I'd
be just fine with that. Because Nas is pure energy, give you some
stuff on the glass, gives you can like some rim pressure too, and
can even be used as the screener. Do you worry about that fit with
NRK at all? And also what are can you give us the for people
that don't watch. First of all, Nas has been sick or injured basically
his entire career, which has sucked. What's most impressed you about him?
Or what's something about his impact that people outside Portland don't know enough about.
I love NASA's rebounding. He's a fantastic rebounder and he's the rebounding sicko.
Yeah, offensive or offensive and defensive. I love his uh. I just
love his rebounding. Like nobody has their eyes on the rim like Naz does.
Like it's amazing. Like every time Brucey Lee, the team photographer,
posts a picture of Nas rebounding, his eyes are just like on the rim
and it just it's just so striking, like he like, he loves rebounding.
So I love watching Nas rebound and so that's part of the reason I
love watching him play is he can jump over everybody and he is focused and
you know he loves getting that ball, so you and you're perfectly fine with
the partnership with like Nerk. That doesn't give you any pauses on offense a
little bit. No, No, I think I think Nerk is. I
have very high expectations for Nerk. I think every year me and my fan
relationship with Nerk is different every time we talk. It's very high right now,
it is very high right now. I love what I love what I've
seen out of Nerk for the last year. He actually played after things settled
down, like after the beginning of the year, nurkis just like kind of
I don't know. He he played really well with the new guys. I
don't know, he was just didn't seem like he was jelling with you know,
the first set of new guys. So when you know, Justice Winslow
and Josh Hart came, he seemed like he really jelled with them. He
played really well during that brief period you know again where Damien was out before
they sat everybody. He played really well and he commanded a lot of attention
from other teams as well as kind of like I wouldn't say that he took
over, but he was extremely supportive of Anthony and I think a lot of
Anthony's success was because of use of Nurkics, because I think use of Nurkis
cleared out a lot of space for him. He was watching out for him,
He was an excellent partner in the pick and roll with him, and
I just I feel like it's a switch got kind of flipped with use of
Nurkics, like watching him on the sidelines and interacting with the players who were
playing and clearly like talking to them about what he would be doing or what
they should be doing, and clearly like being super engaged with them even when
he wasn't there playing. He had this great run with the Bosnian team at
EuroBasket, and I just have really high hopes that he's going to see what
his role is and that is like back to the connectedness. He really is
a major connector, and so I think that's going to work out really well.
And I don't think he's you know, I think we're gonna have to
live with the fact that he's gonna take a couple of threes. I think
we're gonna have to live with the fact that he likes to get in the
post and back down people a couple of times a game, and you live
with that because of the rest of the time, he has great vision,
he's a really good passer. He knows how to protect his guards, and
especially when you have small guards. And I don't know if he's a room
protector, but he's a riom deterrent for sure. Like when nurkches down there,
people don't want to get by the rim. So I have very high
expectations and I think that he'll work really well with everybody. I'm interested to
see what he because I just wasn't. But again, in the context of
the team, I don't know if you were impressed with anyone defensively last year.
Quite frankly, I just feel like he wasn't as good and he didn't
feel like as much of a the turrant. But now if you look at
the roster, I'm curious see how he does with better talent obviously, but
it's more like I don't want to use the word explosive because that doesn't aptly
describe everyone. But it's more like, you know, debtonative talent, where
it's you have Simon's isn't a good defender, but he's quick. GP two
is all over the place. Jeremy Grant, Josh Hart and so now that
you have all those guys where they can, Simon's is not a good defender.
I want to make that clear. But like looking at GP two and
Grant and Heart specifically, you have like not safety nets, but guys who
can play in front of them behind you. And I'm wondering if that also
allows the Blazers to try different things on defense this year than how they've predominantly
used Nurkic in the past. I would hope. So, I mean Nrk
had to do a lot last year. He had to come up to the
three point line and get back down to the to the basket. He had
to fill in thing that I was sensing then because like he is so used
to under Terry Stotts, it was just like drop drop, drop, drop
drop, and that's what he did all the time. Yeah, and you
know he I just feel like they never really figured out how they were supposed
to work together, and maybe he got a little discouraged towards the beginning of
the year, and with you know, Damien having a hard time and laboring,
like it was just like nobody could really figure out, like how are
we going to make this work? And so I think it's really important,
Like the time that he spent with Bosnia Herzevigovinia this summer and was like the
man. And that didn't mean he scored like forty points. It meant that
he was the heart and the soul and he was able to see what was
going on and direct, like he and Musa played like great together, and
you know, he was able to like be the anchor and be the and
instead of having to like be active in every single play, you know,
he was. I don't know, I just I feel like that was a
really important experience for him, and I would love to be able to see
him play like a similar role where he doesn't have to be like let him
take his couple of three pointers or whatever, but like also let him be
that connector again, for lack of a better word, Hopefully we're going to
move that ball around a little bit more and Nurkis is a willing passer give
you a lot of damage out of the short role too. Yeah, he's
not a black hole, Like the ball doesn't stop with him. Sometimes it
does, but you know, you also know that you can get him to
move it the rest of the big man rotation and you kind of touched upon
this when you mentioned smaller lineups. I'm guessing that's just what the plays are
going to be committed to, because you're looking at Drew Eubanks is probably the
only just other center, like you know, Italics center on this roster,
and then trend and Watford played a lot there, but he's also only six
eight and they got like lampooned when he was playing center last year. Again,
the talent wasn't great, but even just looking at their rebounding, So
how is this like backup center rotation going to shake out? Is it we
expect to see a lot of like Watford or maybe even Grant at the five?
Are they really prepared to rely on Andrew u Bang's like, what's your
read on that situation? I mean it kind of goes back to what I
was saying earlier about how I think they're going to have a bigger lineup and
a smaller lineup and they're going to amuse them more strategically. And I see
Trendon Watford as really learning how to be a small center because he has you
know, he's pretty good at moving. You know, he's getting better,
but he's also just really smart and he has good instincts. Jabari Walker.
Also, I don't know that he'll be, you know, a small ball
center, but he'll be a really important part. I think of like that
that unit that's going to learn how to play really effective small ball. I
think that they don't have an another tall person on the roster because at this
point they don't need one, and rather than saying, oh some point,
at some point, use if you're gonna get hurt, so we're gonna bring
in two extra guys, I think they're like letting him play because I think
for like people are like everyone knows Usef gets hurt. Everybody knows Nerk gets
hurt, and it's like to me, I think it's important for him to
know that they're like not counting on him getting injured. They're counting on him
staying well, and if he gets injured, they'll deal with it because like
going out and finding a center, like if he is out for an extended
time isn't as hard as some other things that they might need to do.
So on White Side just there for the taking again. Tara Ye watching on
YouTube, Tara al Will just passed out. Who do you think winds up
playing? I think you already answered this too, But who do you think
winds up playing a bigger role for this team? Is it Jabar Walker or
Watford? I have no idea that I vote, Yeah, what do you
Watford? For me? And I think it's a lot of what I saw
offensively from him where he is, so I don't want to say so dynamic.
He's a lot more dynamic than you think when you look at like he
can do stuff around the basket, but like he can get around guys if
he's by the three point line or at the top of the key. And
he had like there was I can't remember which game it was I was watching,
and it was the Blazers didn't give a shit at that point. I
want to make that clear. But like he had this like nifty floater while
he was on the move. And he's he's not a bad passer. He's
I would say, he's a good passer. Like for someone who's six eight,
you're probably thinking, like, oh, point forward, they could pass.
But if someone who's gonna play the center position. And I also just
wonder, because he's a little bit more dynamic with the ball, that's probably
gonna give them room to futs and fiddle and like, maybe this is someone
who can play the four a lot. So I'm fascinated by him and think
that he can play a role on a team that is not just trying to
be competitive, but it is actually competitive. So that would be my vote.
I think you're right, and I think that you know, if the
Blazers are gonna carve out time for a rookie, they're more likely to,
you know, make sure that Shayden Sharpe is getting on the court, and
you know, I think Javari will play. But I think you're right.
I think Trendon will will play more. Right. Is there like an underrated
strength or element to this team that you don't think he is getting enough attention
as we had into the regular season. I don't know. It's so different
from the team than I know. I mean, it's Damian Lillard, but
he's not. I don't know if he's I wouldn't say he's necessarily underrated,
but maybe he is. Yeah, I just I don't, like I said,
I just don't really know this team enough to know, because I really
am expecting that they're gonna play a different type of basketball than I've seen.
I've decided this year The way I'm gonna measure whether a team like it's a
good game or not is by how many times a game I go, oh,
I haven't seen that before, like fast breaks, dunks, you know,
things that are We're not a part of their arsenal in the past,
so I have no idea what we're going to see. So I don't know
what their strengths are yet. Is there like a big weakness or just void
on this team that you're concerned about. I know you tend to be relentlessly
positive, which is which is awesome, But if you were to take off
that hat for a second because you're somewhat optimistic. Now I noticed in your
Twitter by it's not relentlessly optimistic, it's somewhat optimistic. But is there anything
that you're concerned about when looking at this roster leading into this season? First
of all, I'm so glad somebody noticed that I am relentlessly positive and somewhat
optimistic because I'm not delusional. I try not to be delusional, and if
I am delusional, I try to like recognize that and go hold on a
minute, just like I roll it back. Don't say delusion. When it
comes to sports fandom, is not a bad thing until it turns toxic.
So if you're if you're deludedly optimistic at points and you're being approachable or nice
about it, I think that's perfectly fine. Well, and yeah, I
don't know being full being one hundred percent optimistic is tough, just when you
have the history of a fandom, as you know, goes back as far
as you just kind of like try to protect yourself. The organization has not
made it easy on you. Right, But let's see, Okay, the
question was it was about for the roster. I think my biggest concern is
a little bit of concern with maybe a little bit of a lack of shooting.
Then McLamore is still out there. Just like whether or not there's somebody
who will like, we just need a bucket, get somebody to come off
the bench and get us a bucket. I feel like that might not We
might not be in as good a situation is that we could be with that,
and then just you know, unfamiliarity with each other, unfamiliarity with the
new coaches plays, unfamiliarity with like now being expected to play defense. They
brought in all these defenders. I'm super curious to see if that means that
the Blazers can now play defense. And yeah, but just like that unfamiliarity
and just lack of playing time together. I think mine for this team is
just like the way that they're built, and because they have so much space,
I think they'll naturally create more rim pressure than people think. I just
worry about like sort of they're finishing where it's Anthony Simons and Dane can even
be coin tosses, probably because of the difficulty of their looks when they get
to the basket and then you are relying on I guess Jeremy Grant shold a
lot more ball skills than we were used to in Detroit. I just want
to see what this team looks like when it comes to finishing, how many
free throws are they able to generate as well when you're looking at where their
primary offense is going to come from. But I am endlessly fascinated by what
the offense is going to look like in general, because, as you've mentioned
a few times, I think it's gonna be aesthetically materially different than what we've
seen from Portland in the past. Yeah, I'm Blajie brought up free throws
and fouling, you know, because also on the other side of that is
that if we're going to be playing, if they are going to be playing
younger players, we may have to put up with a lot more fouling.
And you know, that's always been a challenge for use of Nurkic as well.
And you know, it's again one of those things that you just have
to take the good with the bad. With use of Nurkis, I think
he brings so much good that you know that I personally, you know,
tolerate a lot of things that drive a lot of other people crazy. And
you know he does get in foul trouble and so we'll see how that goes.
So when you're when you're looking at this team, one of my favorite
things to do is to predict, like what will be the top ten most
use players. And as i've some teams were like no brainers for me.
The Blazers were a little bit more difficult. I think they have seven locks.
When you look at Dame Simon's, Josh Hart, Jeremy Grant, use
of Nurkis, Gary Payton the second, and then nots Little are the guys
that I just have painted in his locks, which will bring us to seven.
If you agree with those seven locks or if you disagree, plea say
so. But like, how do you envision like those final three if you
had to pick right now, which I am forcing you too. So I
think Justice Winslow is the what we've been hearing for training camp is that Justice
Winslow is the type of player that the coach likes because you know, he
loves playing defense. Justice said that he thinks the coach likes him because he
feels like he could have played on that Detroit team. So I think we're
gonna see Justice. I think we're gonna I hope we see Shadon, and
I think we're gonna see Trendon. I think like Drew Eubanks and Jabbari Walker
and even Keyan Johnson I mentioned him, He's just like you know, and
also Keyan Johnson's also the story of you know, being the story of training
camp, Like, oh, who were you impressed with? I was really
impressed with Keyan Johnson. And you know, it'd be tough if you wanted
to, like if you want to play key On Johnson, like you're kind
of committing to not playing Shade and Sharp at that point then, because it
gets really tough to start fitting these players into the rotation on the perimeter because
they're filled with so many i'll call them non bigs. This roster's just stocked
with non bigs at the moment. Yeah, So I think it's more likely
that we'll see uh Shaden and Justice and Trendon than it is then we'll see
like Drew Eubanks and you know, Keon and Jabari. I was actually thinking
about this like a couple of weeks ago. I think that like we could
see just based off the way that Blazers look right now, whins surprisely,
we saw like Grant Windlow front courts when Nerk's not on the floor and it's
we don't know who the center is necessarily maybe depends on the matchup, but
that's something that they could try, especially because Winslow's three pointer is very very
shaky. It's very it's very very shaky. Yeah, and I see them
trying to cycle Watford into that to learn how to really master that small ball
play. I just feel like he for some reason, he just strikes me
as really having really good potential for that. And we haven't even talked about
Greg Brown junior or Greg Brown the third we talk about Greg Brown Junior two
if you're I don't know that's about Greg Greg Brown junior, but Greg GB
three or god Gogles Brown junior because he got and he started wearing goggles at
the end of the year and that was really exciting. I don't see him
making the rotation very much, but you never know. I mean, hopefully
there's a lot of garbage time one way or the other, just for him
to get in there and ensure that the Blazers meet the Tarabo and Biggs and
quote imposed quota of dunks for the year. That's a much critical role that
he holds. Yeah, for sure, No, we everybody enjoyed Greg Brown,
and Greg Brown is a bundle of energy and uh, you know he
could also be like especially when they're playing the second unit, you know,
he could be that little bit of a spark that they need, kind of
like nas could be the you know, the spark for the first unit.
I will say, when you look at players on this roster though that maybe
aren't just widely known just yet, trend and Waffer is the one that I
just immediately go towards. I think that he might end up playing a bigger
or more impactful than an anticipated role for this team. What should be fun
because those are those are awesome storylines to follow. Yeah, and watch out
for Jabari too, Like he surprised everybody at Summer League, and even I,
who like I don't have an eye for analysis. You know, I
don't know what I'm looking at half the time. Half the time, I'm
like, you know, this looks good and then I can go investigate more.
Jabari Walker stepped out on the court and I was like, oh,
he's an NBA player, Like after his first couple of plays, I could
even I could see it. Even I was like, oh, yeah,
he's clearly an NBA player. He's a good decision maker, he's strong,
he is happy to be a role player, and so he's another one I
would just keep keep an eye out for. He feels like I've seen so
little of him. He feels like he could be very disruptive on the defensive
end, Like no matter how you use him, I don't know. I
just have a terrible feel for like what does he look like just away from
the ball on offense? And someone who's just like this accessory and so that
would be big for him. If he winds up getting minutes for this team,
I'd wonder something either went terribly wrong or terribly right, I think,
or incredibly right. Excuse me, well, I'm gonna jumped forward to one
of the questions that I was prepared for this time, where you were asking
about my my wacky five man lineup that I wanted to see, because you
can always do you always do the who closes or whatever, but you often
also ask the you know, this is my favorite question of the look Ahead
podcast is what's the weird, old, bonkers, quirky lineup? You want
to see the Blazers try so. I would like to see more of the
twenty twenty two Summer League Championship roster with Trendon and Jabari and Shaden and Keion
and Brandon Williams. I just want to see more of that. They were.
They were so fun to watch at Summer League, and like they were
they were playing deep, they were like holding other teams to very low scores,
including your New York Knicks, and they were they were just really fun
to watch. And I know if they're on the court, then things are
either going incredibly well or incredibly poorly. But I want to see more of
them together because they're in the future, right, Like, let's see it.
Let's see what Shadon and Trendon can do. Let's see what Shaden and
Jabari look like together. Let's see what people are saying about Kean Johnson.
I don't know. I'm excited for Hopefully there'll be opportunities to watch them and
it'll be in a good way. That's like the mid April final game of
the regular season, we clinched a play in or playoff spot. These are
the guys we're gonna play type lineup totally. Plus, it just got me
to be able to remind you about the twenty twenty two summer really Champion because
for some reason, you haven't brought that up yet, and even though it's
a really important storyline. Or did they hang a banner? Oh, I
just had my picture taken with the trophy and the ring, so I don't
We don't have a banner up yet, But that doesn't mean that there isn't
going to be one. I mean, they already have one championship. I
don't know if they you know everybody, Yeah, I mean, look,
the Warriors get Ring Night. Why don't the Blazers mine you will not be
surprised to know includes basically a small like a non traditional center. Look,
I want to see Jeremy Grant, Trend and Wattford, Josh Hart, Gary
Payton the Second and Dame. And my thought process there is just give me
Watford's TBD. But I think if Grant's on the court and so is Heart
and GP two, just give me four guys who could really defend and let
Dame cook, let's just see where let's just see where this goes. Do
you have enough shooting on there so they won't just like send four guys onto
Dame. I think you need Gary Payton the Second to shoot as well from
threes he did last year. I'm fine with Grant as sort of a spot
up shooter. Watford's heart in that line. Yeah, and he's like I
think John Hart, if they were he could shoot. But he's like the
King of He shoots worse from three than you think because he's built, is
like this three India guy and every year it just seems like he's under thirty
five percent or whatever. But I would just give me Dame plus all defense.
And if you don't think Watford's gonna be good enough. You have Winslow
to throw in there, but that would give you even probably even less shooting.
At this point, I trust Watford more n I trust Winslow on offense.
This can change depending on the matchup, But who would be your go
to crunch time unit for this team? You're right, I mean it depends
on the matchup, and it depends on like who's playing center, I think
is the biggest thing. I wouldn't be surprised if Gary Payton is in there,
So we have Dame and then maybe Gary Payton to just hound whoever it
is that. You know, if it's a crunch time situation, you need
somebody who's just gonna go get up and yeah, so Dame and Gary and
then you know Nas maybe for rebounding, and then kind of the rest sort
of depends on who's playing center. Like if it's a big center, then
we need Yusuf in there. And just who does he play best with?
Is he playing best with Jeremy Grant? Is he playing better with you know,
Justice? I'm not sure who like who that for is. But then
if it's a somebody else who's playing a smaller lineup, I think we will
see Jeremy Grant, and you know, possibly heart or justice. I do
think though that if they're in a situation where they're subbing for offense and defense,
they're gonna get Nurkis in there for the defense, because just sitting nurk
completely at the end of the game seems a little risky on his psyche.
You even think that they're that Chauncy Bills is sort of bold enough to play
with Nurkis's minutes like that. So where even if the matchup, you know,
in the playoffs, it's one thing, but like if it's a regular
season game in January, do you really want to deal with the politics of
pulling your starting center that you just paid a bunch of money over the off
season for a game in crunch time? Because I looked at as, I
was actually surprised that you And it makes sense though when you're talking about the
matchups. But I viewed them as having just like we viewed them as having
four starter locks. I just penciled in Simon's Dame nurk and Grant will always
be on the floor for their closing unit. And so I guess you see
that there might be more fungibility in the front court for them. I mean,
I think so, I think it, but it is gonna be risky,
and it's gonna have to be a conversation that the coach has already had
previous. You know. I don't think it's something that you want to just
pull in the middle of the game and be like, oh, yeah,
you're not you're not finishing out. But you know, we shall see.
But I don't think it's necessarily a given. If they have if they're playing
against a fast athletic group that they need to catch up to or that they
need to score on, then I think it's possible. It does feel like
most of the changes would come in the front court, where I'd be fairly
surprised if if you're getting into timeouts offense defense, I get up like Damon
Simons are just gonna be tethered to the floor and crunch time and then you
can play. I think between GP two Heart, Little Nurkic Grant, those
are five options to fill the final three spots, and maybe you just sort
of, you know, pull the strings as as you may depending on the
match up. There, you had Simons in your closing lineup, I think
I left him out do you think that that is like just something they just
would not be willing to do, Like we just paid all this guy all
this money. We're not going to not have him clothes because I just feel
like if I was going to choose in a crunch situation between Simon's and like
I want somebody just playing that hounding defense, I think it would to me
it would be I mean, did they what were they doing with c J.
I think they would approach And it's tough because Billips didn't really get that
opportunity given all the injuries and stuff. I would I think he would be
locked in for me, and it would be more likely that they try to
downsize to the point of GP two Simon's dame, then we're not going to
play Simon's at all. But I mean maybe you're right too though. I
just can envision them giving Simon's one hundred million dollars and then being like,
you know what, why don't you take a seat during the most important seconds
of the game. And I think you're also right, and I like completely
forgot that, like Gary Payton isn't necessarily a guard, so like he could
be in there. I think that's a deficial position. He's the defender.
He's the primary defender. This is actually a fantastic nickname. By the way,
It's not very creative because his dad was a glove. But when you
hear the mitten, you do kind of laugh. Oh So, I actually
had on my podcast Devon Pouncey, who used to play a he's a local
sports guy here in town, and he used to play AAU with Gary Payton
and they played on like Gary Payton's team, like the Gary Payton Senior team.
And I asked him about Gary Payton's preferred nickname, and apparently, uh,
he does not. He's not a fan of Mitten's. He likes young
Glove. I don't like young Glove, but I don't think you get to
choose your own nickname. But if he doesn't like the mitten, then we
stopped calling him the mitten. That's right, Fawn is he doesn't get the
pick. But if he doesn't like something like I don't know if he came
up with the young glove, but he likes young Glove better than Mitten.
Agree. First of all, he's like he's like thirty, So like,
you don't get to be called young glove anymore. I guess in comparison to
your dad. Sure, you like young glove. I like what he I
like. I would rather call him what he prefers to be called, because
I could see how mittens might rub him the wrong way, Like, you
know, it took him a while to get where he was getting. He's
not very big, you know, he's always in his dad's shadow. I
could see how it just might like rub him the wrong way, and he
just doesn't want to be called that. So I don't know synonyms for glove
and mitten, Like I'm out after that, So I just googled it and
we could call him the Gauntlet. That's so good, Dan, Oh my
god, that's genius. So because everybody has to run the gauntlet. Yeah,
there you go. So that's the The other ones are bad. There's
muff that could turn terribly that would be so bad. And the other one
is gauge, which I did not know was a synonym for a glove.
But I don't mind the Gauntlet. I like it better than young Glove.
I'll say that right now. Yeah. Yeah, we're recording this, and
as we record this, their wind total is set at thirty nine point five.
Are you smashing the over the under on that right now, and we're
you sort of see them stacking up in the larger picture of the West.
I mean it being fall of course, I'm hitting me over also, Damian
lo Lord is coming back. Like earlier in the summer, it was like
ridiculously low, and I think they're getting to a more reasonable over under.
So I mean, I think the West is you know, all these other
teams and all these other teams getting better is super annoying. So for once
in my life, I'm grateful for the Jazz. But I think that realistically,
I think they're probably high play or very low not play in like six
or seven. Trying to be realistic and trying to be somewhat optimistic about it.
You know, there's always the chance that they could be four, like
for some reason, four is always like, you know, fourth in the
West. But I just think, somewhat optimistically, I would go with seven
or six, given the fact that these guys might take a little while to
gel. They're still getting to know the new coach. The GM has come
out and said we're not as good as we could be still, so that
was like an incredibly refreshing thing, you know, to say too. But
you know they're never out with Damian Lillard, they're always gonna do better.
As long as you have Damian Lillard, they're always going to do better than
what people think they're gonna do. I'm with you and that if if they're
relatively healthy for the year, thirty nine point five does sound seem low because
like they're they're top seven guys, and certainly they're top six guys depending on
how you feel about nas little like, certainly they're top six are really good,
Like the top six seven of these guys can be really good, and
so if you have concerned about their depth or you think someone else is gonna
get injured, thirty nine point five does I have to go through and do
mine for the entire league. And I've been hitting me over on every single
podcast, but just sort of like where I don't expect the Kings to be
great, but they're over under feels really low. I have the Blazers in
my head around like five or a little bit over that, in which case,
like thirty nine point five just feels a touch too low for them.
Yeah, that's where I am like, Damian Lord can't do it all,
and it's potentially he has a lot more help. But until I actually see
it, I'm not ready to like go like, yeah, they're gonna come
in fourth in the West. Right now, I'm gonna hold it. You
know, you can get over but not buy a ton, And I don't
want to be too rosy, but like you can show a ton of progress
for the future and still not wind up too high in the standings this year.
Just looking at how many teams are, there are eleven teams in the
West that are chasing a playoff spot, and some of them there's like a
bunch of them that have the potentials to win fifty plus games. So is
there anything I didn't ask you about with regards to this team that you think
we need to discuss. I feel like we covered a lot. I'm still
I know that you always want to know what I've learned about, you know,
pets, and I am trying very hard to find out if the new
players who've been added to the game have any pets, but I'm afraid I
don't have any information on that. We did talk about how we've got some
extremely fashionable Jeremy Grant, so I'm really excited to see if that's gonna the
rest of the team's gonna step up their game in terms of tunnel walks.
These are the kinds of things I think about. I know, maybe they're
not what you think about, but yeah, I'll just say I have no
idea what this team is going to look like, and I just really hope
that like ten games in, I'll have a better idea and I won't be
still going what are they doing? That I'll be able to be like,
oh, I can see where we're headed. They have like the potential,
like there are some sneaky good like between Game and Jeremy Grant and even nerk.
They might have some like fashionistas on this team. Yeah, you know,
Keian Johnson is you know, he's a young fella, but he's got
high aspirations. He's already got a deal. He's actually a big fisherman and
so he has a deal with like a fishing brand for fishing outfits. I
mean all been like the overall cargoes or whatever. I'm all for it.
How cool is that? So? Uh Yeah, No, I just think
I think ever, there's like sort of this huge side of relief that whatever
we're calling last year is over. We're turning the page. We have the
team in place. Now it's up to them to go learn like what the
new kind of basketball is going to look like, and you know to work.
You know, have Damian Lillard back is just it's so great. I
can't wait to have them back. And like twenty five percent of the roster
has new abs, Like, how can you think about the Blazers, Tara?
This was fantastic as always, In case anybody skipped the intro, are
you able to tell our listeners where they can find you and the podcast that
you're putting out. Yes, I am on Twitter at tcb B i ggs
that has two b's and two gs, and the We Have a Take podcast
is on Twitter at we Have a Take and it's wherever you get podcasts.
I just want to echo that Tara's really fun to follow. But do we
have a Take podcast? A breath of fresh air relative to typical NBA coverage,
So go check that out. Thank you as always, Sarah. You
know by now I will be spamming your dms at some point in the future.
But thank you so much for all the time that you always give me.
Thank you for having me