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What is krack alac in fellow thermonuclear
a efforts. I am Dan's Valley coming

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at you with another twenty twenty three, twenty twenty four NBA team look Ahead.

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We're onto the Portland Trailblazers, and
so you know what that means for

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I don't know how many years running, probably five, but she's been on

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the podcast way more than five times. My good friend, Tara Bowen Biggs.

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She is the co host of the
We Have a Take podcast. You

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can find them wherever you get your
podcasts. I include a link to their

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Twitter and their podcast feed as well
in the YouTube and podcast descriptions here.

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You can follow Tara on Twitter at
tcbb IgGs. I recommend doing that immediately

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post haste. Tara, welcome back. How are you doing? What are

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we even gonna talk about? There's
nothing to talk about with this team.

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I'm very, very worried we're gonna
run out of things to say. I

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know, nothing going on with the
Trailblazers. It's like, you know,

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let's talk that for like five minutes
and then we can talk about like whatever

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else you you know, want to
want to talk about. I'm making a

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trip out east in January, So
maybe you can tell me all the cool

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places to go. Uh, you're
going to the city, so I know

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nothing about it. I can I
can tell you what you arenos you're going

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to be seeing the games at since
you're gonna go see the Blazers play the

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next and the net. That's about
That's the extent of my information on New

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York City. Yeah. So actually, though, seriously, I'm so excited

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to talk to you about what's been
going on with the Blazers. It's been

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a wild off season, non stop, well start and stop with the drama,

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and but just lots of interesting things
are going on, and I'm excited

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to answer some of the questions that
you sent my way. And I do

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think that collectively, the NBA intelligensa
ohes you and I thank you. As

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my dogs disagree. They're going off
in the background. But we power through

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anyway, because we put this podcast
on the books and then the Damian Lillard

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stuff like happened a week or whatever
later, And so I'm of the firm

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belief that had we not put a
podcast on the books and that the universe

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didn't want to make sure that the
Blazers were at least somewhat settled, so

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none of our information was dated.
The Damian Lillard trade song would still be

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dragging on and so on, behalf
of Tara and I World. You're welcome.

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Yeah that was I don't know.
It took a while before I heard

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my I got my annual you know
request from you, and I was a

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little bit freaking out that like,
this is the year, this is the

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year that he was like, why
on earth I gotta come, I gotta

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talk to somebody else from the Blazers. So I was very thrilled when you

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reached out again, please don't be
and it's always gonna happen. It's just

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honestly, I was just like this
damn stuff, just hurry upward. And

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then eventually I was like, hey, if we put it on the books

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for October, like it might happen
right before we record. Yeah, so

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thank you. So we have to
start there. That is the only place

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to start. How do you feel
ultimately about how it all played out and

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sort of the discourse that surrounded it
and came with this entire situation. So

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overall, I would say great.
Considering our franchise player, Damian Lollard,

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who I have loved having on this
team for so long, who has meant

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so much to this community, meant
everything to the team. Considering the fact

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that he has now gone. Personally, I couldn't feel any better about how

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it all ended. I've said over
and over and over a million times.

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Damien is a storyteller. And while
he didn't manufacture this story that ended with

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him getting traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, when you look at it, like

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it was the best story that could
have been written, so so many things

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that and I'm speaking for myself,
but I have to say I think I

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probably represent a pretty big chunk of
the fan base because so for me,

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it was like, Damien's here until
he's gone. That was I was like

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the same way with LaMarcus. He's
here until he's gone. Then LaMarcus,

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you know, was gone. When
Damien asked for a trade, I was

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like, Okay, he's gone.
I'm going to accept that. And I

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think everybody could see it coming.
It was not a surprise on July first

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when he asked for a trade,
and you know, immediately we all went

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into our like we started making our
Damian Lillard playlists, reaching out to each

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other going how are you doing?
Are you okay, how you're feeling,

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you know, giving each other extra
hugs when we saw each other in person

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sharing our favorite Damian Lillard moments,
like we all we got that out of

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our system, you know, and
like by July fourth, we were like,

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okay, so when's this trade happening? It was it was really like

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gave us a chance to like pre
grieve. You know. What is there

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like a fan base sentiment on how
the request sort of played out? Because

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there's like these two it feels like
I think a lot of people end up

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in the Okay, this is a
gray area. Both sides could have done

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something better, but like you had
a front office that apparently wasn't as forthcoming

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with him or told him things that
he thought he was promised that they would

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make trades and then didn't. And
then you have his trade request which was

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one team. I know he added
Brooklyn Milwaukee sort of at the end,

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but it was one team, and
so like that added fuel to like this

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just what became a very contentious fire. What is like sort of the fan

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base sentiment on that, is it
skewing more towards like you support the team

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rather than like the player, and
you wanted the team to get the best

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possible return or was it like the
way he requested a trade in the sense

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of yes, it was his right
to request a trade, but giving them

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one team for so long, was
there any sort of animosity towards that.

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I in my in my opinion,
I didn't feel any animosity really towards Damian

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about that. Where I felt a
little bit more problematic was whoever convinced him

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that there was only one team that
he could go to. I feel like,

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for some reason, for him,
it was like one team or nothing,

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and that just seemed like that just
didn't make any sense. But for

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some reason he believed that, And
that seems to have like what made him

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ultimately sad in the end when he
got traded somewhere else. Wasn't the trade

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that you know that he wanted to
but to go to dial it back to

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what you're talking about, sort of
the sentiment about you know, Dame,

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you know what the what the team
did. If you go back to like

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draft night, that was when it
was like written on the wall, right,

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it was like, Okay, this
is this is what's gonna happen.

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When they took Scoot the Blazers are
so or a large part of our fan

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base is so scarred from the Michael
Jordan situation. We didn't need Michael,

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We had Clyde Druckscher, Drexler,
we didn't need Kevin Duckler Worth, you

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know, we wanted Greg Godin like
we were. So we've been so scarred

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by those two decisions that when they
took Scoot it was like, uh,

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oh, we've never been here before
where they they took the best player that

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was able and they have that guy
already playing that position, sitting right there.

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And so that's when it was like, Okay, the direction has been

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it has been chosen, and that
was what a lot of us wanted.

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We just wanted a direction. We
just wanted to know where is this team

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heading. Are we going to try
to build around him or are we going

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to try to build a new team. And at that point it became clear

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and it was like a matter of
relief to me. I was really glad,

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And that is not a comfortable place
to be for the GM. And

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I'm not saying like this is the
big greatest GM on the planet or anything,

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but I thought that was really brave
of him change to choose a direction

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that did not involve Damian Lillard,
and it was a tough decision and it

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could have gone bad, and so
far, I think he's been given pretty

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good grade for how it's it's worked
out so far. Do you think there

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was an element though, of like, did Billy Cronin really make this a

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joke? Cronin, Billy Crona,
Oh my god, did he really make

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this decision? Because Scoot was there, like the hornets you thank you,

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Charlotte, Scoots sitting there, and
then it almost felt like from and again

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I'm like a million feet away from
the situation, it almost felt like they

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were trying to force Damian Lillard to
make the trade request because they wouldn't have

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traded Dame by their own accord.
And so it's like, you know,

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I think you already answered my questions
where it was was this the right time

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not just because they got scooped,
but because you didn't see a pathway forward

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to contend on Dame's window. And
I think even when you saw some of

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the names that were out there for
the number three pick, like people were

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talking about og Annobe at one point
the number three year, it is like

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OG's a good player, he doesn't
elevate this Damian Lillard team the title contention.

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So it seems like the fan base
believes it was the right time,

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But like, did this Like I'm
trying to just how hard of a decision

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was this actually based off how the
events unfolded were it was Scoot's just sitting

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there, and it doesn't seem like, like, do you think this team

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would have made the decision by their
own accord to move Damian Lillard following this

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this Scoot pick or were they really
trying to get it to that Dame was

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the one to initiate the end of
this era. I don't know, because

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when you talk about when it was
the right time, you know, we

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could we could go back years and
identify several right times when it could have

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been the right time, uh to
move Damian Lillard. And when you know,

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when Cronin came in and he traded
CJ, that was kind of like,

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Okay, we're moving in a different
direction. And then after seeing what

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they could build without CJ and it
just never clicking and never being the right

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team. I mean, I feel
like, you know, Joe deserved a

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chance to see what he could do
around Damian Lillard. But and I think

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he I think he probably did did
try, but it's just, you know,

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it's tough. Like that's the thing
is, it's hard. It's so

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hard to be a GM and I
think sometimes, like you know, I

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would forget why don't you just do
this? Why don't you just do this?

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And we have all these conversations around
the water cooler or in the bar,

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like why didn't you just this?
Well, it's like it's hard.

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It's a hard job. And when
you look at how it all ended up,

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I feel like the Blazers are in
a good place right now. So

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what did you make of the Well, I guess first it's twofold. What

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did you make that he didn't go
to Miami? That surprised you at all?

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Into what did you what was your
initial impressions? And now you have

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some time to you've had some time
to sit on it. Of the return

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that they ended up getting when they
re routed, Drew Holliday, I loved

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everything about how it turned out.
First of all, the one thing that

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I didn't like about it, like
as already said, is that Damien was

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sad that he didn't get to go
to the one place that he wanted to

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go. To and somebody told him
there was only one place. That was

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the only thing. I'm sorry to
try. He got to go someplace where

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he has a better chance of winning
a title. That's all. No,

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But for those of us who really
want Damien to succeed and win a title,

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we're like, oh my gosh,
he has a great chance of actually

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winning a title right now, he's
going somewhere where he's not the best player

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on the team. And by the
way, he's going to be reunited with

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Terry Stutts, who so many of
us loved and just wanted to see Damon

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Statts contend for a title. And
now they're going to actually do that.

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And not only is Terry Stotts there
as an assistant coach, Pat Conaton former

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teammate, Robin Lopez a former teammate. I mean, it's just like it

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couldn't have ended up. I feel
like he has a real chance to contend,

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and that's what we've wanted. We've
just wanted him to have a real

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chance. I'm sad that Wes Matthews
didn't I know what it was like,

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let's just get the Bamans. Does
LaMarcus come out of retirement, maybe let's

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really get the band to come back
together. But not only was I happy

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with how that part of it turned
out, because Dame has a real chance

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to contend. What they did next
trading Drew Holiday to Boston. I mean

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that was not only did they,
you know, give the Milwaukee Bucks a

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leg up on Miami, who thought
that they were going to win the championship

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this year. Then they went and
made the Celtics better. So now these

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two top teams in the East are
going to be fighting against each other for

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supremacy for the next four years.
Guess who holds their draft rights after that

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we have we now have unprotected picks, you know, after they've those are

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yeah, and they're way off like
the Milwaukee picks. I did find.

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I didn't know this, and I
don't know if you knew this when I

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was writing something the other day.
That first swap they have with Milwaukee is

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actually top fifteen protected. So it's
not like the twenty twenty eight thing.

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To me is kind of like eh, but like having twenty twenty nine and

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then two thousand and thirty and then
you have Boston, Everyone's like, yeah,

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Boston's playing the team most likely to
be good and I'm like, are

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you guys looking at their payroll right
now? Like Jalen Brown's not gonna be

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there, like they might slow Jason
Tatum, who outually having I thought it

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was very smart, and I feel
like, I know other teams have done

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this, but like Joe Cronin making
this decision to prioritize those distant picks,

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if we're being honest, there's a
good chance that he's not the one who's

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making those picks because job stability in
the NBA is just non existent at these

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levels. And so I thought that
was a real like guts it was the

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smart move. But I think it
was a gutsy move because I even tend

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to romanticize these distant first round picks. But if you're looking at it from

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a this coast to your point about
it being hard to be an executive,

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if you're looking at it from a
I'm trying to do my job and maximize

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my time here, make sure that
I'm still employed by then prioritizing those picks,

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is it necessarily the smart way to
go? I think you could argue

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is a job stability because he's now
telegraphed, Hey, this is going to

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be a long whatever. But I
do give him kudos for like that's all

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Milwaukee had to offer. Okay,
fine, like there was other stuff in

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Boston. It's like to prioritize these
distant picks, I think was actually a

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really good sign for the organization.
Yeah, especially after the two teams are

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gonna be battling it out, and
that's I didn't even think about it that.

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I just laughed because Miami, like
or Portland in two in one fail

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swoop took off Miami's two top targets
and Damon Giannis because now Giannis isn't going

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to ask for out. And then
I laughed because by Milwaukee thinking they were

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doing a favor by not giving Drew
Holliday a heads up, which I didn't

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understand that at all. I think
communication would have been the real form of

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respect. Whatever. They end up
improving their biggest rival in the conference because

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they didn't, like they could have
built a three team trader. Maybe Drew

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Holliday ends up elsewhere because they didn't
want him in Boston. So I didn't

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even think of it from the Blazers
end, where it was just like that's

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a great that's a great point.
It was. It was just a thing.

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It was just Chef's kiss. Every
every tweet that came out following it,

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it was just like, oh,
that's perfect. And it was like

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the thing about Miami is there's two
things I want to say about the Miami

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aspect of it. Number One,
I felt like poor Tyler hero, like

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my co host Rose says, he
caught a lot of strays in this because

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it's not his fault that he's who
he was and that he wasn't who the

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Blazers needed. The Blazers simply did
not need. Yeah, they did not

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need him. And that leads to
my second point, which is like,

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if I was Damian Lillard and I
wanted to go to Miami and I assumed

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that Miami wanted me, I would
be looking would have been looking at Miami

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going like are you guys trying?
Like are you even trying to get me

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to come to this team? And
it's like when you look at it in

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the end, it's like, well, Miami wanted Damian Lillard. They just

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wanted it to be easy. They
just didn't want it to be hard,

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you know. So it's like,
sorry, yeah, I'm told. I

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mean, I'm with you on that
front. And I feel I really do

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feel for Toddler. I mean,
mad Men meme, that's what the money's

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for, Like, that's to endure
this. I understand that. But he's

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good. They just didn't need him. I do think it's an interesting element

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of well, they clearly and this
isn't spicy, like, well, look

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what they got for Drew Holliday,
They wouldn't have got that for Tyler Hero.

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Like most shit, Drew Holliday is
a better player. That doesn't mean

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Tyler Hero is bad. So I'm
just elated that that whole back and forth

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between like people I think underplayed like
Miami. If they did their best offer

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I think was a real offer,
it just wasn't gonna be as good or

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fit what the Blazers wanted as what
they ended up getting. It's like both

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things could be true, but from
what we understand, Miami never even came

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close to putting their best offer on
the table. So, and why wouldn't

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Portland be frustrated by that? Because, as you said, you wanted Damian

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Lillard, a top ten, top
fifteen player for as easy and as little

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as possible, and it just unless
you have a no trade clause, it

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just doesn't work that way. It
sure went on on for a really long

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time, but in my opinion,
it was worth it, yeah, for

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sure. And how like it was
a long I mean basically the stuff started

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even before the draft, but like
this was all just in the ether.

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So from like draft night on,
we're just caught in this like limbo.

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And some of it was like a
very like fiery, like just contentious limbo.

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So like that's that's not even fun. I'm here for the jokes and

256
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the chaos, the not the anger. Yeah. Yeah. And I think

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the one of the things that was
a pretty common theme amongst the fan base

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is that we just wanted to make
sure that this separation from Damian Lillard made

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it did not make it so that
he could never come back. Like,

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we did not want this to be
a contentious, ugly separation because we so

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many of us again I'm speaking for
myself and people of similar mind, not

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everybody. We love this man and
what he has done for our city,

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for our community, put the Blazers
on the map again, made us relevant,

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and what we didn't want is for
the separation to be bitter and something

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that he'll never want to come back
to. So I think feelings were initially

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hurt, but I got you got
to think that once he realized that he

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gets to play with Jannis now and
he has a real chance to contend that

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the team was actually trying to get
him to a good space and that we'll

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be able to you know, smooth
over whatever happens, and he will always

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be welcome here. This might be
a weird place to segue because we have

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so many new players and direction things
to talk about, and you kind of

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actually touched upon this on your latest
pod with Kaylen Cooper. Do we have

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like a feel for what type of
head coach Chauncey Billups is and is it

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if we don't and it sounds like
you don't necessarily have a great feel.

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It's made me feel better because I'm
like, I'm like clearly missing something here.

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Is it his fault that we don't
have sort of a feel like what

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is just your impressions of the Chauncey
Billups head coaching experience and so far?

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Yeah, I really think we just
don't have any data, Like he's had

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basically four different teams, you know, and everyone completely different. Every team

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has a was trying to do something
different, Some are trying to win some

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are trying to lose, some are
trying to win with different players, and

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somebody some are trying to lose with
different players, Like we have no idea.

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I have no idea. And yeah, that's a big topic around here,

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is that, like this is kind
of the make or break year if

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he can't show who he is with
this particular team, who we've been told

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is actually the kind of players that
he's been interested in playing, who are

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capable of playing the type of game
that he wants to coach them into.

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Okay, let's see it. Okay, can you get these guys organized?

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I mean, it's no shock to
say this is not going to be a

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good team this year. They are, you know, there's lots of promise,

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but you know we're years away from
a good team. Our point guard

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is nineteen years old. He's never
played against players who are better than him,

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a like I have, and I
have concerns about the fact that,

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like the three players that are our
future are all guys who like never have

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played high, highly competitive games before. We can talk about that later,

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but as far as the coaching goes, this is a great opportunity for Chauncey

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Billups to show that he can get
these guys to rally around him, he

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can get them organized, he can
get them even just playing some of the

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basic like he has to like,
we have four rookies and two guys who

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are this is their second year,
so half their roster, yeah is you

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know half the guys who are and
you know a lot of these guys are

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going to play too, you know, have no or extremely limited NBA experience.

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So he's been talking about in practice
like he has to go back to

304
00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:02,519
the very very very like do you
understand what I just said to you?

305
00:20:03,119 --> 00:20:04,720
Let's run it. Oh no,
you don't get it. Okay, I'm

306
00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:07,759
going to have to tell you again. So we're going to see if he

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likes doing that, and we're going
to see if the way he does that

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gets results. All along he has
had the loudest vocal support of the players

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every different iteration, well maybe not
the first iteration that he that he had,

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but you know, Josh Hart,
Jeremy Grant, those guys have have

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00:20:26,559 --> 00:20:30,200
all said positive things, and they've
all talked about you know, and and

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00:20:30,319 --> 00:20:32,920
Damien. You know, they all
they all liked him, and he seemed

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00:20:32,960 --> 00:20:37,759
to have the trust of the players. Now this is like a golden opportunity

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00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:41,799
for him to show what he can
do, and if he can't, he's

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00:20:41,799 --> 00:20:47,279
got Scotty Brooks right next to him. Well, it's kind of interesting because

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00:20:47,279 --> 00:20:51,000
Scottie Brooks, like we were I
was talking about this with a friend this

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00:20:51,119 --> 00:20:59,200
morning, like he must either really
like coaching with coach Phillips or he sees

318
00:21:00,240 --> 00:21:03,319
maybe possibly a special an opportunity for
himself in the future. I think it's

319
00:21:03,400 --> 00:21:10,079
because he really likes coaching with Billups. But I mean it's golden opportunity right

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00:21:10,119 --> 00:21:14,079
now to show us what he's got
that are having to survive the Washington Wizards

321
00:21:14,440 --> 00:21:15,079
made him like, you know,
and I don't ever want to have to

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be like a head coach again.
I'm content being the guideline, the guy.

323
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Yeah has there been And I'm sure
there has. I'm just not as

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00:21:22,119 --> 00:21:25,880
plugged into like the comments and the
tenor of what's coming out of training camp

325
00:21:25,920 --> 00:21:30,559
preseason. Are there any clues to
how like this team is going to play

326
00:21:30,200 --> 00:21:33,599
at either or both ends of the
floor this season. I think you look

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00:21:33,599 --> 00:21:34,079
at them and say, like,
yeah, they need to be fast,

328
00:21:34,079 --> 00:21:37,599
but like, does it sound like
they're committed to doing that as Chauncey said

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00:21:37,599 --> 00:21:41,559
anything about identities that he's hoping to
install with the group that they currently have,

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yes, fast, which is no
big surprise considering how young an athletic

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all these all these players are.
But there's also been a little bit more

332
00:21:52,319 --> 00:21:55,640
of a focus, both from people
who talk about the team and from the

333
00:21:55,720 --> 00:21:59,839
coach himself into them just like getting
into sets faster, so not just like

334
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running and lots of fast break,
but actually being able to get into sets

335
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faster than they have. It's it's
hard to know what they're gonna look like

336
00:22:11,319 --> 00:22:15,599
because I am so used to watching
one thing for the last eleven years.

337
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:19,000
Like for the last eleven years,
Damien has brought it up the court.

338
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Everybody got set, we saw and
then you know there's an io ball or

339
00:22:23,200 --> 00:22:27,400
maybe he kicks it out and that's
it. It's been the same thing reliably.

340
00:22:27,720 --> 00:22:32,680
It works, but it's been the
same thing every year, and so

341
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:37,680
like even the two preseasons games,
it looks nothing like that at all.

342
00:22:38,640 --> 00:22:42,160
It looks very chaotic. It looks
like them running down to the other end

343
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:44,920
of the court and then like,
ah, well, now what are we

344
00:22:45,039 --> 00:22:47,880
doing? Which is why I think
it is really important that we've got guys

345
00:22:47,920 --> 00:22:51,880
like Anthony Simon's and Malcolm Brogden and
guys who've done it before, Because like,

346
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,720
I think that will speed up there
figuring it out if they have at

347
00:22:56,799 --> 00:22:59,799
least a couple guys with experience on
the floor. So anyway, speed,

348
00:23:00,480 --> 00:23:03,759
athleticism, you know, all the
things. They've got great vibes, Like

349
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:07,039
they said, vibes as many times
as they said fast. So if nothing

350
00:23:07,039 --> 00:23:12,079
else, they're gonna have great vibes, fast vibes maybe even Yeah, And

351
00:23:12,240 --> 00:23:17,119
would you expect them just based off
this personnel, because like to be like

352
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:19,200
a just as aggressive on defense as
they are on offense, to where I

353
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:22,000
think if when I frame it as
the offense, it's by playing fast.

354
00:23:22,319 --> 00:23:26,759
You might not be inefficient, but
you'll create opportunities you're not equipped to create

355
00:23:26,759 --> 00:23:30,720
in a half court because of your
lack of proven self creation and you're trying

356
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:34,039
to experiment with shade sharpon balls,
scoots running point for the first time.

357
00:23:34,319 --> 00:23:37,559
So just playing fast and chaotic as
a way to sort of paper over those

358
00:23:37,640 --> 00:23:42,200
learning deficiencies, I think you can
do that defensively and people don't necessarily think

359
00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:45,880
about that a lot where it's yeah, if you're gonna you might fall aton

360
00:23:45,960 --> 00:23:48,319
by trying to force a bunch of
turnovers and taking a bunch of gambles,

361
00:23:48,519 --> 00:23:51,079
but it might lead to opportunities at
the other end or get you stops that

362
00:23:51,119 --> 00:23:53,240
you're not gonna get anyway, because
you don't trust your young group, as

363
00:23:53,279 --> 00:23:56,359
you just outlaid, I didn't even
until you framed it that way, the

364
00:23:56,440 --> 00:24:00,400
fact that they just have like six
or more of these that have two years

365
00:24:00,640 --> 00:24:03,680
or one year or fewer experience in
the NBA. Would you expect them to

366
00:24:03,720 --> 00:24:07,160
be like hyper aggressive on devas because
that's not something they've done for I know

367
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:11,480
they ended up doing pretty well,
I think it was twenty one, twenty

368
00:24:11,519 --> 00:24:14,880
two and forcing opponent turnovers, but
like if you go through Blazer's history,

369
00:24:14,960 --> 00:24:17,519
like the past decade, they're not
forcing a ton of turnovers. And so

370
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:19,000
do you would you expect them to
be kind of I love the words you

371
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:22,559
used. Would you expencd them be
just as chaotic on defense? Or do

372
00:24:22,599 --> 00:24:26,599
you think that they'll try to maybe
stay a little bit more conservative? So

373
00:24:26,279 --> 00:24:33,799
I believe that or I don't believe. I think that you can get more

374
00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:40,359
immediate results by focusing on the offense, right now and playing some just basic

375
00:24:40,480 --> 00:24:45,960
fundamental defense. Oh okay, And
I think that with such a young crowd,

376
00:24:47,119 --> 00:24:49,359
it's really going to be the coach's
choice. Do I want to throw

377
00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:53,359
them in and really have them learn
the hard way how to play defense from

378
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:59,200
game one? Or do we want
to start working on some things that we

379
00:24:59,319 --> 00:25:03,559
can really prove at a faster rate
and maybe like have these guys feel a

380
00:25:03,559 --> 00:25:07,119
little bit more successful a little bit
earlier, because defense takes a long time.

381
00:25:07,279 --> 00:25:11,200
And like that's kind of what coach
Statts would do, Like when he'd

382
00:25:11,240 --> 00:25:14,400
get a new team, they'd focus
on offense first, and they get their

383
00:25:14,440 --> 00:25:17,599
offense going well. And we know
Stotts is an offensive coach, but like

384
00:25:18,039 --> 00:25:19,799
because then you don't have to worry
about that part, Like you get the

385
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:23,440
offense cooking, and then you go
back and you try to work on defense.

386
00:25:23,559 --> 00:25:26,160
Now, we saw how successful that
was, So maybe that's not the

387
00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:29,680
way to go. Maybe the new
coach says, hey, you know what,

388
00:25:29,839 --> 00:25:33,640
we're going to really focus on defense
first, and given his background and

389
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,720
he's supposed to be, you know, this great defensive mind, maybe that's

390
00:25:37,799 --> 00:25:41,640
the way that they're going to go. So I really have no idea which

391
00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:45,160
direction he's going to go. I'm
open to either. And you know,

392
00:25:45,359 --> 00:25:48,160
now that I think about it,
I think the Blazers or Cronin seemed like

393
00:25:48,759 --> 00:25:52,720
way too obsessed with DeAndre Ayton.
I am intrigued by what he does outside

394
00:25:52,720 --> 00:25:56,480
of Phoenix, but having knowing what
we saw from him defensively two years ago,

395
00:25:56,839 --> 00:26:00,680
and then now having Robert Williams the
third at least both of them,

396
00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,079
for now having those guys being able
to in theory cover up even if you

397
00:26:04,079 --> 00:26:07,440
want to play a little bit more
conservative where you're not gonna come up as

398
00:26:07,559 --> 00:26:11,079
high with them, or maybe you
don't want r W three switching. People

399
00:26:11,119 --> 00:26:14,960
hate when I call him r W
three. They want time Lord come or

400
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:18,960
r Dub like coming up like you
have the having those guys as sort of

401
00:26:18,440 --> 00:26:22,640
you know, I mean Robert Williams
with just his rotations and stuff. Maybe

402
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,240
having the the center position on lock
in theory. From a defense like Deandreton's

403
00:26:26,240 --> 00:26:30,039
still a pretty good defender. I
don't think he's this gross defender. Maybe

404
00:26:30,039 --> 00:26:34,839
that actually helps everybody because from my
perspective, you you've already sold me on

405
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:37,680
it, like of not having to
go to the chaotic round. I'm just

406
00:26:37,759 --> 00:26:41,240
like they're not gonna be able to
do anything. But I keep forgetting that

407
00:26:41,319 --> 00:26:45,319
they have these two proven guys who
will be there to cover up stuff.

408
00:26:45,359 --> 00:26:48,279
So yeah, you could be aggressive, but DeAndre eight and his peak was

409
00:26:48,319 --> 00:26:51,680
really good at directing people on defense, like and calling out stuff. And

410
00:26:51,720 --> 00:26:56,000
I think Robert Williams the third has
played in so many different kind of base

411
00:26:56,119 --> 00:27:00,160
defenses, the nuances of which fly
straight over my head, so I won't

412
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:03,880
get into those, but like,
having that much experience just from the bigs

413
00:27:04,240 --> 00:27:07,400
probably makes things. And even having
like matissetibles on this roster like you have,

414
00:27:07,599 --> 00:27:11,440
and Jeremy Grant, who's I think
he's a fine defender. He's probably

415
00:27:11,480 --> 00:27:14,279
become I think people used to view
him as like an all defense type.

416
00:27:14,359 --> 00:27:17,359
I don't know if he's that guy. There's like guys who have played before,

417
00:27:17,519 --> 00:27:19,839
and I'm of the belief that and
maybe this is just because I struggle

418
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:23,400
to understand what's happening defensively, that's
where the biggest learning curve is. And

419
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:29,240
so to have these let's say,
three players who are like they're veterans and

420
00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:33,400
like they're gonna play and they're there, I'm just wondering if that streamlines the

421
00:27:33,519 --> 00:27:37,440
defensive development more than people think in
a weird way, because we're gonna get

422
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,759
into scoop shade and the whole thing
is like it might be tougher on offense

423
00:27:40,839 --> 00:27:44,200
to figure that out just because these
guys aren't gonna create like Jeremy Grant can

424
00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:45,160
do some of it on offense.
I don't really want to see it from

425
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:51,400
beyondreyt and quite frankly, but they're
all actually good and proven battle tested defensively

426
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:55,200
for the most part. You saying
all that just really made me think of

427
00:27:55,279 --> 00:27:59,200
it and that they could be in
a better set up defensively than I was

428
00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:04,920
considering. Yeah, and so I
want to talk about both DeAndre Ayton and

429
00:28:06,559 --> 00:28:11,160
Williams and Brogden too. The thing
about adding them to the team is something

430
00:28:11,200 --> 00:28:15,759
that I've been talking about like all
summer. Before the trade happened, I

431
00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:18,000
was so worried, and it kind
of goes back to me I was saying

432
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:21,480
earlier. I was so worried about
the fact that there was nobody on the

433
00:28:21,559 --> 00:28:29,799
team who had gone into deep runs
and had proven themselves through you know again

434
00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,839
deep runs. I mean, Jeremy
Grant went to the Final four in college

435
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:41,000
and then he had I think one
one run to the conference finals and then

436
00:28:41,039 --> 00:28:45,799
everything else was like a first and
out. You know, Anthony Simons didn't

437
00:28:45,839 --> 00:28:51,799
play college. Shade and Sharp didn't
play college, attended college, didn't play

438
00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:56,720
college. Scoot g Leige ig Night
not a winning team. These guys that

439
00:28:56,799 --> 00:29:03,000
their Blazers are hinging their future on
do not have any experience with winning.

440
00:29:03,880 --> 00:29:07,680
And so I was really happy with
Aid and Williams Brogden as all being these

441
00:29:07,759 --> 00:29:11,200
guys who've been there. And that
doesn't mean that like this year, they're

442
00:29:11,960 --> 00:29:17,079
our players are going to know how
to make it all the way to you

443
00:29:17,160 --> 00:29:22,759
know, the conference finals or whatever, but just I was really wanting to

444
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:26,880
have people who had a hunger for
that kind of thing, just because these

445
00:29:26,920 --> 00:29:30,240
guys that our future are supposed to
be the future of our franchise just have

446
00:29:30,440 --> 00:29:36,000
not had that. You know.
It's I mean, they just haven't.

447
00:29:36,079 --> 00:29:41,559
You know, g Lee, gig
Night not good record. And I'm sure

448
00:29:41,599 --> 00:29:44,799
Scoot learned a lot and I think
he learned a lot about being a professional,

449
00:29:45,519 --> 00:29:51,880
but they weren't winners. And you
know, Shaden attended Kentucky but didn't

450
00:29:51,920 --> 00:29:56,880
play, and you know, Anthony
took a year at IMG Academy, and

451
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:00,640
so anyway, I was happy to
have these additions. The other thing I'll

452
00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:06,359
say about Ayton, I love the
addition of Aten because there is no risk

453
00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:11,079
to this, right, no risk. You know, if it doesn't work

454
00:30:11,119 --> 00:30:15,920
out, they gotta paid somebody.
When you look at their at their roster,

455
00:30:15,519 --> 00:30:19,319
you know they're gonna have to have
somebody on the on you's getting making

456
00:30:19,319 --> 00:30:22,799
a lot of money on the payroll. He's young, and he's young,

457
00:30:23,079 --> 00:30:26,119
and I think, you know,
it's you know, and we all talk

458
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:30,799
about the change of uh, you
know, change of scenery. It's going

459
00:30:30,839 --> 00:30:33,480
to be great for a Nurkic.
It's going to be great for you know,

460
00:30:33,519 --> 00:30:36,599
it could potentially be great for Nurkic, could potentially be great for Ayton.

461
00:30:36,839 --> 00:30:40,400
Let's give it a try. Why
not, you know, Like I

462
00:30:40,480 --> 00:30:45,839
said, no risk. So from
let let's start with the bigs. Then,

463
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:49,200
So what have you like learned or
what are you most intrigued by in

464
00:30:49,319 --> 00:30:53,599
watching DeAndre Ayton on this team.
So the first thing that I did is

465
00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:56,599
I went and I looked up Haud
him any dunks he had, and he

466
00:30:56,640 --> 00:31:00,640
had one hundred and ten. And
then I started reading Phoenix blogs and everyone

467
00:31:00,759 --> 00:31:02,599
was like, oh, he's always
turning up dunks and I was like,

468
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:06,160
oh my god, one hundred and
ten dunks. I'll take it. But

469
00:31:06,920 --> 00:31:12,359
so we've had a couple of flashes
in preseason games of him like just speeding

470
00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:17,839
down the lane in a way that
nur Kischen really didn't do. But what

471
00:31:17,960 --> 00:31:22,839
I think is going to be nice
about Ayton is that I have a soft

472
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:26,759
spot for guys who had a really
high pick and wasn't really their fault,

473
00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:30,319
you know that they were like the
high pick. I mean, he was

474
00:31:30,359 --> 00:31:33,880
a number one draft pick, right, and so in Phoenix that was always

475
00:31:33,920 --> 00:31:37,359
going to be his label. You
are the number one pick. You should

476
00:31:37,359 --> 00:31:41,119
be doing everything for us and you
should be perfect at all times. Like

477
00:31:41,279 --> 00:31:44,680
that's what I would expect out of
a number one pick. And I think,

478
00:31:45,039 --> 00:31:48,880
you know, being somewhere where he's
going to have a different role completely,

479
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,799
he's maybe the best player on the
team right now, and that was

480
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:57,440
not the case when he was in
Phoenix. So I think there's a lot

481
00:31:57,519 --> 00:32:01,680
of potential for him. It could
be good. I want to see him

482
00:32:01,839 --> 00:32:07,720
do some like really good screening.
That's like that was like a key thing

483
00:32:07,759 --> 00:32:12,720
that Nurkic did really well. Is
like he protected Damian Lillard and Anthony Simon's

484
00:32:12,799 --> 00:32:15,759
like he was a great big brother
on the field for those guys because he

485
00:32:15,960 --> 00:32:22,599
really protected them and got them space. And I haven't seen like two preseason

486
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:24,240
games, what have I seen so
far, so I'm but that's definitely something

487
00:32:24,279 --> 00:32:27,960
that I'm going to watch for him, is like how is he going to

488
00:32:28,279 --> 00:32:32,880
protect Scoot? How is he gonna
help Scoot offensively you know, get space

489
00:32:34,000 --> 00:32:38,480
to operate, and you know,
lots of potential there. I'm very optimistic

490
00:32:38,519 --> 00:32:43,440
about him, even if the Blazers
are not a good defensive team having like

491
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:46,000
a bounce back defensive year, because
I think when you look at Phoenix last

492
00:32:46,079 --> 00:32:52,039
year, they were just ill equipped
to defend both sides of the pick and

493
00:32:52,160 --> 00:32:54,440
roll and it put a lot,
It put a lot on eight and and

494
00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:59,240
put him into some really bad situations. I think some people's like other lasting

495
00:32:59,319 --> 00:33:01,680
memories of him is getting torn apart
by like the Jokitch Murray pick and roll,

496
00:33:01,720 --> 00:33:06,079
and it's like, well, everybody's
gonna get torn apart by that U

497
00:33:06,319 --> 00:33:10,000
And also just having tyble, having
Grant even just shade and sharp from a

498
00:33:10,079 --> 00:33:15,559
physic like a physical you know build
perspective if he didn't have any of those

499
00:33:15,599 --> 00:33:19,640
types of guys last year they had
Josha Kogi. But like he's not playing

500
00:33:19,680 --> 00:33:22,640
a ton of minutes, so that
might actually make life a little easy.

501
00:33:22,680 --> 00:33:25,200
Like even having someone like get Jeremy
Grant and then Wati's time on the court

502
00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:28,720
at the same time, if they
ever go with those minutes, I think

503
00:33:28,759 --> 00:33:30,960
that does a lot for him.
I'm a little bit more curious about him

504
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:35,079
offensively on this team because I do
think he's best suited. He can be

505
00:33:35,119 --> 00:33:37,960
a very good screener and create space, as you mentioned what he wants to

506
00:33:37,039 --> 00:33:40,039
be. And I know that he
had one hundred and ten dunks like you

507
00:33:40,160 --> 00:33:44,480
were going to see him in transition, like take a hook shot when it

508
00:33:44,480 --> 00:33:47,279
should be a dunk and it it'll
We're used to that. The stakes are

509
00:33:47,319 --> 00:33:52,640
low, so it's fine. But
because he doesn't have I think Brogden,

510
00:33:52,119 --> 00:33:54,200
if you if they're gonna hold on
to him for a little bit, would

511
00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:59,279
be important here. He still needs
to be set up and his scoot is

512
00:33:59,359 --> 00:34:01,160
shaden. I think Ganfrey Simons has
improved enough to where they can do that.

513
00:34:01,240 --> 00:34:06,119
But like, because everybody is so
young, will there be a reliable

514
00:34:06,160 --> 00:34:08,400
table setter for him to like go
to that pick and roll to find him

515
00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:13,360
in the pockets, and can he
be more committed? I think the other

516
00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:15,480
problem in Phoenix, like you mentioned
vibes, the vibes were just off there.

517
00:34:15,639 --> 00:34:17,719
I don't know what happened, but
like they got rid of Monty,

518
00:34:17,760 --> 00:34:20,800
they got rid of Chris Paul and
now eight and is gone. The vibes

519
00:34:20,800 --> 00:34:22,480
were just off. And so if
the Blazers have better vibes, is he

520
00:34:22,559 --> 00:34:25,920
willing to roll harder, get to
the rim more on those things? So

521
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:29,880
I'm fascinated to watch it, but
I worry that and you talked about this

522
00:34:30,119 --> 00:34:32,599
on your podcast with Kaitlin Cooper.
The vast majority of the looks for his

523
00:34:32,719 --> 00:34:36,679
career have just come off as this, And if you want to explore the

524
00:34:36,719 --> 00:34:39,119
post game, the face up game, I don't know that I've seen enough

525
00:34:39,119 --> 00:34:42,159
from him to think that I want
to see more of that. And I

526
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:44,760
know the stakes are low enough that
the Blazers can do that, and they

527
00:34:44,840 --> 00:34:49,559
probably should. That's where I think
I'm most I guess fascinated and concerned about

528
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,599
how much value it seems like Cronin
in the front office, because, like

529
00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:54,000
I don't know if you read the
piece, and I'm sure you just know

530
00:34:54,119 --> 00:34:58,719
it's like the Aighton was coming no
matter what the Damian Lillard trade was,

531
00:34:58,920 --> 00:35:01,880
Like they didn't Phoenix didn't know who
they were getting aside from Nurkice and maybe

532
00:35:01,960 --> 00:35:07,199
not little like they knew that eight
and was going to Portland. The Blazers

533
00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:09,079
were willing to take eight and they
wanted eight and and so I think that's

534
00:35:09,159 --> 00:35:13,199
in. I think it's a reasonable
we'll bet to make. It's just offensively,

535
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:15,760
I'm a little concerned about whether right
now he's in an environment where we

536
00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:22,000
can see him improve a great deal. And I think that the thing is

537
00:35:22,199 --> 00:35:25,760
is that his improvement right now is
not who we're worried about, right you

538
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:31,000
know. I Mean, he's what
twenty five, twenty six, he needs

539
00:35:31,079 --> 00:35:37,159
to be steady, I think we've
got And that's a you know that for

540
00:35:37,639 --> 00:35:39,559
a guy who you know, had
a knock on him about his consistency,

541
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:44,480
Like that's what's being asked, and
like can he be a good support for

542
00:35:44,599 --> 00:35:49,239
these other guys who they are really
invested in. And I just think if

543
00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:52,639
it works out, it's like a
great thing. It's like when Nurkic first

544
00:35:52,679 --> 00:35:57,199
came to Portland. Nurkic was not
the centerpiece of that trade. The draft

545
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:00,800
pick was the centerpiece of that trade. And Nurkic got here and he woke

546
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,480
up and was like we all got
nerk fever, and you know, it

547
00:36:04,599 --> 00:36:07,760
turned out, you know, better
than we ever expected. So that's kind

548
00:36:07,800 --> 00:36:12,199
of the thing with at And it's
just like if it works out, great,

549
00:36:12,840 --> 00:36:16,079
and if it doesn't, then you
know, it's like, this is

550
00:36:16,159 --> 00:36:22,039
the time give him. They have
Robert Williams the Third as well, and

551
00:36:22,119 --> 00:36:23,519
so what are you, like,
what's most intriguing about him you? And

552
00:36:23,599 --> 00:36:29,880
also do you think that they're actually
like what is the status of this two

553
00:36:29,960 --> 00:36:31,440
big thing? Where it's like do
they view both of them as like Robert

554
00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:34,840
Williams the Third is cheap? It's
like we can just he doesn't play a

555
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:37,000
ton of minutes, he gets injured
all the time, anyway, or do

556
00:36:37,119 --> 00:36:39,079
you think that this ends up being
sort of a layover from one of these

557
00:36:39,119 --> 00:36:46,599
two dudes. So with regards to
Robert Williams, I refused to really learn

558
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:51,599
or get excited about him until he's
on the floor because so far he hasn't

559
00:36:51,679 --> 00:36:54,400
made it the first two games,
and I was burned so hard last year

560
00:36:54,480 --> 00:36:59,440
by Gary Payton the second that I
was like, I am not getting a

561
00:36:59,559 --> 00:37:04,280
tester, And until we see the
floor, I would assume that all of

562
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:08,360
these guys who came in here with
any experience are not necessarily on the roster

563
00:37:08,519 --> 00:37:13,639
for the rest of the season.
But maybe if they like it here and

564
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:16,360
they fit in really well and happen
to have really good chemistry with some of

565
00:37:16,519 --> 00:37:21,400
these younger players who are supposed to
be the intended future of the franchise,

566
00:37:21,880 --> 00:37:25,000
and maybe that will be the case
for him. But so far, I'm

567
00:37:25,119 --> 00:37:31,239
all on board with Moses Brown and
I am totally open to time Lord being

568
00:37:31,400 --> 00:37:35,800
awesome as well. But like I
said, until he hits the floor,

569
00:37:35,840 --> 00:37:38,800
I am not getting attached or giving
my heart to him because I got so

570
00:37:39,159 --> 00:37:44,320
burned by Gary Payton last year.
Assuming he does take the floor, and

571
00:37:44,360 --> 00:37:45,199
I think this has been a big
topic of discussion, do you think the

572
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:51,480
Blazers will try the two big stuff? I mean I don't. I don't

573
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:52,840
think they need to, but they
I mean, this is the year to

574
00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:57,880
try everything right, but they do. They do have a lot of guys

575
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:02,840
who could potentially be playing forward minutes, so it's gonna be a big balance

576
00:38:02,880 --> 00:38:06,079
of like who do you want to
develop, who do you want out there

577
00:38:06,119 --> 00:38:08,639
getting the minutes? And so I
mean, I kind of think that he'll

578
00:38:08,679 --> 00:38:13,519
probably just pretty much be the backup
center, but I'm sure that they will

579
00:38:13,559 --> 00:38:19,360
try for even limited minutes just to
see what it looks like. Again,

580
00:38:19,440 --> 00:38:21,920
we have no idea what Chauncey wants
to do. We have no idea what

581
00:38:22,039 --> 00:38:24,360
his style is. You know,
the only thing that we know about him

582
00:38:24,519 --> 00:38:29,800
is when Neil Olsha gave him like
more guards than anybody should have on the

583
00:38:29,880 --> 00:38:31,239
team. He went and played all
his guards and was like, you're gonna

584
00:38:31,280 --> 00:38:37,079
give me guards? Here you go. That's all we know about Chauncey.

585
00:38:37,199 --> 00:38:43,840
So, yeah, again, big
question mark the Brogden stuff. Do you

586
00:38:43,920 --> 00:38:46,800
expect him to be here, be
in Portland longer than most people are thinking,

587
00:38:46,880 --> 00:38:50,679
like they view him as, oh, we have a like a real

588
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:52,920
backup point guard for the most part. And then also you mentioned in terms

589
00:38:52,960 --> 00:38:57,280
of setting up younger dudes and then
helping them behind the scenes off the floor,

590
00:38:57,320 --> 00:39:00,400
do you think that he could end
up being in Portland it was just

591
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:02,400
to the trade deadline, where do
they rather than move him now? They

592
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:05,960
may be trying to build his value
back up because we know all about the

593
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:10,079
scuttle trade to La because they were
worried about his injury history. Yeah,

594
00:39:10,159 --> 00:39:14,400
I think he might go on the
list of what we call certified Blazer cuties,

595
00:39:14,599 --> 00:39:16,639
who are guys who were here for
a short time but made a really

596
00:39:16,679 --> 00:39:21,320
big impact. Like Josh Hart,
a guy who was not here for a

597
00:39:21,400 --> 00:39:27,960
long time but made a huge impact
just with his presence. And you wasn't

598
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:30,800
a Blazer for a long time,
but it was a good time. I

599
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:32,440
really don't think that Brogden is going
to be here that long. I think

600
00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:37,400
this is a great chance for him
to remind everybody that he's a guy who

601
00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:40,880
will really improve the chances for a
contender. I think it's really important that

602
00:39:40,920 --> 00:39:44,719
he's here now for a couple of
months. I think that the Blazers are

603
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:51,039
going to really benefit from him being
here. But I just feel like there's

604
00:39:51,079 --> 00:39:54,360
going to be too many teams who
need someone just like him come the trade

605
00:39:54,400 --> 00:39:59,039
deadline. All right, we're finally
on to Scoot Henderson, which I'm sure

606
00:39:59,159 --> 00:40:02,280
so many people have been waiting for. What most intrigues you about Scoog?

607
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:07,199
What are your general impressions of him
so far. So one of my favorite

608
00:40:07,199 --> 00:40:10,239
things about Scoot so far was it
at Summer League. We were sitting there

609
00:40:10,360 --> 00:40:14,960
watching him play and there was a
whole row of Laker fans behind us who

610
00:40:15,039 --> 00:40:16,280
were over the moon about Scoot,
and so I was like, ha,

611
00:40:17,639 --> 00:40:23,760
he came to Portland. So that
was an exciting thing about him. I

612
00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:32,400
think that Scoot he is strong,
he is fast, he has great court

613
00:40:32,639 --> 00:40:37,559
vision, he has all these things
that you want to point guard to have.

614
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:42,679
Past first point guard, I think
the team is going to play an

615
00:40:42,760 --> 00:40:46,000
exciting kind of ball and that's probably
the thing that I'm most excited about,

616
00:40:46,079 --> 00:40:51,280
because as much as I love Damian
Lillard, those were not the most exciting

617
00:40:51,360 --> 00:40:53,760
games to watch. And you know, it was fun when he was on

618
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:57,840
a heater, there's nothing like it. But also when he's on a heater,

619
00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:01,679
it's the same every retrip down the
court. And I was thinking about

620
00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:07,039
this Dan, about the difference between
watching the teams in the past to watching

621
00:41:07,119 --> 00:41:10,880
this year's team, and I've thought
about it. So I used to watch

622
00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:16,800
a lot of Hallmark and then I
switched to Bravo ooh, and like I'm

623
00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:21,159
like, oh, my gosh,
that's exactly what's happening with my basketball viewing

624
00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:25,039
Hallmark. You know what's gonna happen. It's gonna be reliable, it's fine,

625
00:41:25,360 --> 00:41:30,519
it's gonna you know, gonna go
through the same formulae thing every time,

626
00:41:30,599 --> 00:41:32,960
and then you know it's it's gonna
be over. Then you go to

627
00:41:34,079 --> 00:41:37,480
Bravo, where it's just utter chaos
and there's table flipping and there's crying and

628
00:41:37,599 --> 00:41:43,679
there's people hugging and there's people fighting, and it's just like utter chaos and

629
00:41:45,119 --> 00:41:50,920
also really juicy and fun to watch. So you might end up going at

630
00:41:50,960 --> 00:41:53,000
the end of the episode going,
oh my god, what did I just

631
00:41:53,079 --> 00:41:58,880
watch? That was so fun.
That's kind of what I feel like I've

632
00:41:58,960 --> 00:42:01,679
gone from. I've gone from watching
Hallmark to watching Bravo when it comes to

633
00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:06,559
watching a team led by Damian Lillard
to watching a team that's going to be

634
00:42:06,679 --> 00:42:12,079
led by Scoot Henderson, who just
has a whole different approach to the game.

635
00:42:12,119 --> 00:42:15,400
As far as I can tell,
he should be because they were twenty

636
00:42:15,519 --> 00:42:20,840
second in average possession time on offense
last year. That we know that's gonna

637
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:22,480
like shoot way up like he is
someone who I think that they can get

638
00:42:22,599 --> 00:42:27,760
to like just push after another team
makes a shot, where it's like even

639
00:42:27,800 --> 00:42:30,719
off of missus, Like this team
wasn't particularly fast, but it's easier to

640
00:42:30,719 --> 00:42:36,280
play faster off misses and turnovers.
But this feels like someone who maybe not

641
00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:37,760
right away, but at least by
the end of the season, like even

642
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:42,320
out of the inbounds, like he
can just create havoc, like just getting

643
00:42:42,400 --> 00:42:45,280
up the floor, getting you into
your set, or catching defenses before their

644
00:42:45,360 --> 00:42:51,559
set. So I'm really fascinated to
see how committed they are to really playing

645
00:42:52,119 --> 00:42:54,320
in that manner, because I think
that's the best way for them offensively to

646
00:42:54,440 --> 00:43:00,079
catch teams off guards is to push
everything with scoot, like not just in

647
00:43:00,159 --> 00:43:02,760
transition, but like even sort of
to up your your half court speed.

648
00:43:04,639 --> 00:43:07,800
Yeah, and that's a pre cul
you know. In order for that to

649
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:13,119
happen, they have to get the
rebounds, which hasn't been there forte and

650
00:43:13,519 --> 00:43:16,519
the other team has to miss,
So, you know, I think that

651
00:43:16,639 --> 00:43:21,480
will be fun. But I really
think towards the beginning of the season anyway,

652
00:43:21,519 --> 00:43:25,639
I think Anthrony's gonna hold the ball
a lot, and so I don't

653
00:43:25,719 --> 00:43:30,440
think a lot of the and the
offense is going to be initiated by Scoot,

654
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:35,880
but just his ability that like when
he does get the ball, that

655
00:43:36,079 --> 00:43:42,960
he has a really quick decision making
mechanism, and so it's I think it's

656
00:43:43,039 --> 00:43:46,119
gonna send people like going one way
or going the other way because you know,

657
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:50,679
they just don't they don't know which
option that he's going to take,

658
00:43:50,679 --> 00:43:54,039
and he's going to be able to
make that decision really quickly. So I'm

659
00:43:54,119 --> 00:43:58,639
not sure how much of the chaos
is going to be from him initiating the

660
00:43:58,719 --> 00:44:01,960
offense, but I think from him
and his capabilities being a part of the

661
00:44:02,079 --> 00:44:07,039
offense at least at the beginning,
it's going to just it's going to show

662
00:44:07,159 --> 00:44:09,320
some interesting things. You know,
he gets like a half an inch and

663
00:44:09,440 --> 00:44:14,599
he's like snaking through in ways that
Damien couldn't do for many years. Damien

664
00:44:14,679 --> 00:44:19,159
eventually got there, but you know, Scoot's you know, starting off with

665
00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,760
this ability to like get in there
and finish at the rim in a fun

666
00:44:22,840 --> 00:44:25,719
way. Do you have any concerns
or questions about like just his game or

667
00:44:25,760 --> 00:44:29,199
what you know about him leading in
I think for a lot of people it's

668
00:44:29,239 --> 00:44:32,239
the jumper, like to both the
pull up jumper in between or like,

669
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:35,039
is he gonna be able to you
know, if you're going to play off

670
00:44:35,079 --> 00:44:37,320
the ball a bunch, can he
knock down some of those threes off the

671
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:42,440
catch. I'm totally willing to be
patient on that. Really, the biggest

672
00:44:42,480 --> 00:44:45,239
thing that I'm concerned about is what
I've already talked about is just the winning.

673
00:44:46,400 --> 00:44:49,760
Like I know they say that they
want to win, but he hasn't

674
00:44:49,800 --> 00:44:52,159
played on a team that put an
emphasis on winning. The team was on

675
00:44:52,239 --> 00:44:55,880
player development, you know, when
he was on Ignite, and that's going

676
00:44:55,960 --> 00:45:00,599
to be another thing. So I
just I want to see the fire in

677
00:45:00,760 --> 00:45:04,039
him that and you know, we
saw glimpses of it a summer league,

678
00:45:04,079 --> 00:45:07,159
you know, just the way that
he was like such a team player and

679
00:45:07,440 --> 00:45:10,599
such a great champ, you know, cheerleader off the bench or whatever.

680
00:45:12,280 --> 00:45:15,239
But I want, you know,
I want him to take every game personally,

681
00:45:15,320 --> 00:45:19,679
and even if they don't win,
I want to see like a guy

682
00:45:19,719 --> 00:45:22,320
who's really really hungry to win,
just because not that I'm saying that he's

683
00:45:22,400 --> 00:45:27,039
not, but he just wasn't playing
on a team that was like that before.

684
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:35,320
What were your general impressions of the
rookie Shaden Sharp experience Shanden brought a

685
00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:38,920
lot of joy last year and a
year that was pretty joyless. But I

686
00:45:39,159 --> 00:45:45,079
don't think and you know, like
Shaden's dunks or just a thing of beauty,

687
00:45:45,920 --> 00:45:51,159
not because it was like they were
necessarily like so strong, but just

688
00:45:51,280 --> 00:45:54,440
because like his form was perfect.
Like if you get stills of Shaden dunks,

689
00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:59,880
his toes are pointed, his legs
are parallel, his arms are like

690
00:46:00,119 --> 00:46:05,440
perfectly positioned. They're they're aggressively aesthetic. Yes, yes, I love that.

691
00:46:05,639 --> 00:46:07,239
I love that. Yeah, they
were, they were just beautiful,

692
00:46:08,079 --> 00:46:12,480
But I don't think that's really the
shade and sharp that we're gonna see.

693
00:46:12,639 --> 00:46:15,079
You know, a guy who can
like dunk beautifully that's not really useful to

694
00:46:15,239 --> 00:46:19,559
the team, a guy who can
shoot, a guy who can create his

695
00:46:19,719 --> 00:46:22,719
own offense, a guy who can
be like, oh I can't shoot this,

696
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:24,800
but I see who can? You
know. So I think I think

697
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:28,559
we need to see a lot more
of that, And I think we did

698
00:46:28,679 --> 00:46:30,639
at the end once they shut everything
down and just handed in the ball.

699
00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:37,960
I think we did see more of
what the shade and sharp game is gonna

700
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:45,119
be, which is less dunky and
more just like reliable scoring and you know,

701
00:46:45,239 --> 00:46:50,360
I've heard you say about whether or
not you could have ever googled the

702
00:46:50,400 --> 00:46:55,239
word assist. I think I wrote
it, Did I say that I did?

703
00:46:57,440 --> 00:47:00,400
But you know, when when he
was handed the ball for those ten

704
00:47:00,480 --> 00:47:04,960
games, he went from you know, like one and one point five to

705
00:47:05,239 --> 00:47:08,039
like four, So like when he
had the ball more, he was able

706
00:47:08,119 --> 00:47:13,400
to find people more. And so
I think the game that I love so

707
00:47:13,559 --> 00:47:16,159
much of Shaden, which is those
beautiful, beautiful dunk highlights, I don't

708
00:47:16,159 --> 00:47:19,400
think that's going to be the game
that we're going to see so much this

709
00:47:19,519 --> 00:47:23,119
year because I think that he knows
that his real value is not in like,

710
00:47:23,519 --> 00:47:27,400
you know, trying to make it
to the dunk contest, but it's

711
00:47:27,679 --> 00:47:30,079
being a reliable scorer who can make
smart decisions when he's got the ball in

712
00:47:30,119 --> 00:47:37,199
his hands. Do you think he's
capable of making those like those passes outside

713
00:47:37,239 --> 00:47:38,760
of like like if they if you're
just in the half course he did,

714
00:47:39,159 --> 00:47:42,920
at least from the games I watched
before the shift, like he got a

715
00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:45,880
tunnel vision on like some of his
drives, like the past percentage was not

716
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:49,280
high, iss his percentage was obviously
even even lower, Like do you trust

717
00:47:49,360 --> 00:47:52,440
that he has that consistent level in
him or does he need to be We'll

718
00:47:52,480 --> 00:47:55,920
just keep throwing this word out there, embroiled in the chaos, and that's

719
00:47:55,960 --> 00:47:59,559
how he's going to get his assist
or do you trust that he could maybe

720
00:47:59,599 --> 00:48:06,719
be someone who kind of breaks things
down from that standstill? I I don't

721
00:48:06,719 --> 00:48:10,599
want to say I don't trust anybody
right now, but he's twenty, he's

722
00:48:10,679 --> 00:48:16,119
in his second year. He's not
there yet, and I think that's that's

723
00:48:16,199 --> 00:48:20,840
the biggest challenge that I am having
with this year, and I think a

724
00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:23,039
lot of other fans in the fan
base are having, is we've got to

725
00:48:23,199 --> 00:48:27,639
reset our expectations and we've got to
be like, well, just because you

726
00:48:27,639 --> 00:48:30,280
know, Shane's got a year under
his belt, he's gonna have everything down.

727
00:48:30,679 --> 00:48:36,960
He's not going to have everything down. And we also have questions about

728
00:48:37,159 --> 00:48:38,599
the coach. So no, I
don't trust it. That doesn't mean that

729
00:48:38,639 --> 00:48:42,719
I don't think that he could get
there, but right now today, like

730
00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:45,840
before the season starts, no,
I don't trust it. He needs a

731
00:48:45,039 --> 00:48:49,719
lot more practice, a lot more
practice, and he's going to get it,

732
00:48:49,800 --> 00:48:52,199
which is great. It does sound
like you think that they are going

733
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:54,960
to give him sort of that runway
to try these things out though, Is

734
00:48:55,000 --> 00:48:59,039
that correct? Yeah? I think
yeah. I think that there's going to

735
00:48:59,079 --> 00:49:01,760
be a lot of it's for Shaden
and Scoot. I don't think there's going

736
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:05,119
to be as many for Shadan because
I don't think they need to rush him.

737
00:49:05,320 --> 00:49:07,039
I think Scoot they kind of need
to rush because they kind of need

738
00:49:07,119 --> 00:49:13,320
to. I mean, they have
anthroony who can play point guard, but

739
00:49:13,480 --> 00:49:15,440
I better at passing, like incrementally
year by year. It feels like he's

740
00:49:15,519 --> 00:49:19,400
just better. Yeah, but Scoots
the guy that, like you want to

741
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:22,559
have as because that's his natural position, that's what he wants to be doing.

742
00:49:22,039 --> 00:49:27,000
So I don't think that they're in
as big of a hurry with Shaden,

743
00:49:27,119 --> 00:49:30,039
So I think they'll you know,
prioritize making sure Scoot hasn't in it.

744
00:49:30,119 --> 00:49:34,960
So I don't think that they're gonna, you know, hand Scoot the

745
00:49:35,000 --> 00:49:37,519
ball and be like, go for
it. I think they're going to put

746
00:49:37,599 --> 00:49:40,480
Scoot in or sorry. I don't
think they're going to hand Shadeen the ball

747
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:44,960
and say go for it. I
think they're going to put Shaden in and

748
00:49:45,079 --> 00:49:49,400
say, be a part of this
offense and do the things that we've didn't

749
00:49:49,480 --> 00:49:52,400
run run the things that we've run
in practice, and let's see how you

750
00:49:52,519 --> 00:49:59,280
do when we do those things.
Did this pivot into a rebuild, clarify

751
00:49:59,440 --> 00:50:04,239
or complicate hate Anthony Simon's place with
this team long term? That's a good

752
00:50:04,320 --> 00:50:07,480
question. I hadn't really thought about
it from his point from that point of

753
00:50:07,559 --> 00:50:08,840
view, but I have been wondering, like how he feels about it.

754
00:50:08,920 --> 00:50:13,559
We were all very very concerned about
how Damien felt about it. And you

755
00:50:13,599 --> 00:50:15,519
know, Anthony, although he's young, has been there for like I don't

756
00:50:15,519 --> 00:50:20,440
know, it's fifth or sixth year, So he's their longest tenured player now,

757
00:50:20,519 --> 00:50:22,679
right, Yeah, Okay, yeah
he is. He's a long person

758
00:50:22,679 --> 00:50:30,119
who's been on the roster longest.
So I think potentially it could really be

759
00:50:30,320 --> 00:50:37,280
exciting for him because if he's patient
to wait around for these other guys to

760
00:50:37,440 --> 00:50:44,960
develop, I think they could have
something something exciting. But I just I

761
00:50:45,119 --> 00:50:49,440
just don't know if this is where
this is the best place for him with

762
00:50:49,599 --> 00:50:51,960
these with these young guys. I
just I keep looking at him, going,

763
00:50:52,119 --> 00:50:54,320
I hope he's happy. I wonder
if he's happy. I wonder if

764
00:50:54,360 --> 00:50:58,519
he's happy with how things went.
He's not player red, but also he's

765
00:50:58,639 --> 00:51:00,440
I know you mentioned like the other
young guys, he's only twenty four,

766
00:51:00,639 --> 00:51:04,920
Like it's not And we also saw
like the past couple of seasons, like

767
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:07,920
when after Dame gets shut down,
like every time, it's still really good.

768
00:51:08,079 --> 00:51:13,320
Like this is not just that he's
dependent on being the secondary option,

769
00:51:13,599 --> 00:51:15,920
Like no, he's not a capslock
point guard, but like especially last season,

770
00:51:16,000 --> 00:51:20,800
like he really impressed during a lot
of the stretches that he's playing as

771
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:22,679
what's called the league guard for lack
of like a better term. And so

772
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:27,480
you know, eventually they're gonna move
Brock than you already meant like you said

773
00:51:27,519 --> 00:51:30,400
that, so there will be reps
there for him to be like a pretty

774
00:51:30,519 --> 00:51:35,760
prominent part of their development. I
think it would be more of an organizational

775
00:51:35,840 --> 00:51:37,880
decision where they decide. And this
was a question I had for you,

776
00:51:38,480 --> 00:51:42,800
like do they not think that they
can get away with playing sharp Simons and

777
00:51:43,679 --> 00:51:47,559
scoot together? Is that too like
guardy for them? Like too too familiar?

778
00:51:50,360 --> 00:51:53,880
Well, between them, they probably
have about four or five inches on

779
00:51:54,000 --> 00:52:00,239
the previous three guard lineup. Is
he six y five or six? I

780
00:52:00,280 --> 00:52:04,400
don't know, I'm gonna look that
up. I think he's six' five.

781
00:52:04,800 --> 00:52:07,079
Yeah, I don't remember, but
collectively they are taller. They're getting

782
00:52:07,119 --> 00:52:15,360
there shortened him. Yeah, yeah, so collectively they're getting there. Again,

783
00:52:15,440 --> 00:52:16,920
it's so much like, what does
this coach want to do with these

784
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:22,320
guys? And you know, is
Anthrony gonna get the playing time that he

785
00:52:22,480 --> 00:52:25,360
wants. I think that'll that'll be
a big deal because also we've got Malcolm

786
00:52:25,360 --> 00:52:28,920
Brogden, who's gonna want to plague
because he wants to show what he can

787
00:52:29,000 --> 00:52:31,000
do. And then we've got these
two young guards who we need to get

788
00:52:31,039 --> 00:52:36,599
out there and get as many reps
as we possibly can. So again,

789
00:52:36,800 --> 00:52:39,880
it's just there's so many questions about
what does the coach want to do that

790
00:52:40,000 --> 00:52:43,840
we just kind of have to wait
and find out. I think they probably,

791
00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:45,039
at least I would imagine they play
a bunch of time together. The

792
00:52:45,119 --> 00:52:49,079
key as to whether it could work
long term. And I'm curious, you

793
00:52:49,079 --> 00:52:52,440
agree to be can shade and sharp
defend wings And we didn't see so we

794
00:52:52,480 --> 00:52:55,320
saw some of it last year,
but like he was kind of moving around

795
00:52:55,360 --> 00:52:59,679
and wasn't on these like primary assignments
a lot of the time. He's long

796
00:53:00,079 --> 00:53:02,000
wingspans like it is over seven feet
or it is seven feet, so he's

797
00:53:02,039 --> 00:53:06,719
long enough to do it. Six
six is just sort of like that borderline

798
00:53:06,800 --> 00:53:08,880
size where it's healing defender. Is
he not? I guess with the length

799
00:53:08,920 --> 00:53:13,360
and just the physical explosiveness, you
could make the bet that he is.

800
00:53:13,440 --> 00:53:16,000
But he actually might be because Simon's
works on the ball. Off the ball,

801
00:53:16,039 --> 00:53:19,960
he is so scalable on the offensive
end. It really just might come

802
00:53:20,000 --> 00:53:22,880
down to do you think that you
can play league average defense or get enough

803
00:53:22,920 --> 00:53:25,719
wing defense out of having that trio
is a big part of your team.

804
00:53:27,440 --> 00:53:32,119
And we've talked about this whole group
without even mentioning Matisse Stible, so it's

805
00:53:32,199 --> 00:53:38,519
like there's a whole other guy you
think of him last year. I mean

806
00:53:39,000 --> 00:53:45,440
again, I think he's got a
skill set that is important to the team,

807
00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:50,519
somebody who has proven to play defense. And since he's been here,

808
00:53:50,639 --> 00:53:54,840
I've seen other players on the team
attempt more behind the band, behind the

809
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:59,039
bat, you know, poke when
you poke it out from behind like Matisa

810
00:53:59,039 --> 00:54:01,360
always does. I've seen our players
do that now too, So obviously he's

811
00:54:01,440 --> 00:54:07,679
rubbing off on the rest of the
team, which is exciting. So I

812
00:54:07,800 --> 00:54:10,639
think that he's been a good addition
to the team, and he seems happy

813
00:54:10,719 --> 00:54:16,239
here and he's again right in that
age range, which is nice. So

814
00:54:16,400 --> 00:54:20,599
these guys, I think it's just
going to be a matter of what does

815
00:54:20,639 --> 00:54:25,280
the coach want, which groupings gel
the best and have sort of the best

816
00:54:25,320 --> 00:54:31,199
communication, and then who can come
who can emerge as the vocal leader on

817
00:54:31,360 --> 00:54:36,199
the team. That's a big question. I don't think it's necessarily Matis,

818
00:54:37,039 --> 00:54:38,719
but that's where we started this question. Well, I mean, it is

819
00:54:38,760 --> 00:54:42,960
a tough question because some of these
guys are so temporary. Will they feel

820
00:54:43,000 --> 00:54:45,239
inclined to be the vocal leader on
this team? And to that end,

821
00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:50,119
we're the odds that Jeremy Grant is
still on the roster past the trade deadline.

822
00:54:51,880 --> 00:54:53,840
I don't know. He's another one
that's hard to read. Like Matis,

823
00:54:54,000 --> 00:54:58,840
these guys are just like so chill, and they go out there and

824
00:54:58,960 --> 00:55:04,280
they do their job and they answer
the questions and they seem content. They

825
00:55:04,360 --> 00:55:08,400
also seem like they have skill sets
that other teams might really find valuable.

826
00:55:08,639 --> 00:55:15,159
And how much longer is our team
going to try to store up assets if

827
00:55:15,199 --> 00:55:22,480
they're going to keep trying to fill
the cupboard with players or with picks,

828
00:55:22,039 --> 00:55:27,599
which one is it going to be
and which one is best for our future?

829
00:55:27,719 --> 00:55:34,039
So I would probably guess that he's
not going to be on the roster

830
00:55:34,559 --> 00:55:40,119
after the trade deadline, but we'll
see. I agree with you, and

831
00:55:40,239 --> 00:55:44,679
I think the contract isn't as scary
as people painted it to be. But

832
00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:46,239
if you're I do think it's fair
to be concerned about how it ages.

833
00:55:46,599 --> 00:55:51,320
It probably makes smart to move him
once he's eligible, sooner rather than later,

834
00:55:51,400 --> 00:55:53,960
when teams still view him as a
need and are willing to eat like

835
00:55:54,079 --> 00:55:59,199
the back like the risk on the
back end of that, and you just

836
00:55:59,320 --> 00:56:01,760
have to assume less he's kind of
thrown off kilter by the new just dynamics

837
00:56:01,800 --> 00:56:07,360
here that now the pseudorandum later makes
the most sense to move him because he's

838
00:56:07,440 --> 00:56:09,840
never, in theory, going to
be better than he is over the next

839
00:56:09,920 --> 00:56:14,159
like year or two. Yeah,
I think it makes a lot of sense

840
00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:17,320
for that reason. And I mean, although like with contracts, I never

841
00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:22,400
worry about contracts anymore. Like they
can make anything work, right, We

842
00:56:22,480 --> 00:56:24,760
saw Ruffer Westbrook get traded on his
and John wall get trade on his money.

843
00:56:25,119 --> 00:56:29,280
Yeah, I get it, they
can make anything work. But I

844
00:56:29,360 --> 00:56:34,679
think I think it's that somebody will
need his skill set and that he is

845
00:56:34,800 --> 00:56:38,440
somebody who could probably easily adapt to
whatever situation. He wouldn't be a hard

846
00:56:38,519 --> 00:56:43,960
person to work into any And if
suddenly, you know, Celtics are that

847
00:56:44,119 --> 00:56:46,280
close, or somebody else in the
East wants to enter this, you know

848
00:56:46,599 --> 00:56:52,440
race, maybe Miami, like you
could use him, give us the call

849
00:56:52,639 --> 00:56:58,760
Miami. And yeah, so you're
right, like the contract doesn't actually matter.

850
00:56:58,800 --> 00:57:00,800
I guess if you just want to
make sure, if you're the Blazers

851
00:57:00,840 --> 00:57:04,760
and we're turning Jeremy Grant into a
first round pick, I would say sooner

852
00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:07,599
rather than later. It makes more
sense. Like from looking at it,

853
00:57:07,679 --> 00:57:10,000
I'm just but teams have shocked us
before where they've just held on to guys

854
00:57:10,480 --> 00:57:13,519
you think they're being moved that year. And then I mean, look at

855
00:57:13,559 --> 00:57:17,199
everyone thought Lowry Marketen was going to
be like this transient presence in Utah.

856
00:57:17,400 --> 00:57:21,960
Now he's like this centerpiece of the
franchise. I don't think that happens here,

857
00:57:22,199 --> 00:57:25,000
but like he could be here,
you never know, could he go

858
00:57:25,119 --> 00:57:28,519
through some of like the other players
on this roster. And you can just

859
00:57:28,559 --> 00:57:30,039
give me your thoughts or fun facts
or whatever. About them. Maybe what

860
00:57:30,159 --> 00:57:34,039
type of role you expect him to
play? Do I need to begin with

861
00:57:34,119 --> 00:57:36,840
Moses Brown. I didn't expect you
to be so hot on Moses Brown.

862
00:57:37,639 --> 00:57:40,719
Well, so Moses was drafted by
Portland or he was signed originally by port

863
00:57:40,800 --> 00:57:45,480
I think he went undrafted, but
he played in Portland for his first year,

864
00:57:45,519 --> 00:57:51,400
and he was this tiny little twig
and he just looked like a like

865
00:57:51,480 --> 00:57:59,000
a gazelle out there with his just
like very long, slanky stride, just

866
00:57:59,119 --> 00:58:05,639
kind of like fast forward. He
is big dude. He's put on a

867
00:58:05,719 --> 00:58:09,719
lot of weight, he knows how
to throw it around. He is like

868
00:58:10,000 --> 00:58:15,880
a fantastic talker like I the first
game of granted it was against a New

869
00:58:15,960 --> 00:58:20,039
Zealand Breakers team that's just not an
NBA team, but I was in a

870
00:58:20,119 --> 00:58:23,639
good position to watch him the whole
game, and he talked steadily while he

871
00:58:23,840 --> 00:58:28,800
was in there, and this team
really needs somebody who can talk, and

872
00:58:28,920 --> 00:58:31,760
for whom that's not like a new
skill that they're learning. So I really

873
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:37,360
liked it. And he's gonna be
the third center. But given you know,

874
00:58:37,559 --> 00:58:45,960
maybe the injury history, or given
whether or not Ayton works out,

875
00:58:46,519 --> 00:58:51,880
I think we're gonna see a little
more of Moses Brown. So I'm excited

876
00:58:51,920 --> 00:58:53,320
about him, and it's great to
It's always great to have a little homecoming,

877
00:58:54,199 --> 00:59:00,440
and just especially to see somebody who
has really like he's really improved game

878
00:59:00,199 --> 00:59:04,480
a lot since the last time we
saw him. He's worked really hard to

879
00:59:04,519 --> 00:59:07,400
get there. He's good enough.
He is a good rebounder too, and

880
00:59:07,440 --> 00:59:10,039
so if you're concerned about getting rebounds, like he is someone who will definitely

881
00:59:10,400 --> 00:59:14,159
because you're out of if you're playing
Jeremy granted toon. He's just never been

882
00:59:14,199 --> 00:59:16,360
a good rebounder, like you need
your big to be a good rebounder.

883
00:59:17,320 --> 00:59:22,960
Yeah, we every year, the
Blazers rebounding over the last three years has

884
00:59:22,119 --> 00:59:28,320
gotten progressively worse compared to the rest
of the league. So we really are

885
00:59:28,559 --> 00:59:31,159
hoping to find somebody who can really
kind of organize the team in that way.

886
00:59:31,239 --> 00:59:34,719
I was saying the other day that
I kind of wish Ed David,

887
00:59:34,760 --> 00:59:37,719
a guy like Ed Davis would come
in because Ed Davis used to be able

888
00:59:37,760 --> 00:59:42,880
to kind of just organize the rebounding
squad like they just always sometimes they would

889
00:59:42,920 --> 00:59:45,039
all crash into each other because they
were all going for the same ball,

890
00:59:45,119 --> 00:59:49,360
and he'd get him kind of organized. What I've seen of the two games

891
00:59:49,360 --> 00:59:51,880
I've seen so far, it was
just more like everybody was like I thought

892
00:59:51,920 --> 00:59:52,599
you were gonna get it. I
thought you were going to get it,

893
00:59:52,639 --> 00:59:57,079
and then it just kind of lands
in Jeremy Grant's hands. So they have

894
00:59:57,159 --> 01:00:00,119
a lot of opportunity here. And
maybe Moses Brown, could you know,

895
01:00:00,239 --> 01:00:05,159
be that guy who, with his
vocalness that he's shown so far, can

896
01:00:05,239 --> 01:00:08,039
kind of organize him on that end. How about any impressions or thoughts on

897
01:00:08,079 --> 01:00:10,559
too, MANI Kamara yet? And
if you don't, I have a ton

898
01:00:10,800 --> 01:00:15,239
don't want no. I would love
to hear yours, because I've except for

899
01:00:15,320 --> 01:00:17,440
that. People are like, ooh, this is like kind of a sneaky

900
01:00:17,679 --> 01:00:22,079
good addition to the team. Yeah, tell me about what you're excited about

901
01:00:22,079 --> 01:00:24,880
with him. Oh one, I
won't pay credit for being for knowing about

902
01:00:24,960 --> 01:00:29,559
him. But I was talking to
the Timeline podcast for The Sun's podcast and

903
01:00:29,880 --> 01:00:32,000
they were over the moon about Kamara. This is before the NuRD Is trade,

904
01:00:32,519 --> 01:00:36,800
and so I went, I watched
some of him. I'm smitten.

905
01:00:37,280 --> 01:00:39,559
This is just he's not super long
for like a six to seven. I

906
01:00:39,599 --> 01:00:45,320
think he has a net neutral wingsman
like he just fills so many gaps,

907
01:00:45,599 --> 01:00:49,559
and there's like he can actually help
with offensive rebounding, Like you're worried about

908
01:00:49,599 --> 01:00:52,239
rebounds and this team is probably gonna
miss a lot of shots. He will

909
01:00:52,280 --> 01:00:54,280
get in there for offensive like he
will. He will get in there.

910
01:00:54,559 --> 01:00:58,760
He is super switchable on the defensive
end. And so if Chauncey wants to

911
01:00:58,800 --> 01:01:00,880
switch a bunch with this group,
play some lineups that can switch, because

912
01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:05,440
you have two bigs and eight and
an R dub who can switch reasonably,

913
01:01:05,519 --> 01:01:07,960
well, I think he ends up
being great for that. He is not

914
01:01:08,199 --> 01:01:13,239
a ball stopper on offense, and
I'm very curious. I don't understand.

915
01:01:13,320 --> 01:01:15,239
Not that I don't understand, I'd
like to know what he turns into as

916
01:01:15,239 --> 01:01:17,920
a score. Really, it feels
like he might be someone who needs to

917
01:01:19,000 --> 01:01:22,239
be kind of cutting, being on
the move, more of a play finisher.

918
01:01:22,320 --> 01:01:27,119
But like he showed, and I'm
always very hesitant to ascribe any value

919
01:01:27,159 --> 01:01:29,800
to what we see in summer league. He's not going to get the reps

920
01:01:30,280 --> 01:01:34,840
in in Portland that he got in
Summer League. There is some on ball

921
01:01:34,880 --> 01:01:37,440
stuff to what he could do.
I don't know if he's like he'll maybe

922
01:01:37,480 --> 01:01:39,239
he'll get all the way to the
basket. I think he's just so plug

923
01:01:39,280 --> 01:01:43,840
and play defensively versatile. He will
make the I think he will place some

924
01:01:43,920 --> 01:01:46,239
of like the NOAs hustle, like
when you saw moments of that. And

925
01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:51,159
I'm hoping that they give him minutes
because i think he could be a really

926
01:01:51,480 --> 01:01:57,280
good, good, at least a
rotation NBA player. Yeah, I mean

927
01:01:58,320 --> 01:02:02,239
all of that Premiere Mouf to God's
Ears. Give him minutes. I mean,

928
01:02:02,280 --> 01:02:05,719
that's that's what it. That's just
what it is. It's just like

929
01:02:06,320 --> 01:02:08,400
who's gonna get a chance to get
on the floor, who stays healthy.

930
01:02:08,559 --> 01:02:12,800
We we just are really gonna hope
that everybody stays healthy. But if everybody

931
01:02:12,840 --> 01:02:15,519
stays healthy, some people aren't going
to get it. But one exciting thing

932
01:02:15,559 --> 01:02:19,360
about Portland's years, this is the
first time we've had a G League team.

933
01:02:20,159 --> 01:02:23,800
Oh so a lot of these guys
who like you know, so he

934
01:02:23,960 --> 01:02:29,000
might if he's not getting a chance
to play for the Blazers, he may

935
01:02:29,079 --> 01:02:31,360
get moved, you know, to
play some G League time, which is

936
01:02:31,920 --> 01:02:37,400
really we're really excited about that.
I will say I don't watch G League,

937
01:02:37,599 --> 01:02:39,119
but this player if he's going to
spend time in the G League.

938
01:02:39,159 --> 01:02:45,400
I will watch Ray Rupert. Uh
huh, you have a sort of impressions

939
01:02:45,599 --> 01:02:52,880
of him so far. I mean
again, Uh, Brian Repair has reportedly

940
01:02:53,119 --> 01:02:59,360
grown an inch since he got here, and I mispronounced his name. Correction.

941
01:02:59,599 --> 01:03:00,679
I don't know. I I think
that's how it is. You know,

942
01:03:00,760 --> 01:03:02,800
I was always like, how come
like all the guys that I went

943
01:03:02,800 --> 01:03:06,599
to high school with went away to
college and then grew like six inches,

944
01:03:06,639 --> 01:03:08,559
but none of the NBA players who
come to my team ever grow that for

945
01:03:09,360 --> 01:03:13,039
grow. But apparently he has grown, apparently Shade and I think has grown

946
01:03:13,079 --> 01:03:19,519
as well, young raw talent.
Let's just see how the coach decides he

947
01:03:19,920 --> 01:03:22,480
wants to use him. I probably
would be shocked if he did. I

948
01:03:22,559 --> 01:03:27,639
expect him to spend a lot of
time not with this team, but you're

949
01:03:27,639 --> 01:03:31,079
already his standing reach is absurd.
He you mentioned raw. He is super

950
01:03:31,159 --> 01:03:35,039
raw on offense, but for a
team that wants to play in transition,

951
01:03:35,440 --> 01:03:37,599
and I think he seems if you
give him enough space, I kind of

952
01:03:37,639 --> 01:03:40,679
trust him to like get downhill with
the ball in his hands, going against

953
01:03:40,719 --> 01:03:45,679
defenses, it's going to be And
this is a cliche the shot, but

954
01:03:45,760 --> 01:03:49,559
the physical tools on defense, or
he could be a not smart defender and

955
01:03:49,679 --> 01:03:53,440
still be a good defender. That
is just how physically ready he seems.

956
01:03:53,800 --> 01:03:59,599
And I hope he turns into a
reliable offensive player because I think he can

957
01:03:59,679 --> 01:04:01,760
be let's throw the word chaos out
of there, like he can be a

958
01:04:02,119 --> 01:04:06,320
He could be an agent of chaos, chaos Asian on the defensive end from

959
01:04:06,400 --> 01:04:10,159
day one. Maybe not, Oh
he's a good defender, but you want

960
01:04:10,199 --> 01:04:15,800
to create chaos repair like can do
that, you know. Chaos is definitely

961
01:04:15,920 --> 01:04:21,360
the theme and what I'm hoping for
the team in general this year is that

962
01:04:21,639 --> 01:04:29,480
they can have like productive chaos that
they may catch other teams by surprise,

963
01:04:29,519 --> 01:04:31,199
because I don't think anyone's going to
be spending a lot of time going too

964
01:04:31,320 --> 01:04:36,360
deep in the scouting reports for the
Trailblazers, but we're hoping that they can

965
01:04:36,800 --> 01:04:43,159
catch them by surprise and sneak in
there and take it take advantage of maybe

966
01:04:43,199 --> 01:04:46,760
people who weren't prepared for what they've
got, or that they surprisingly will put

967
01:04:46,800 --> 01:04:51,000
some stuff together that they had been
working on, laboring through and practice,

968
01:04:51,079 --> 01:04:56,320
not quite being able to do it, and then suddenly it'll like all you

969
01:04:56,360 --> 01:05:00,480
know, come into place and it
can create chaos, and the other teams

970
01:05:00,639 --> 01:05:03,960
like, what has happened that that's
what we're counting on, is that kind

971
01:05:04,000 --> 01:05:09,559
of productive chaos this season. And
finally, at least of the players I

972
01:05:09,599 --> 01:05:12,599
have listed, Jabbari Walker seems like
he might be in line for a bigger

973
01:05:12,679 --> 01:05:15,559
role just by virtue of okay,
they need a backup for maybe they view

974
01:05:15,559 --> 01:05:17,920
it as, oh, we didn't
get to Chris Murray yet either, but

975
01:05:18,039 --> 01:05:21,599
Jabari Walker, what type of role
do you expect him to play? Jabari

976
01:05:23,159 --> 01:05:28,079
from the moment he stept on the
court at Summer League showed that he's really

977
01:05:28,280 --> 01:05:34,119
smart, really good decision maker,
and he has grown a lot, Like

978
01:05:34,280 --> 01:05:40,880
physically he has more weight that he
people were bouncing off of him in Summer

979
01:05:40,960 --> 01:05:45,360
League raw yeah, and he's he's
gotten even stronger this year. So I

980
01:05:45,480 --> 01:05:48,679
think that he's ready to take that
leap and to get real minutes. Like

981
01:05:48,800 --> 01:05:51,559
last year it was still like,
oh we're gonna see Jabari. Yeah,

982
01:05:51,639 --> 01:05:58,239
we got Jabari minutes, and so
I think that he could be like I

983
01:05:58,280 --> 01:06:00,239
think that he will be a part
of of the rotation. He's also a

984
01:06:00,280 --> 01:06:06,119
good rebounder. And he's also a
good you know, he's not a playmaker,

985
01:06:06,320 --> 01:06:10,599
but he's got great vision. So
I don't necessarily know that he's going

986
01:06:10,639 --> 01:06:12,920
to be out there like creating a
lot of plays, but I think he

987
01:06:13,039 --> 01:06:15,760
can see like where the ball needs
to be so that it can turn into

988
01:06:15,800 --> 01:06:19,639
offense. And it's still three point
shooting is kind of the swing skill for

989
01:06:19,760 --> 01:06:25,880
him, right. Yeah, he's
still developing there. What about Chris Murray,

990
01:06:26,159 --> 01:06:28,760
do you expect him to kind of
be in the rotation right away.

991
01:06:30,159 --> 01:06:32,960
I think everybody's going to be in
their rotation right away. I think coach

992
01:06:33,039 --> 01:06:39,000
is going to try everybody out.
I could see him, you know,

993
01:06:40,400 --> 01:06:43,280
playing, I could see him also
getting a lot of time in the G

994
01:06:43,440 --> 01:06:47,159
League. It's just like the G
League. Not only is you know,

995
01:06:47,559 --> 01:06:53,880
it's close. It's like, you
know, ten miles away from the the

996
01:06:53,920 --> 01:06:57,559
G League arena is like ten miles
away from the that's a big deal if

997
01:06:57,559 --> 01:06:59,599
you want to shut all the players
to and front I know, Indy,

998
01:06:59,719 --> 01:07:01,760
yeah, and just point out in
our discord, like they're moving their G

999
01:07:01,920 --> 01:07:04,880
League team to be closer to the
professional team, which is so the fact

1000
01:07:04,920 --> 01:07:08,920
that it's close is good. I
didn't realize it was that close. Yeah,

1001
01:07:09,079 --> 01:07:13,920
So I think that that he will
probably get some a lot of time

1002
01:07:14,000 --> 01:07:18,000
down there. I'm very curious to
see. I'm I wonder if his draft

1003
01:07:18,039 --> 01:07:21,719
stock would have been as high if
Keegan Murray didn't just have the season he

1004
01:07:21,840 --> 01:07:26,360
did, because I do think he's
a lot of people compare him to Keegan

1005
01:07:26,480 --> 01:07:30,440
Murray, which okay, fine,
I don't see it like with Whatkegan,

1006
01:07:30,639 --> 01:07:32,119
Like if he can do some of
the motion shooting stuff, which I think

1007
01:07:32,119 --> 01:07:34,559
when you look at this roster you
have Anthmy Simons, there's not like a

1008
01:07:34,639 --> 01:07:38,559
ton of motion shooters, like someone
who can run around fly off the ball

1009
01:07:39,079 --> 01:07:42,400
right now. If he can do
that, I just don't know if he

1010
01:07:42,440 --> 01:07:45,239
can like Keegan Murray did it as
a wing. I don't know if I

1011
01:07:45,360 --> 01:07:47,360
view Chris Murray is what I'm saying. I'm not big on positions, but

1012
01:07:47,440 --> 01:07:51,360
he feels like a pure for to
me, Like did you get that vibe

1013
01:07:51,400 --> 01:07:54,760
seeing anything from him at all?
Or like you're just too early to tell?

1014
01:07:55,360 --> 01:07:57,559
Well, I for a large part, I think it's too early to

1015
01:07:57,639 --> 01:08:01,880
tell. I think also that you're
right that Keegan's success probably helped Chris,

1016
01:08:02,480 --> 01:08:08,280
But I also think that because they've
played together, that they're not mirror images

1017
01:08:08,360 --> 01:08:11,480
of each other, like they played
differently because they've had to play together for

1018
01:08:11,639 --> 01:08:15,679
so long that they don't play the
same way. And you know, I

1019
01:08:15,760 --> 01:08:20,079
guess Chris did a lot of the
setting up of Keegan and when he decided

1020
01:08:20,119 --> 01:08:26,239
to you know, stay was Iowa
for you know, for an extra year.

1021
01:08:26,439 --> 01:08:29,680
You know, he didn't play the
exact same role that Keegan did.

1022
01:08:30,439 --> 01:08:35,279
So I think, you know,
he definitely or not definitely, but I

1023
01:08:35,319 --> 01:08:40,039
think Kegan, Yeah, Keegan's great
performance last year probably helped him. But

1024
01:08:40,119 --> 01:08:45,640
I also think that they're like totally
different players, that's all. You always

1025
01:08:45,640 --> 01:08:46,840
give a different perspective that makes me
think where it's like, well, they

1026
01:08:46,920 --> 01:08:50,000
played together for so long, then
Chris isn't going to have the time to

1027
01:08:50,079 --> 01:08:54,439
explore these skills. If that's how
Keegan Murray needed to be used. Never

1028
01:08:54,520 --> 01:08:56,800
even would have thought of that.
That's that's why we bring you on here.

1029
01:08:56,840 --> 01:09:00,079
Tarry actually makes me think coherently,
are you ready for the cookie cutter

1030
01:09:00,159 --> 01:09:05,520
portion of the podcast? Uh?
This? So the first question I have

1031
01:09:05,680 --> 01:09:10,600
is there any underrated strengths or concerns
about this team that we didn't discuss that

1032
01:09:10,680 --> 01:09:14,680
you also think aren't getting enough attention. Well, I brought it up.

1033
01:09:15,159 --> 01:09:17,039
But the G League thing, I
think really is actually a big deal,

1034
01:09:17,199 --> 01:09:20,479
and I think it'll be really interesting
to see how that goes. And that's

1035
01:09:20,479 --> 01:09:25,920
something that I don't think people outside
of the Blazer fan base really understand,

1036
01:09:26,159 --> 01:09:29,279
and I think it's something that they're
going to try this year, and I

1037
01:09:29,560 --> 01:09:31,560
think it'll be a good thing,
especially given how young this team now is.

1038
01:09:33,199 --> 01:09:35,640
He I think we yeah. I
mean, I didn't even hold you.

1039
01:09:35,680 --> 01:09:38,760
I didn't realize how close it was
so clearly. I didn't give it

1040
01:09:38,800 --> 01:09:43,039
a second thought. And that's good
to have if guys like Kamara or or

1041
01:09:43,159 --> 01:09:46,359
Murray or Rupa are not going to
be in the rotation, having that outlet

1042
01:09:46,600 --> 01:09:49,319
to where it's more easy for them
to get run outside of the professional club.

1043
01:09:49,359 --> 01:09:54,760
I think it's a really and they
still get to then practice with the

1044
01:09:54,920 --> 01:09:57,840
actual club because it's so close like
that, that's actually a big deal.

1045
01:09:58,720 --> 01:10:02,800
M I know, the we've kind
of already mentioned this, or you've already

1046
01:10:02,800 --> 01:10:06,000
mentioned that the rotation you expect to
be all over the place. Can we

1047
01:10:06,079 --> 01:10:09,800
start here, though? What would
you expect to be? And I didn't

1048
01:10:09,800 --> 01:10:12,640
see anything definitive. I did try
to look, but what would you expect

1049
01:10:12,640 --> 01:10:15,560
to be sort of the opening night
starting five? So I think on the

1050
01:10:15,600 --> 01:10:19,159
opening night we're gonna see Scutin Anthrony, and I think that Matisse is going

1051
01:10:19,199 --> 01:10:24,840
to play the three, and then
of course Jeremy and DeAndre Ayton. I

1052
01:10:24,920 --> 01:10:28,640
think a lot of people are wondering
if it's going to be Shaden, but

1053
01:10:28,960 --> 01:10:32,000
I really think it's going to be
Matisse. And I think that's to give

1054
01:10:32,279 --> 01:10:39,439
Scoot as strong of a start as
possible so that he's surrounded by the best

1055
01:10:39,479 --> 01:10:44,760
players, and then Shanden will be
like coming in off the bench. And

1056
01:10:44,880 --> 01:10:47,279
so if that is so, if
that's the starting five, who would you

1057
01:10:47,319 --> 01:10:51,079
expect to be the most used five
players after that? Shayden's a lock,

1058
01:10:51,199 --> 01:10:58,479
we can agree on that. Yeah, yeah, Shaden, Brogden, Williams

1059
01:10:59,640 --> 01:11:03,920
Jabbar. Sorry, how many is
that for? Yeah? Gosh, I

1060
01:11:04,000 --> 01:11:09,000
don't know. There's Chris would be
Chris Murray just because he was drafted in

1061
01:11:09,039 --> 01:11:15,039
the first round. Yeah, God, who I have left? Moses Brown?

1062
01:11:15,239 --> 01:11:19,359
Your guy, Moses. I wouldn't
be surprised if Moses gets more time

1063
01:11:19,680 --> 01:11:24,119
than Chris. And it kind of
depends on you know, again, which

1064
01:11:24,159 --> 01:11:28,119
way the coach goes, does he
want somebody? Because I would think that

1065
01:11:28,279 --> 01:11:30,399
with his lineups, he's gonna want
to have a balance of guys with a

1066
01:11:30,479 --> 01:11:34,359
certain amount, Like he doesn't want
to throw just rookies and just you know

1067
01:11:34,520 --> 01:11:38,159
first and second you're guys in together. He's gonna be wanting to have,

1068
01:11:39,560 --> 01:11:43,399
you know, guys with some experience. So I wouldn't be surprised if Brown

1069
01:11:43,560 --> 01:11:46,479
saw a little bit more time than
Murray, at least at the beginning.

1070
01:11:48,119 --> 01:11:51,920
Based off everything you know about this
roster is constructed, your concerns, your

1071
01:11:53,000 --> 01:11:56,199
thoughts on them. Do you expect
this group to be better on the offensive

1072
01:11:56,239 --> 01:11:59,920
end or the defensive end? Offense? I think we're gonna start with offense

1073
01:12:00,119 --> 01:12:04,399
and then we'll build defense in.
Is there a my favorite question to ask,

1074
01:12:04,560 --> 01:12:08,319
they're a weirdo wacky, they won't
try it, but they should line

1075
01:12:08,399 --> 01:12:12,720
up that you think they should roll
out. I mean, I think for

1076
01:12:12,920 --> 01:12:18,479
teams that have that know who their
players are, Yeah, But for the

1077
01:12:18,680 --> 01:12:25,680
it's all weird wacky lineups. I
don't I don't think there's a specific one

1078
01:12:25,680 --> 01:12:29,399
because we haven't seen them. There's
four guys on the team, that were

1079
01:12:29,439 --> 01:12:33,840
there last year, So I think
I would like to see them kind of

1080
01:12:33,880 --> 01:12:40,079
lean into like what's the most versatile
maybe but weirdo defensive lineup we could throw

1081
01:12:40,119 --> 01:12:43,079
out there, and I know the
offense could probably look terrible during these minutes,

1082
01:12:43,079 --> 01:12:45,239
but I want to see the R
dub and eight and then maybe throw

1083
01:12:45,800 --> 01:12:51,960
like Sharp and Tible and probably Simon's
are scooted in there is like creation.

1084
01:12:53,119 --> 01:12:55,439
But I also would be like,
if we're just trying to really go for

1085
01:12:55,560 --> 01:12:58,560
kasts, like let's throw Kamara in
there and it'll just be two bigs,

1086
01:12:58,880 --> 01:13:01,319
some wing defense from some good wing
defenders. I don't know who's creating for

1087
01:13:01,399 --> 01:13:03,840
you in that. Maybe that's how
you get Sharp Reps' is like, oh,

1088
01:13:03,920 --> 01:13:08,119
it's kind of we're giving Scoot arrest
Simon's arrest. They're on the bench

1089
01:13:08,119 --> 01:13:11,199
at the same time, which probably
is not a good idea quite frankly offensively,

1090
01:13:11,560 --> 01:13:14,880
but let's see what Shane Sharp can
do kind of leading those groups of

1091
01:13:15,000 --> 01:13:18,119
four guys well, and you give
me an idea. It has been so

1092
01:13:18,439 --> 01:13:24,279
long since the Blazers had more than
like one guy over seven feet. I

1093
01:13:24,399 --> 01:13:30,439
want to see the five tallest players, just see what that's like Ayton Williams,

1094
01:13:30,760 --> 01:13:36,039
Moses Brown, Jeremy Grant, and
then Jabari Walker. Would that be

1095
01:13:36,159 --> 01:13:40,359
the five biggest players? I think, uh, well we could. We

1096
01:13:40,399 --> 01:13:45,239
could call up Ebu Bajie from the
G League. He could play. He's

1097
01:13:45,319 --> 01:13:46,720
tall, he's local enough that you
could do that. There you go,

1098
01:13:47,520 --> 01:13:50,399
Yeah, Okay, So I sorted
by height. So we've got Moses Brown

1099
01:13:50,479 --> 01:13:54,960
at seven to Ibu Bajie at seven
to one, DeAndre Aighton at seven,

1100
01:13:55,119 --> 01:13:59,359
John Butler, he's another two way
player. He's seven feet tall and he

1101
01:13:59,520 --> 01:14:04,640
really is a three wop wreath.
He's another fun guy. Let's see if

1102
01:14:04,680 --> 01:14:08,279
we really wanted somebody who could handle
the ball. Yeah, let's throw in

1103
01:14:09,439 --> 01:14:15,000
uh Tomorrow Kamara to money Kamara or
throw him in there as the ball handler

1104
01:14:15,479 --> 01:14:17,640
just because he does have I think
it's like it's like a nine foot standing

1105
01:14:17,680 --> 01:14:20,760
reach. That's definitely not true.
But Ryan Repair, I know he's only

1106
01:14:20,840 --> 01:14:24,039
six six, but he's got the
standing reach, So can we include it.

1107
01:14:24,039 --> 01:14:27,800
I just want to see him anyway, weirdo and I want to see

1108
01:14:27,840 --> 01:14:31,119
it. All right, We'll put
him. So we'll put in Rion Repair

1109
01:14:31,399 --> 01:14:41,079
and then we'll have Moses and DeAndre
and uh, Jeremy, and did I

1110
01:14:41,119 --> 01:14:45,279
say Robert Williams will put him?
Yeah, you know, three centers at

1111
01:14:45,279 --> 01:14:47,680
once. It's kind of the response
to they don't have a ton of centers,

1112
01:14:47,720 --> 01:14:51,319
but they did play four guards at
one point, why not three centers.

1113
01:14:51,720 --> 01:14:55,640
Yeah, I'll tweet you that alert
when that when that land up goes

1114
01:14:55,680 --> 01:15:00,760
in. Yes, please. So
as we record this, their current win

1115
01:15:00,840 --> 01:15:02,479
total is at twenty seven and a
half. Recording this on the fourteenth,

1116
01:15:02,560 --> 01:15:05,960
it'll go live on the fifteenth of
October. Would you take the over the

1117
01:15:06,199 --> 01:15:11,039
under on that? Trying to factor
in any sort of let's call it chaos

1118
01:15:11,439 --> 01:15:15,319
that could happen with them maybe making
other moves. Well, of course,

1119
01:15:15,439 --> 01:15:17,600
my heart says over, but my
brain says under. It's gonna be a

1120
01:15:17,720 --> 01:15:21,880
long season. It's gonna there's gonna
be somerough, there's gonna be some rough

1121
01:15:23,000 --> 01:15:26,159
nights, and there's gonna be a
steep learning curve. So I'm gonna take

1122
01:15:26,199 --> 01:15:30,079
the under. Would you expect them? I'm with you just because I think

1123
01:15:30,279 --> 01:15:33,520
this is one of the organizations that
will be experimental enough to where maybe they're

1124
01:15:33,560 --> 01:15:39,239
bad, but they're fun bad and
they're valuable bad because they're getting information about

1125
01:15:39,319 --> 01:15:42,840
their future, and I think that's
very important. The other thing I will

1126
01:15:42,880 --> 01:15:45,079
say is we didn't see this from
Utah right away because they were better out

1127
01:15:45,119 --> 01:15:48,079
the gate. I don't think Portland
will fall into this trap. They will

1128
01:15:48,199 --> 01:15:53,399
trade their way out of being competent. I'm just if Malcolm Brockton's doing too

1129
01:15:53,439 --> 01:15:57,199
well, he's gonna get traded earlier
than people expected. I think that's the

1130
01:15:57,720 --> 01:16:00,399
ethos that Joe Cronin is gonna end
up tilting towards. That's just a gut

1131
01:16:00,439 --> 01:16:02,720
feeling, not an a knowledge on
it, But that would be my guess.

1132
01:16:03,359 --> 01:16:08,319
Yeah, I think that's a good
guess. But have you factored in

1133
01:16:08,439 --> 01:16:13,920
the end season tournament. What if
the Blazers come out the gay like last

1134
01:16:14,039 --> 01:16:17,680
year's Jazz, and they're in contention
for the tournament. Maybe they hang on

1135
01:16:17,880 --> 01:16:21,920
long enough to win that tournament and
it becomes the Cronan Cup in honor of

1136
01:16:23,039 --> 01:16:29,279
Joe Cronin, and then they make
their then they make their changes. Honestly,

1137
01:16:29,760 --> 01:16:32,239
so I would not predict them to
win that tournament if others' care.

1138
01:16:32,600 --> 01:16:36,479
But when you say that, I
just said they're not the Jazz. But

1139
01:16:36,520 --> 01:16:41,800
when you look at the level of
competent NBA players on their roster, Jeremy

1140
01:16:41,880 --> 01:16:46,119
Grant, Robert Williams, DeAndre Ayton, Matista Ibel shooting thirty nine percent from

1141
01:16:46,159 --> 01:16:49,760
three again on like four times per
game. We know Simon's is a really

1142
01:16:49,800 --> 01:16:55,279
good NBA player, and Scoot could
be the rookie. I know Wemby's out

1143
01:16:55,279 --> 01:16:58,479
there, but Scoot could be no
worse than like the second or third best

1144
01:16:58,560 --> 01:17:00,479
rookie, Like he could be good
out the game. It happens, maybe

1145
01:17:00,560 --> 01:17:04,079
this team does. I'm glad I
did over Unders already because if we'd done

1146
01:17:04,119 --> 01:17:08,399
this podcast after I talk to you, I might have been like an existential

1147
01:17:08,439 --> 01:17:11,920
crisis. Are you sure you're not
a Blazer fan at heart? Dan?

1148
01:17:12,079 --> 01:17:15,479
You are just doing the typical Blazer
fan thing right now, Like wait a

1149
01:17:15,560 --> 01:17:18,079
minute, now they have five well
don't you mention Brogden. So they just

1150
01:17:18,159 --> 01:17:21,960
have five guys that you know,
were good NBA players, plus Scoot,

1151
01:17:23,119 --> 01:17:27,479
who's going to be one day a
fantastic NBA player. So it's not outside

1152
01:17:27,520 --> 01:17:30,760
the realm of possibility that he's a
good NBA player out of the gate.

1153
01:17:30,239 --> 01:17:33,640
And so now I'm like, they
stretched like six, really and what if

1154
01:17:33,880 --> 01:17:39,199
Shane Sharpson year two, you can
just get better. I think you're talking

1155
01:17:39,239 --> 01:17:42,800
yourself into it. In past years, Dan, I think that is actually

1156
01:17:43,720 --> 01:17:46,800
how it would have gone in past
years when we had a different GM who

1157
01:17:46,960 --> 01:17:50,920
was always putting the best team around
Damian Lord that he'd ever put Damian Lord

1158
01:17:50,960 --> 01:17:56,840
out, and we were running out
Anthony Tolliver and Scalavca, both of whom

1159
01:17:56,920 --> 01:18:01,560
I love and are lovely players.
Like the Blazers could run out their five

1160
01:18:01,720 --> 01:18:06,880
best players, they're seven or eight
best players and do fine. But this

1161
01:18:08,119 --> 01:18:11,039
is the thing that we're trying to
get out of. We're trying to get

1162
01:18:11,119 --> 01:18:16,000
out of doing the best that we
can and doing the best development that we

1163
01:18:16,199 --> 01:18:20,119
can. So I one hundred percent
hear you, And I'm trying to be

1164
01:18:20,239 --> 01:18:29,359
a responsible fan of a building team
rather than a like, yeah, I

1165
01:18:29,399 --> 01:18:31,000
mean, yeah, you could put
all those guys in and they could be

1166
01:18:31,720 --> 01:18:38,159
absolutely fine, but then all these
people that the team tanked to get are

1167
01:18:38,199 --> 01:18:42,920
sitting on the bench, and that's
not really what they want. I don't

1168
01:18:42,960 --> 01:18:45,840
think. Yeah, I think if
you gave them truth serum, because no

1169
01:18:45,840 --> 01:18:48,600
one will says on the record that
Joe Cronin probably his fingers crossed that they're

1170
01:18:48,680 --> 01:18:53,720
fun and have the worst record in
the Western Conference. And I think the

1171
01:18:53,840 --> 01:18:56,760
only team right now that I'd be
prepared to say could be worse than them

1172
01:18:56,880 --> 01:19:00,840
is the Spurs. I don't know
if you've given that any thought. I

1173
01:19:01,079 --> 01:19:04,640
could be. I think the Spurs
are the I think the Blazers and the

1174
01:19:04,680 --> 01:19:08,920
Spurs are the only two teams in
the Western Conference who aren't trying to win

1175
01:19:09,560 --> 01:19:12,239
this year. Even the Rockets are
not gonna win. They think they're going

1176
01:19:12,279 --> 01:19:15,960
to though, so like that's a
different mindset. Oh, go ahead.

1177
01:19:15,760 --> 01:19:18,279
I was just gonna say I want
them to at least be trying to win.

1178
01:19:19,000 --> 01:19:23,319
And I mean I want the players
out there they were trying. Yeah,

1179
01:19:23,439 --> 01:19:25,560
I want them to. I mean
the players are always trying to win.

1180
01:19:25,880 --> 01:19:29,319
I want the organization to be fine. I do not want to have

1181
01:19:29,439 --> 01:19:33,239
another year or half the season of
like being mad because they won. That

1182
01:19:33,439 --> 01:19:36,760
is not fun. That is not
where I want to be. I want

1183
01:19:36,840 --> 01:19:41,439
to embrace every game and be happy
at the end of every game that they

1184
01:19:41,560 --> 01:19:45,039
tried and they were in it,
and you know, it's okay if they

1185
01:19:45,239 --> 01:19:47,279
win, and it's okay if they
lose. I this might be a little

1186
01:19:47,279 --> 01:19:49,399
bit of a role reversal here because
we've already had it, because I'm talking

1187
01:19:49,439 --> 01:19:54,359
myself into the Blazers winning like seventy
games apparently. But the more I think

1188
01:19:54,399 --> 01:19:58,079
about it, this could be they
could pick up too many wins earlier on

1189
01:19:58,199 --> 01:20:00,840
in the season and if they end
up not making like the Jazz didn't start

1190
01:20:00,840 --> 01:20:03,119
trading people until February. Basically,
if they go that route, you might

1191
01:20:03,159 --> 01:20:08,000
be in for some rough games where
you're not seeing sharp and scoot and like

1192
01:20:08,079 --> 01:20:11,439
the players who are important of the
future might be too good at the moment,

1193
01:20:11,520 --> 01:20:14,680
which is more out of respect I
think, for I fell into this

1194
01:20:14,760 --> 01:20:17,199
trap with the Jazz, which is
maybe why I'm over accounting. But there's

1195
01:20:17,239 --> 01:20:20,880
like real NBA talent on this roster, as bad as and as developing I'll

1196
01:20:20,880 --> 01:20:24,720
say as they are. It's it's
a lot of real NBA talent, and

1197
01:20:24,800 --> 01:20:28,239
so they could pick up I think, more wins early on and people might

1198
01:20:28,279 --> 01:20:31,560
be expecting well, and wouldn't that
be an easier pill to swallow if they're

1199
01:20:31,840 --> 01:20:36,560
passing around the Cronin cup every night
from house to house. I I'm rooting

1200
01:20:36,640 --> 01:20:41,199
for that to happen now, just
because that no one's like people would be

1201
01:20:41,319 --> 01:20:43,520
like, oh, they Spurs have
Wenby, like yeah, maybe they would

1202
01:20:43,520 --> 01:20:45,760
win. No one's saying that about
the Blazers. I think the only the

1203
01:20:45,920 --> 01:20:49,439
less the only team that's less likely
to be the in season Cup pick among

1204
01:20:49,479 --> 01:20:53,119
people will be the Wizards, who
are probably gonna be the worst team in

1205
01:20:53,159 --> 01:20:56,560
the NBA. Has there I've kept
you for way too long. Is there

1206
01:20:56,600 --> 01:20:59,520
anything else I having to asked you
about or anything that you think needs to

1207
01:20:59,520 --> 01:21:04,119
be discuss before I let you go? I don't think so. And I

1208
01:21:04,199 --> 01:21:06,399
know, like at the end of
a job interview, you're always supposed to

1209
01:21:06,439 --> 01:21:11,359
have a question for the people who
ask you all these questions, and I

1210
01:21:11,720 --> 01:21:14,600
never have a question, And I
never have a question for you because you're

1211
01:21:14,640 --> 01:21:17,640
so thorough and all of your researching
every team. So I appreciate that so

1212
01:21:17,760 --> 01:21:21,439
much. I appreciate how I've turned
you into a little bit of a Blazer

1213
01:21:21,520 --> 01:21:27,039
fan here and now what happened during
the Challenge podcast, I have no idea.

1214
01:21:28,359 --> 01:21:30,960
I love it. Maybe I can
talk to you into coming into the

1215
01:21:30,039 --> 01:21:33,319
city and watching the Blazers play when
yes, well it's easy for me to

1216
01:21:33,359 --> 01:21:35,239
get into the city. So if
you and your husband have free time,

1217
01:21:35,560 --> 01:21:40,159
let's try and sync up. Are
you able to very quickly? Just tell

1218
01:21:40,199 --> 01:21:43,119
our listeners where they can find you
on social media and where they can find

1219
01:21:43,159 --> 01:21:47,600
your podcast. For sure. I
am still hanging out on Twitter at tcbb

1220
01:21:47,840 --> 01:21:51,640
I GGS, and I'm also on
Instagram at that same handle, and my

1221
01:21:51,760 --> 01:21:57,560
podcast is called We Have a Take, and it is under at We Have

1222
01:21:57,640 --> 01:22:00,960
a Take, and we're a weekly
fan pod about the Trailblazers. We try

1223
01:22:01,000 --> 01:22:05,560
to look at it from a fan
perspective. And this year is really like

1224
01:22:05,680 --> 01:22:10,159
every year. We do deep dives
on all of the players and that takes

1225
01:22:10,239 --> 01:22:13,720
up most of our time for the
last couple of seasons. So we're going

1226
01:22:13,800 --> 01:22:16,159
to be learning more about all these
new players and we fall in love with

1227
01:22:16,279 --> 01:22:19,039
every one of them and think,
oh my god, this is the most

1228
01:22:19,079 --> 01:22:21,840
fun team we've ever had, and
I fully expect that we're going to do

1229
01:22:21,920 --> 01:22:26,119
that again this year. So thanks
for having me on, Dan, It's

1230
01:22:26,159 --> 01:22:28,399
been really great. It's always great
to talk to you. Oh, of

1231
01:22:28,479 --> 01:22:30,439
course, thank you forgiving me so
much of your time. As always,

1232
01:22:30,479 --> 01:22:33,319
I will include everyone who's listening the
links to Tara's Twitter and the podcast again

1233
01:22:33,479 --> 01:22:36,800
in the pod and YouTube descriptions.
You also do I think it's a great

1234
01:22:36,880 --> 01:22:41,079
segment that really gets the podcast on
the right. But the ice breaker stuff

1235
01:22:41,239 --> 01:22:45,119
is fantastic, So go check them
out. And when you guys have interviews

1236
01:22:45,159 --> 01:22:48,439
you and Rose, I want to
say I'm so bad with names. You

1237
01:22:48,560 --> 01:22:51,159
do a really great job with that. So go check them out again links,

1238
01:22:51,359 --> 01:22:55,479
podcasts, and YouTube. Tara,
thank you so much for coming back

1239
01:22:55,520 --> 01:22:58,880
for year five or year four,
whatever this number it is, and rest

1240
01:22:58,920 --> 01:23:02,039
asshured I will be m and your
d MS again. It'll be very awesome.

1241
01:23:02,119 --> 01:23:09,359
Thanks Dan, mm hmm