This is the baseline, discussing the hot button topics of the NBA. Welcome
everybody, your tune to the baseline. Cali Warnshaw discussing the hot button topics
of the NBA. And we are down to like the final week and a
half, two weeks before we say bye bye to the NBA regular season,
Hello to the playings. But there's still a little bit of time left for
us to make sure that we're properly eulogizing teams that clearly have no shot whatsoever
to be a part of this year's twenty twenty three, twenty four NBA season.
But with that being said, it doesn't mean that these teams don't give
you a little something to look forward to, right And so again our coveted
autopsy report, we're covering those teams, you know, as always, man,
it's great because there's so many cross sectioning things happening when it comes to
the game and the game of basketball, NCAA Final four championship game, you
know, NBA basketball. It's just all good in the wood, my man.
And as always, when we roll out the red carpet to my brother,
mister Warren Sharping out of Fort Florida or Florida. What's good, mister
Shaw. And as much as basketball is moving to shakey, you my friend,
are also doing a little bit of moving to shake And as we were
recording this podcast too, well you know what it is friendly, you know,
representing the nineteen Media Group always got a little something going on, sturning
in that capacity. So yeah, we'll be covering them on film Festival here
for nineteen Media Group slash Upe interviews. But you know, we're to talk
about hoops and these final two teams really before we get to the playing situation.
And we'll see how next weekend goes when we're recording and who actually is
in and who is out. But I think we have a pretty good indication
of the top ten right now on both conferences. So I think this is
actually our final hot Tops report of the non play and worthy teams, I
think at this if my count is correct, So exciting times here ahead,
man, and the NBA basketball is getting its most most exciting part of the
season with the playoffs right on the horizon. Yeah, and and to your
point, you know, these the last few games are going to be the
most important. I mean, typically we already will know, you know,
which teams have pretty much positioned themselves to be participating in the play in and
the teams that have already locked in their seedings for the playoffs. But this
has been one this has been a year where it is really going to come
down, you know, to the final stretch of games and more importantly,
may determine which team has home field advantage sort of speak when it comes to
the play in situation, which may be crucial, you know, for the
participant. So it's good to see that. But I think also as well
too, these regular season games are being impacted by the teams that we're going
to be discussing in regards to their autop seeing like you know what you're seeing
from you know, the two teams that will be discussing this week, which
will be the the Brooklyn Nets and the Portland Trailblazers. You know what they
have going on, I think still will impact and still you know, have
meaning in some regards to what we're talking about and what the future may look
like. And I think that's why it's so important to take some of that
opportunity of time and know the focus and attention is going to be about the
play in and the playoffs. But we also want our listeners who are Portland
Trailblazer fans and Brooklyn Nets fans do they want to feel encouraged about what they're
seeing from their team in their final stretch of home games because it's going to
be a long off season. This team may not even look These teams may
not look like, you know, what they represent themselves as by the end
of this season, come the start of next season, and I think you
just want to start focusing, you know, towards draft, towards Summer league,
like what steps and strides are going to be made for these teams respectively.
Yeah, and that's what we're here to discuss. So I think Brooklyn
and you know, the Portland Trail Blazer is very very different seasons. But
I don't know what they're going to have different in terms of what they expected
coming in. You know, I think maybe Portland expected to be this bad,
Brooklyn did not. But now how they both move forward, I think
that's the similar trajectory that they're both throw on and they have some real decisions
to make, as all teams do when they head to the off season.
Absolutely, as always be sure to get at my Manshaw as Sports, NBA
get at me a game face leader shows, Twitter handle at NBA. Based
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to the home website in order to check out not only this show, but
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Let's get right into it, man, let's talk about you know,
in our coveted autopsy report, we're going to discuss the Brooklyn Nets and then
later on we'll discuss the Portland Trailblazers. So starting with the Brooklyn Nets,
I think you know one of the things, and we've had this conversation before.
You know about Brooklyn. It it sucks in some regards because now you're
seeing the New York Knicks once again stake their claim as again being the king
of Kings in New York as far as you know, the basketball vibe,
the basketball culture goes. And one of the things that has really troubled me
when it comes to the Brooklyn Nets, and I've expressed this in previous shows,
is if you don't get this right, if you don't do this correctly,
if there's not sustainability in how the organization and the franchise operates and the
way that it tries to you know, become a successful group, which is
you know, reflective on the way that the team operates, how the team
continues to conduct business, how the players respond and react. You basically become
a marginalized organization and in many respects to the outside community, it makes it
look like a fluke organization, a fluke team, right where guys can just
go there and get paid but not necessarily do anything productive. And so this
is the thing that I you have some nice pieces, you have some nice
players, obviously led by Michale bridges Are we saying that Mchal Bridgesshaw is a
front line guy, a guy who is what your starting block should be in
order to start building a successful franchise. And I'm not saying rebuild. I'm
saying building because this is what it always feels like with the Brooklyn Nets.
It's never a true build. It's never a rebuild. It's always kind of
like a stopgap placement because no one truly understands the dynamic and the direction and
where the team is moving forward. And I just wonder, how does that
start and begin with McHale Bridges and the rest of the roster in kind well,
I think with Bridges, they were hoping and banking on the Lait season's
success from last year was going to really roll over into him proving to be
a one a ish type player. I think we have enough evidence here now
that that's probably not his role. And that's not to knock this into He's
a very good basketball player, you know, and it's kind of a plug
and play guy in a lot of systems. But if he's your lead dude,
like the lead horse, there's going to be a cap on how far
you can go. And granted, this team has struggled with a lot of
injuries, the coaching situation, the front office situation, so there has been
a rock of stability here throughout the course of this, but I don't.
I think everybody in the league can say is like, all right, I
wouldn't feel comfortable with mcle Bridges as my number one guy. And now the
issue is with Brooklyn. They have a lot of guys who are good basketball
players, solid basketball players, rotation basketball players, but all probably a little
bit more miscast because it's starting at the top where with Bridges is. So
everybody's basically a slot out more from where they probably should be. And that's
an intriguing place to be from a franchise because you can't say you're devoid of
talent because I think those are players that other teams may want and would potentially
build around. Or do you have enough juice here to bring in somebody else
now to take some of that lead those lead responsibilities away from Bridges. That's
a very very dynamic space to be in. I think right now for Brooklyn,
given everything that they have gone through in the last years, I don't
know that they're going to be a free agent destination for anybody. And as
we've said through the autopsy report, not a great free agent class. So
when do you make that potential move and that's probably still a year out the
reason I say that here too, and I definitely want to tell you back
in next year, Ben Simmons's deal comes off your books. That's forty million
dollars extra in cap space that you'll have. You'll be so well below the
cap threshold, presumably so that it would make sense to make play for that
twenty five NBA free agent draft class and kind of seeing what you can do
there. They missed a boat at least in the previous year to get to
trade Bridges again. A lot of people's was a lot of us adventured about
that Houston deal potentially where they could have got jill In Green and most of
the draft capital back from the James Harden deal, which probably would have been
a better move for the long term stake of this franchise. But Cam Croderus
spilt milk, and I don't know if that that deal is still there for
them now, especially with the way Jallen Green has ascended in Houston. So
for me right now, the Brooklyn Nets are very much in the state of
transition. But I think they know that Bridges can't be the lead guy,
and I think the hold on to him and see what twenty five brings for
them in free agency. So you bring up some interesting points about Michale Bridges,
and I think we obviously we acknowledge the fact that he's he's not a
number one. The one thing that I had always leaned on Shaw is again,
it's not that I can't. It's not that I would never see Michail
Bridges being a number one. It's what it takes for him to get to
that point. It's not about a mentality, it's not about it's about a
style of play. It's about a it's about a style that obviously has been
marginalized because of the fluctuation happening in, you know, with the in the
coaching space. So it isn't as if Michal Bridges came in and his style
augments what Shaw Marks needs to do in order to to build around it.
It's kind of like they're just you know, placing pieces to kind of see
what may fit jigger. And now they're beginning to realize that nothing that they're
going to do is gonna really shake or transform this. This this is gonna
come down to there has to be a style, a system that they can
they can build off of and build from. That to me is what I
get the sense of Kevin ally has been an admirable coach. I can't see
whether or not, you know, he's transformative and is going to be able
to to to develop some of these guys. You've got some really good players,
like in Claxton. I think just recently I was watching the other night
Clowney. I believe, uh Noah Clowney upside athleticism there, right, But
where does all that come to play, not just with mckel bridges, but
just with the way that the Brooklyn Nets want to play basketball, with the
way that they want to execute, especially in a very loaded Atlantic division.
So so all of that being said, Shaw, you brought up the one
person who I wanted to be on board with him so much because I felt
like some of the deals that he did were by you know, hostage situation
right with Sean Mars. He did it because he was at the behest of
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, right, and the desperation was there right coming
from the top down. With josiehs as an owner, now I'm beginning to
see, even at the top of his powers, he is not the greatest
evaluator of talent, And I think this now is going to come full circle
with whether or not you continue to ride or die with Marx and the roster,
or you continue to ride with Mars to clean up this roster. Either
way, what you're beginning to see is if you are leaning into what your
point is shaw, once they get under the cap, am I going to
be confident that Marx is going to pick out quality talent to collectively together can
come out and look like what the Oklahoma City thunder look like. I don't
think so. And if it's based on him making moves as far as moving
McHale Bridges and getting something back, okay, maybe, but again it puts
us right back in the piece of when when he took it, when he
rolled that dice and got back Bridges and he relied on Bridges and Johnson.
Are we now collectively saying this is what we want the future to look like
with the Brooklyn nets and because Mark is making that call? Are we now
Marx is making that call? Are we now feeling confident he can come around
and do something like that again, but with the slate wiped clean and not
still kind of you know, still playing from behind because of what didn't work
with the Simmons move and everything like that. I mean, and it's unfortunate
that so much salery is tied to somebody who is just not able to stay
healthy and we're not quite sure quite Frankly likes basketball. I just you know,
I know where I am with that shaw. You know where I've been
at. Yeah, And it's not to reltigate any of that, but the
callery hold is what the is what the interesting part of this is too,
because like you can't extrapolate any value from that any way, shape or form
right now, and that's really unfortunate. It's interesting because you mentioned Clowne,
Who's what tail end of the season. Wait, shah, there's one thing
I want to I want to I'm not saying. Maybe I'm misinterpreted what you're
what you were saying, and it's not about relitigating, but I want to
throw this caveat in and then get back to Clowney. I I feel like
this is part and parcel of the problem too with Marx in his selection of
coaches. I think that he has not been the best quote unquote evaluator of
head coaches that should hold accountability to the players and to the system and the
style, because if you think about it, he's responsible for jacqu Vaughan.
And while jacqu One was okay, the rumors about him catering to Ben Simmons,
which I thought was an absolute miss. I don't know why he even
thought that that may in any sense regardless of whether or not Ben Simmons was
healthy or not healthy. I'm just saying that, like, not since Atkinson
have we seen a legitimate head coach who can come in and it's about,
Hey, my coaching acumen out ranks any of what you guys think that you
know or can or will ever know about the game of basketball until you get
to that level. Until I see Marx execute like that, which I don't,
I have no confidence that he's going to do that. This will always
plague a lot of the decision making that he makes, even moving forward.
I mean, and again, I think he's been okay in middle to late
round evaluation in terms of talent coaching. I think being believed to some degree
and too strong of a term I think for today's culture. But if you've
toisted his arm because of the high level coaching that was there, high level
players that were brought in, sorry, and then you got rid of Atkinson
to bring in Nash and then that didn't work out. Then to like I
said, again, the coaching side a lot to be desired. The talent
evaluation side not as bad, especially when it comes to middle and late round
draft picks. But they need to be in a situation where they can try
to get into the top five or top ten at least and see what they
do there. And even with Clowney who's playing some minutes here, now,
well, what is the future of his role on this team? Because you
also have to pay Nick Claxton? What do you pay Nick Claxton with this
team? And I think we talk about it all the time when it comes
to when it comes to players and their salaries and when they need to be
evaluated, A lot of it is based on whereas a team at that given
moment is like, hey, your services complement us in this way, so
we're willing to pay maybe a couple of dollars extra because of that. Are
you just paying Claxon to keep him around? Do you want to feature him?
Because he's I think again, solid basketball player, but he's not a
building block. And that puts you in a very precarious situation when you're trying
to create a financial structure that can be somewhat withstanding. Is Claxon a guy
is not to pick on him here too, but is he is somebody else?
Well, Hey, when twenty five comes and free agents are available,
Hey, I want to go go to Brooklyn and play with Nick Claxon and
Michel Bridges. I don't know that that's but overly enticing. But remember the
New York Knicks had had had faced a very similar situation with Mitchell Robinson.
And you can see, you know, give credit to the New York Knicks.
They recognize very quickly what needed to be addressed, right, even if
at at the expense that they wind up saying, we may not be able
to keep Mitchell Robinson, pay Mitchell Robinson. Whatever the case may be,
the focus of this team, the strength of this team lie in the compatibility
of the players that they see are versatile and can execute based on what In
other words, you had to lean more into Tom Tibbs and what Tom Tibbs
needs, or you had to lean more into what you're seeing your your personnel
and your players give you. And until guys like Nick Clason are on the
floor, you know, first you know for several games at a time,
for several minutes, and you see how he interacts with Bridges, You see
how they're two man game can operate. You see what Claxon is he really
a difference maker defensively all that kind of stuff. You're not seeing any of
that stuff materialize. You have to pivot. Like the pivoting game in the
NBA is even quicker than it has been in previous years. There there was
always that lag time where you can still give time and evaluation. We would
have already told you the moment that Ben Simmons started, you know, having
these injuries and all of this other stuff going on, that you had to
quickly say, we need to have a backup plan. We need to pivot
because how confident can you possibly be with some of the players and the way
that the roster is constructed that you're gonna be able to clearly make an evaluation
about what steps you're going to do one year, two year, three years
down the line. If you're solely depending on people coming back, or solely
depending on people saying they're going to be a better version of themselves but they
never show up or it never comes to fruition, well, and Claxon Mitchell
Robinson R. Is a suitable I think comparison, at least in terms of
the salary exercise, you know, maybe not lightful life in terms of their
old all skill set. But Robson is in the fifteen to sixteen million dollar
range. I'd be fine if you need to play Clacks in that. But
if I'm Claxton, I'm looking at cam Johnson, who was all the SA
a good part of this year, and he's in the twenty five to twenty
you know, twenty four million dollar range. I'll be listen, I'm doing
a lot more than this guy, and his agent is probably saying the same
thing. So then that puts, you know, Marx in a precarious situation.
It's like, all right, well, and some people may still say
that Camra Johnson is better, has a better trajectory and overall talented skills set
than Nick Clackson. Maybe you would make that argument, but I don't think
Nik Claxson would make that argument, especially because he's been available for the most
majority of part of the year. So now is he worth twenty five million
dollars over the next three years to your franchise organization? To kind of keep
their locker room happy. You know, That's where I say Marx is it
is tough. It's tough, and I wouldn't want to be him. From
from this side, I think that they have a team option on Cam Thomas,
who's another guy who's polarizing. Let's just kind of put it, you
know, let's put it mildly there. I think they pick up the team
option and then give themselves on this another year to evaluate what he is and
you know who what he means even to this team and its future. Otherwise,
do you not take the team option there, free up more salary and
continue to try to develop younger guys Brooklyn to me, especially with the coaching
situation, if all he's gonna stay, shit, I mean, if Marx
is even going to stay, this is this is more of the same.
I think next year kind of this. You know, twenty five to thirty
win team at best can do a little something here and there, you know,
if they try defensively, but it's not there's not a lot here of
meat on the bone here for this Brooklyn Nets team that I'm excited about at
least going into next year. How confident you are Shaw with the back court
situation for the Brooklyn Nets. I believe. I believe that's that's the question,
what is the backcourt situation exactly? Because as far as from what I've
seen and the way that camp Thomas plays, there's no way that you can
ask of him to transition. There's he is a score. That's what he
is. That's that's and that's what you you know. I'm not saying that
he he cannot evolve, but he is not going to evolve well enough with
I think even the field of possibilities that are going to be out there in
this upcoming draft, with what may be available to you as far as free
agency goes. It just it's interesting to me that we're still kind of at
that point where maybe you were hoping for that from Ben Simmons. That should
not even be the case. I believe that if you are the Brooklyn Nets,
you need a true, true point guard. I think Shrewder is a
serviceable guard, but he is not a starting point guard. He's not absolutely
a floor general. I think he's a plug and play kind of player and
a guy who I think can help a guy like Thomas from a second unit
perspective. But you have to be thinking draft wise, you need to be
thinking we need a floor general. We need somebody that is going to elevate
McHale Bridges, elevate Cam Johnson, elevate Nick Claxton, elevate some of these
other secondary guys. And I don't know how whether or not you're gonna be
able to find that. I mean, we're not trying to, you know,
talk predictions about this upcoming draft class yet or anything like that. What
I'm saying is is that to your point, it makes it a tougher fine
because either you're gonna have to find it from the free agency aspect of things,
or you're really hoping that there's a deep enough class of players from the
backcourt position that can help immediately to address that. For Kevin Ollie, Yeah,
I don't know that there is. So I think it's another era of
Dennis Srudery, is another year left on a contract. Maybe bring back Dennis
Smith Junior to be the serviceable quote unquote backup. But then, like you
said, Cam Thomas playing that too or just that kind of that wing position
wherever you want to slot him in the backcourt. It's it's not you know,
there's not a lot of path here then, and that's it's amazing that
they're thirty wins. Shaw, It's amazing that they they've eclipsed thirty wins.
It's not that they're a bad basketball team, but I'm a little surprised by
it because you look at a lot of the way that they play, and
it almost feels like the Brooklyn Nets have guys just out of position, right,
like they've all had to play dual you know, roles sort of speak
to compensate for what they don't really do great and they don't necessarily do poorly.
You know, they just sit in the middle with a lot of those
things you don't This is the worst place to be in the MBA, and
in a lot of ways, well second worst, because I think it's like
when you're the proverbial eight seed all the time and so then you're out of
the lottery and everything like that too, Like this is now, but this
is a different type of predgatory because even in terms of the roster construction,
good but not great players. So now it gets you into the middle to
late part of the lottery and you know you really kind of have to try
to figure out can you hit home runs from there or are you going to
start to diversify some of these nice role players, I mean and Doran,
Finnie and Smith. Maybe somebody would have some interest there. If you try
to move him, you're not going to get a lot of draft capitable back
from him, So maybe hold onto them to you know, until next season
trade deadline where people say, hey, he might be the missing piece type
of situation, but people aren't going to jump at that right now as you're
going into the summer, especially with free agency on the on the rising and
other trades that might be available. So to me, Brooklyn, despite us
talking negatively about them, yeah, they're they're probably on pace for another,
you know, twenty eight to thirty two wins season next year with solid,
if you will, talent, but nothing that's going to overwhelm anybody. Yeah,
and they sneak up and beat you on some nights because maybe they'll just
I'll score you, especially if Cam Thomas is hot. But going back to
your earlier point, you know, the backcourt situation is one that they're gonna
have to address in some semblance of getting even just more talent up there,
and that might come through again the draft, that might come through minimum minimum
free agents, so to speak, or maybe even the Chi League. But
this is a situation that is not truly tenable when it comes to the Italian
evaluation for the Brooklyn As, they've got to figure out a way to get
more on this roster. You're tuned to the baseline Cali Warrenshaw discussing the hot
button topics of the NBA. Coming up, we will focus our attention on
the Portland Trail Blazers. I know it's a rough season for the Blazers,
but Keim Billipson Company help this team take a step forward. Is there a
path to some possible success everything that's been going on out there in Portland,
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Baseline NBA podcasts Our covet At Autopsy Report just finished discussing the Brooklyn Nets,
and so now we're going to focus our attention to the Portland Trailblazers. Shaw.
When we talk about the Portland Trail blos it's it's kind of weird.
Like, I know, everyone expected the Blazers to be a struggling basketball team.
I gotta tell you, though, given the way that this team is
structured, and given the way things like, things could have really kind of
fallen apart, uh very or gone sideways, very very bad. And while
this team is essentially the fifth or maybe about the fifth worst team in the
NBA, I think a lot of people probably predicted it would have been far
worse. They probably would have been one of the worst teams in the NBA.
Right given you look at the comparative rosters, but the Portland chair Blazers
have over twenty wins, which I was surprised at. And I think given
this situation, Chauncy Phillips has done an admirable job. You know, you
don't have your your star guard the person who you essentially gave up, you
know, gave Damian Lillard for essentially you moved on with, moved from Damian
little with. Given he's been gone for a good portion of the year and
while he has not had a successful season, a successful rookie campaign, I
think all things considered, the Portland Trailblazers have escaped basketball purgatory in some ways
of being ostracized immensely given what we knew was going to happen to this team
coming into the regular season. Well, I mean that's ironically don't they play
in the Rose Garden or something like that or used to do so I think
that's a rosy outlook on this. And I'm what I'm concerned about by for
Portland is, you know, this is one of those situations bottom third and
pretty much everything twenty ninth, twenty second, twenty seventh, you know,
and a lot of things like it's it's pretty dire. But what I think
I'm perplexed even by even some of your own assessment, is like, well,
I think we came into the season and feel like, hey, they
have some solid NBA guys and some guys who think might have some pride,
and would this be a little bit of like the Utah Jazz situation from a
year ago, or they overplay there? Yeah, they just kind of overplay
their expectations. What has happened though, And I want to be careful how
I say this, is that I think they are probably going to be able
to trick themselves into saying it's like, well, we were vastly injured.
You know, we didn't have a lot of our guys for a good part
of the season, and had these guys been here, yeah, we would
have had a better record, maybe would have been a thirty four to thirty
five win team, still not great enough to make the playoffs in the West,
but you feel like you're in a better spot. I don't know if
that's the accurate approach to this, though, because I think the roster duplicity
in some ways is I don't know that everybody compliments each other in the way
that they maybe they would hope to Scoot came into the year probably you know,
hands on favorite to least finish third in the Rookie of the Year voting.
And I don't even if he's played enough games in essence to get there,
right he just he's just missed so much time, you know, I
think will be very close for him. I think he's at fifty eight games
of fifty seven games played right now. But the rest of this roster,
how does it work? Like truly, how does it work? It shaded
him sharp, you know, more camp Thomas as we were talking about,
you know, with the Miilka nets in the segment previously. Or is he
more versatile than that? You know, obviously more athletic than than Thomas is,
you know, and a much better leaper. But again, is he
just a high level scorer? And can he do other things that help help
your roster? DeAndre Ayton, you know, we've I've had poked some fun
at you know, his nicknames and all the things he's tried to do.
Sure he's playing better here now to close the season, but nobody's really playing
hard. So yeah, he's getting his double doubles and looking you know,
dominating if you will, But I think it's a little bit empty calories and
then the salary of Jeremy Grant. So so to me, the roster is
just kind of like missing each other, you know what I mean, kind
of like passing ships. And Billips has a really difficult job to kind of
reconcile what this roster needs to be, because what is going to be the
minutes diet from everybody, if and assuming everybody is healthy. Remember Robert Williams
missed most of the year. Rockton has missed most of the year as well
too. So those are all two key, two key veteran pieces that they
thought were going to be there and be helpful for them. And I just
don't know that you can count on one the health or the continuity of this
roster to be a much better team than we've seen this year itself. Yeah,
so a lot of great points that you're making, Shaw, I'm gonna
sum it up this way. And I still and I think we said this
as well too. What were they doing putting this roster together? Right?
I thought that there probably still would have been moves made. And I think
it's interesting that this team in a way, I don't think that they over
overachieved sort of speak as much as it is like this is what this is
what you can have, you know when you do have some talented guys,
But this is also what it's a reflection of when these towns of guys just
don't mesh. Okay. I'm wondering whether or not people are gonna ask the
question about this team shaw. Does the combination of Simons and Henderson work?
I don't think it does. I think you have to make a hard decision.
Simons is twenty four, Henderson is nineteen. Obviously you're looking at the
upside of what Henderson can give you. And we've been talking about how you
know Anthony Simons can be perennially like that guy. You know that he could
have been the one that would have made that decision for Portland's management to decide
on what to do with Damian Lillard. But in essence, it it made
them decide more about CJ. McCullum than it made them to decide about Damian
Lillard. And now by keeping Simons and you see what this looks like with
him, and I don't see where this works, and it doesn't. You
can have whatever coach you want on there. I just don't see where Simons
and Henderson work as a comb as a backcourt combination, as any kind of
combination for the Portland Trailblazers. And with that being said, now we've shift
our focus Jeremy Grant. We're saying the moment that you move Lillard should have
been all you already are tip fielding calls about what you can do to move
Jeremy Grant because again, his skill set and the way that he plays kind
of reminds me a lot like McHale Bridges. But his skill set in the
way that he plays, tell me how that's gonna fit in the grand schemes
of what Billips is trying to implement or work or do. So again,
like some you know, talent wise, you could look at somebody these guys
and say, oh, well, you know, these guys will get you
some games. But as far as what the future can look like, is
it really showing you whether or not the Portland Trailblazers have an opening where there's
some upside, you know, potential in play. And I say this because
you've got Simon's twenty four, eight and twenty five, Henderson at nineteen and
I guarantee you before we get to the third year of this conversation, Shaw,
two of these guys are probably not or should not be on this roster
because I don't see where they're going to be competitive and they're going to mesh
clearly unless something miraculously happens in the off season. This this is to me,
is untenable, you know. And then you add on top of Brogden
and Grant and other you know, veteran guys that I just think are out
of sync with whatever the Portland Trai Blazers are doing. This could go sideways
even worse, even given what they've they were able to overcome for this past
season. Yeah, they've played guys here. You know, I think a
lot of a lot of the casual fans and even myselfder myself casual like,
well, who's that guy? You know? And they've they've more so like
why is he? Why is he here now? Like why why is he?
Why are you? Why are you in the game now? Like what
are you doing here? Man? Where did you come from? Just quite
frankly, but they've they've they've they've had to patchwork, and I get that,
you know, even you know, Bonton who they've gotten, I guess
from from Boston. Sure, you know you took a flyer and you try
to figure out, all right, well what is he? He's still not
sure in terms of his roster, Like I think like they slought him as
a point guard, but he's more more of just a wing but not a
great shooter, but somebody who can you know, can slash a little bit
and can hit at least the corner threes from from time to time. But
is he going to really be a big part of what you do here,
even even next year? Assuming shade and sharpest back and you know Chris Murray
who they drafted, and all those things. Like like you said, it's
just a lot of pieces that don't make a whole lot of sense. Grant,
they couldn't move until January, but I think the salary is going to
scare a lot of people up, especially with all of his money being guaranteed,
including a last year being a player option at thirty six million dollars,
which he will be opting in too. So now he's like, all right,
well do I want to be on the hook for that? You know,
at granted, at thirty five years old, playing thirty six million dollars.
I don't know. If I don't know, a lot of teams are
signing up for that long term future, you know, any anywhere soon.
So to me, even the Robert Williams, the mantistibles like this is but
to your point, though, Sear, this is where if you're croning,
you need to own this and eat it. Okay, eat it because to
your point, Chris Murray's coming back, where are you putting them? How
are you going to evaluate Sharp Murray? When the ball is going to be
in Grant's hands, Grant is going to want to take his shots. You
can no longer justify paying this guy that much money and still assume that you're
going to figure out a way or Billups is going to figure out a way
to make the ball work for everyone. When the whole idea is even if
you're trying to go young, right, you're trying to you know, get
younger. Getting younger doesn't mean age. Getting younger also means looking at the
talent of what the age reflects. And so you got guys that are on
the roster that are going to have to take shots right, that are eating
minutes and eating opportunity for the guys, you really should be evaluating at this
point. Well, And I think it's it's interesting because the book on Simon
is Simon's rather is a little different for depending on who you ask, And
some people like, yeah, they should have moved him potentially to a team
like Orlando who is desperate for offense, because that seems to be what he
does pretty pretty well and is a capable and sometimes even very efficient score.
But then if you move him off this roster, then do you want Jeremy
Grant taking the line's share of those shots? And the answer to that is
no, like no, Like that can't be. That can't be your existence.
Even if DeAndre and is in the space where he's going to be consistent
and giving you twenty plus a night, even if that's the case, he
still needs some sumblance of somebody on the perimeter doing something, and that's where
Scoot is supposed to come in. But he's still a slasher at this stage,
and he's going to grow and get better presumably so and you know,
find a way to hit the mid range consistently than the three, et cetera.
All that you expect to happen. But I don't know that they're ready
to give up the ghosts on Simons because he's the loan chip that they have
that has I think value to them personally and then around the league if they
were trying to move him and decided that they would go another direction. So
with the way this season went rather, I don't think they felt comfortable in
moving off of him just yet. And that remains to be seen what they
do when it comes to the summer of the when their evaluation hits and Shandon
Sharp comes back and all these other guys, and to me, one of
the big keys here too is Brockden, and not from just like the locker
room presence, and he's a veteran guy, you know, all those you
know, keywords that we'd like to utilize. But when he played this year,
he played well. But is he a part of what you need in
the future, And can you send him off now in the final year of
his deal for one year rental for somebody else? And I know he's looking
for stability, So even if you're trying to trade him, he probably wanted
to resign with whatever that next destination ultimately is so that he can stop moving
around. But there's a difference. So they have a couple of moves that
they can make that can kind of define and put them on the right path.
I can't say it's going to get them right there immediately, but it
can start to lay the groundwork for where they want to go. But you
know, to your point, though playing well is good, playing well as
far as all eyes on me. The reflection of how my game can translate
and be productive for any team I play for, but well with the team
that is in flux or transition like the Portland Trailblazers, makes you say to
yourself, well, having him on the roster does what for Scoot Henderson?
Having him on the roster does what for Shad and Sharp? You know what
I'm saying. It's not to say that he's not a good player, but
if i'm you know, Malcolm Brogden, given my success when I played with
the Boston Celtics, remember he should have probably been a starter, but he
proved that he can play as a six. Right to me, it doesn't
mean that it can't equal and equate to something successful for other teams. I'm
hoping that Malcolm recognizes that that he's a plug and play and he can give
you exactly whatever it is that you need, but let it be meaningful for
that next team and not compromise yourself in saying I gotta still play for the
Portland Trailblazer because the thing I fear more than anything is he may believe that
he can be an asset to the Portland Trailblazers. But I think if you're
the Portland Trailblazers, you really have to look at this and say, do
we want to hang on this perception of we need vetering and lock guys in
the locker room. We need you know what you've got, Chauncey Billups.
If I'm Chauncey Billups, I want it all young because I know that I
can teach these guys. I can coach them up, rather than kind of,
you know, putting that on having a veteran presence in there. No
no, no, no no. The way that your youth movement is a
reflection of Shaw to me, go all in with it. Just get the
right coaches around to coach up these guys to the type of system that you
want, and then you will begin to see, you know what I'm saying,
the results bear fruit. Rather than allowing the veteran guys to continue to
hold up this facade that the team is going to be successful even these guys
say or don't stay if they move on. Well, now we see that
these guys are gonna flourish on their own. You will see what we've seen
with the Detroit Pistons. You will see what we've seen with the Houston Rockets.
You will see what we've seen with the Orlando Magic. You don't want
to be in that space because you have this perception of holding on to veteran
guys that you may think are good, but not good for what you You
need your young players to be at a specific point too. Yeah, and
you know, just for shifts and giggles here, if I'm brog then I'm
not going to cause a stink, right, But I don't. I don't
want to be tied to whatever the Portland future is. Just I just wouldn't
want to be. And I think again, it's a matter of how you
see yourself. But you know, Brogden could could could perceiably go to a
team like maybe like San Antonio. While and while san Antonio is obviously we've
already autopsied them as well too. Futures right out of there, simply because
Wemby's there and they could utilize a point guard. Right. So if I'm
brog then I'm like, hey, if I'm going to be on a bad,
bad team, right, if you believe want to go where this promise
exactly, if you believe Wemby is already there, this isn't even a question
of oh, we need to give him another year or you're trying to pair
him with No. No, whoever Wemby is getting paired with. Wemby is
on a uh is on a trajectory that clearly is a reflection of we need
to get some success. To your point, let's go ahead and accelerate that
timeline a little bit. And so you need somebody that is going to get
that ball to him in his spots, give him that rhythm that he needs.
And we've seen Malcolm Brognen become that kind of player. We've seen him
become that kind of guy. Yeah. Yeah, So there's there's a couple
of teams I think can utilize him potentially, you know, Portland world to
move off of that, but that's where I said, it puts Portland in
a position where at least they can explore those things and try to create,
you know, a better pathway for the talent that they need. They truly
need to evaluate, you know, and and see them get make sure that
those players get those reps so that they can also get better, so everybody
knows where they stand in the short term. Broglin doesn't really necessarily fit that,
and I'd be curious to think if they feel, like Robert Williams does,
if he can ever stay healthy and be on the floor as well too.
I think he seems to be kind of another plug and play center but
just has a problem staying healthy. So can he be the requisite backup behind
DeAndrea and moving forward? But Portland it's been a rough year, rougher than
they would have even expected. I'm sure they wanted to see more out of
Schoot Henderson more specifically, and the injuries just just robbed them. I think
of that, and that's why I thinking, Hey, they can trick themselves
into saying, oh, well, which need to get healthy and it will
be better. And like I said, it's in the beginning. I don't
think it's quite that simple. But we'll see what path they ultimately decide here
to go down. During the off season, in the summer. Sounds like
sounds like you were like you're saying, you were saying they were giving him
a morphine drip, trying to numb the pain. You need to get that
morphine. It can be very intoxicating though, right, You know, it
can really be when you feel like, oh, well, we were just
hurt, and it's just it's a very very easy excuse. So I just,
you know, I'm taking a more I guess pessimistic approach to that and
not saying that wouldn't have been the only issue that they had, because had
everybody been healthy, then there could have been the aspect of well, I'm
not getting enough shots for the role because I'm looking over this guy and he's
not efficient, and so forth and so forth. It just became one of
those things, Well, everybody was out at various times and then a lot
of over lap. So now you have your your what's it wreaths and Banton's
coming in here kind of closing after season when they weren't even sniffing the light
of day, you know, on their on their perceived rosters or the respective
rosters going into the year. Absolutely, this has been a great show,
Shaw, really good stuff. You know what I what I like most about
when we do our autopsy reports. I know a lot of people are like,
well, why would we want to be Like what is there to discuss?
You know? There there there the team is a reflection of you know
what they do offensively, defensively, and we can get into the numbers and
things, but what this really becomes down to shaws like we get into like
what is the ref Like what is it that you're taking from this, Like
if you had an exit an exit interview session, Like what is it that
we're looking at from this team that's making us feel good about what they have
going on going leading into the offseason? What what good do they have?
You know what I'm saying. By the time that we get to all of
the what they call Christmas time in the NBA Free agency Draft, summer League,
it's a whole even like the four month window before you even get to
training camp, you ought to be talking glowingly and optimistically about what you want
to see for your teams moving forward, and it just feels like that time
blows by so quickly, which is why it's so important to figure out what
is the what does what is this team done? The last handful of games
going into the end of the regular season to make you feel like, hey,
we're just one or two moves away from taking another step forward, or
we're one or two moves away from blowing this thing up, or were one
or two moves away from basically holding on for dear life. You know what
I'm saying, Like, it's just it's really phenomenal when we start looking at
some of these teams because we want so much for them to be a part
of the conversation come next year, and depending on how they looked at how
they ended the season this year, it plays such a critical role in in
in a in that belief system and that you know what I'm saying, in
that optimism that you want to buy into with these teams. Well, I
mean, I'll close it by saying this right in a in an NBA where
the there are literally twenty playoff spots up for grass if you include you know,
the play in situations you know to be out already mathematically eliminated and revo've
been in this now with the last four weeks. Some teams that have been
eliminated a whole month ago. That says a lot about the state of their
proverbial franchises. So you have to be pretty bad to not be able to
be in the top ten, you know, of your respective conferences, you
know, a month out from the season even being being finished. So that
should provide I think, you know, some direction. I think for some
of these organizations is like, all right, you may not be able to
jump three steps, but at least take a step forward, so you could
at least be in the in the conversation for the plane within the final two
weeks of the season, right, I mean like to be out a month
I have nothing to play for. That just sets a bad culture. And
some people say, oh yeah, I can just begin to continue to talent
and evaluate. But what are you evaluating? Especially if nobody else is playing
for anything? So I think that's where, you know, these teams need
to take a more stern approach to what they're doing in the short and long
term and hopefully we won't be able to autopsy people, you know, four
weeks before the season concludes next year. Yeah, it does get a little
tiring, killing you know what I'm saying, doing these things in bunches bleak
bleak, real good stuff, good stuff all around, and we just want
to get you know, hear from you guys as well too. Be sure
to get at us at NBA baseline. Let us know you know what you
think. If you're next fan, if you're a Blazers fan, you know,
how are you feeling? Is your appetite? There? Are you feeling?
You know, pretty warm and fuzzy about this team's future to these teams
futures? You know, we definitely want you to let us know what's going
down for the baseline, Cali warn't y'all. We appreciate you guys for hopping
on board with U this week. Thank you so much. Man, enjoy
the basketball that has left to play. Catch up with you next time