Speaker 1: We talked about the Blazers getting stomped by the Warriors,
Speaker 1: fifty five points they put up on the Blazer's head
Speaker 1: in the first quarter alone. It has been rough. It
Speaker 1: has been It has been a tough road if you're
Speaker 1: a Blazers fan or somebody that works for the Blazers organization,
Speaker 1: or somebody probably who plays for the Blazers. I think
Speaker 1: that they've had six signings in the last week. Guys
Speaker 1: that were two AA players I had never heard of. Like,
Speaker 1: what was his name again, Spencer Hayes. No, you know
Speaker 1: who I'm talking about, Mays, Skyler Maze. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm living That was Trendon Watford last year, right, Like,
Speaker 1: who is Trendon Watford? That's a real name, Right, who
Speaker 1: is Skyler Maze? I think they're both LSU products, which
Speaker 1: is crazy. I think they are. I think they are.
Speaker 1: Scalar May is a bucket, never have heard of them before.
Speaker 1: It sucks. These are the things that you have to
Speaker 1: put up with when your team sucks. Is players who
Speaker 1: suck playing significant minutes for your team. No shade to
Speaker 1: Skaler Mays or Kevin Knox, but those guys getting forty
Speaker 1: minutes in quote end of game or end of season
Speaker 1: scenarios shows you everything that's going on. They've had seven
Speaker 1: wins in the past two combined years after the trade deadline.
Speaker 1: Let me say that again. There is no team worse
Speaker 1: than the Portland Trailblazers post trade deadline in the last
Speaker 1: two years, which is crazy because the Portland Trail Blazers
Speaker 1: weren't even trying to lose this year at the trade deadline.
Speaker 1: They didn't start tanking until three weeks left end of
Speaker 1: the season. Portland has managed seven total wins after the
Speaker 1: break combined, not seven each year combined. So now, what's
Speaker 1: going on the Blazers does some decisions to make Damian
Speaker 1: Lillard is obviously not stoked. People are calling this the
Speaker 1: most important off season in Blazer's history. The biggest question
Speaker 1: will Portland be able to surround Damian Lillard with any
Speaker 1: players who can make this team relevant competitive? Dare I
Speaker 1: say a contendersh Come on? Come on? Lillard came out
Speaker 1: and made some very clear comments about what it is
Speaker 1: he wants and what he does not want. As we
Speaker 1: all know, Portland currently has the ten and a half
Speaker 1: percent chance of getting Victor Wambiama, which I believe is
Speaker 1: fifth in the NBA for the lottery. If Portland doesn't
Speaker 1: somehow get Vic through a Miyama that pick, Damian Lillard
Speaker 1: did everything short of demanding that they move that pick.
Speaker 1: You are not getting another nineteen year old kid and
Speaker 1: putting him next to me, absolutely not think of that.
Speaker 1: Portland is now in a quandary. This is supposed to
Speaker 1: be a historic draft, one of the deepest in memory,
Speaker 1: and Damian Lillard says, fuck them. Kids don't want to
Speaker 1: see him, don't want him on this team. I want
Speaker 1: nothing to do with them. Literally, that's what he said.
Speaker 1: I'm not babysitting anymore nineteen year olds. The Blazers, according
Speaker 1: to all the reporting, probably going to end up trading
Speaker 1: out of the lottery to add a star player. Here's
Speaker 1: what Dame said. If you want the quote about adding
Speaker 1: another young player to the team, drafting another young player,
Speaker 1: I'm just not interested in that. That's not a secret.
Speaker 1: I want a chance to go for it. And if
Speaker 1: that route is to draft youth, that's not my route.
Speaker 1: We Scooby, does that mean? Dame says, Hey, that's not
Speaker 1: my route, meaning if that's your route, then me and
Speaker 1: you gotta go separate. Routes not my route. Immediately, Joe
Speaker 1: Cronin was like, yeah, yeah, Dame's right, We're not doing that.
Speaker 1: We're gonna get some stars. Yeah, Dame, We're good. He
Speaker 1: goes out publicly. Him and Chauncey Billupson said we don't
Speaker 1: want to go through this anymore either. It's time for
Speaker 1: us to start winning basketball games. Billups said, yeah, this
Speaker 1: is very important to me. Billup said, yeah, We've done
Speaker 1: the tweak thing a few times. We've got to be
Speaker 1: much more aggressive than the tweak thing. If we want
Speaker 1: to do right by the best player in the history
Speaker 1: of the organization, we have to be aggressive. The million
Speaker 1: dollar question for a Blazer fan is how do you
Speaker 1: fix it? How do you fix this team? I don't know.
Speaker 1: They are among the smallest roster in the NBA. They
Speaker 1: have only two players taller than six eight. In terms
Speaker 1: of depth at talent, they ended the year starting a
Speaker 1: guy named Genathan Williams. That's not a typo, not Jonathan.
Speaker 1: His name is Jonathan Williams with two e's. He got
Speaker 1: forty one minutes along with Skylor Mays. So what does
Speaker 1: this mean. It means that the future draft capital means
Speaker 1: absolutely nothing until you move those for some players who
Speaker 1: can play. Right now, the target group is good. We'll
Speaker 1: just say that because Dame believes that somebody can come
Speaker 1: here and move the needle, and they want to. It's
Speaker 1: just a matter of whether Portland can get them here.
Speaker 1: Here's the list that they're reporting. Jalen Brown. God, let's
Speaker 1: just sit there and imagine for a second. Jalen Brown,
Speaker 1: Damian Lillard and Shaden Sharp and Jeremy Grant. That's better
Speaker 1: than Boston. Right now, here's another player, Ogannaobi. I'm less
Speaker 1: intrigued than I am with Jalen Brown. Still very good.
Speaker 1: Pascal siakam Oh sounds good. Michale Bridges, that's the number
Speaker 1: one on my list. They're already calling him Brooklyn Bridges though,
Speaker 1: So I feel like I feel like the nets are
Speaker 1: kind of ready to keep them. I feel like the
Speaker 1: nets are saying he's an untouchable piece. All three four
Speaker 1: of those whatever it is, are difference makers. All are
Speaker 1: defensive minded players. They can all score. Of course, JB's
Speaker 1: the first choice. He can do so many things in
Speaker 1: the court. To me, the perfect scenario is this, So
Speaker 1: we've got some coaching firings. One of those firings. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you call it a firing, they're calling
Speaker 1: it a promotion. Is Dwayne Casey, Dwayn Casey is out
Speaker 1: in Detroit. He is done coaching those young kids. Jade
Speaker 1: and Ivy has drove him officially insane. He is now
Speaker 1: in a front office position. Chauncey Billups, take your ass
Speaker 1: back to Detroit. We now have an open spot and
Speaker 1: we can say, e may U Dooka, It's time to
Speaker 1: come home, brother, time to come on home to Portland
Speaker 1: where you grew up. And then Jalen Brown, the guy
Speaker 1: who sang from the rooftops for you to be the
Speaker 1: head coach of the Boston Celtics. Now you, I don't know,
Speaker 1: like you're fired. So maybe Tampa now before you get
Speaker 1: the head coaching job and bring him to Portland, get
Speaker 1: him to force his way there. Another issue that Dame
Speaker 1: seemed to settle is that one hundred percent, Jeremy Grant
Speaker 1: is coming back, no matter if it puts us in
Speaker 1: the poorhouse, because what other options do we have. Dame
Speaker 1: says he's coming, So I guess he's coming. Problem is
Speaker 1: Jeremy Grant is represented by Rich Paul and Rich Paul
Speaker 1: is the David falk of this modern era. He is
Speaker 1: going to falk Us for everything that he can. He's
Speaker 1: going to squeeze the Blazers for every penny. He did
Speaker 1: this with Nirk is one of the most overpaid, overrated centers, overpaid,
Speaker 1: we'll call him overpaid centers in the league. Grant likes it.
Speaker 1: He says he's comfortable here. He says he likes the
Speaker 1: players and the team and the organization and probably the money. Also,
Speaker 1: there's a bigger issue, which is to bring in a star,
Speaker 1: you not only have to give up a high draft pick,
Speaker 1: you've also give up players. The beat writers for Portland
Speaker 1: think it's either Shaden Sharp or it's Anfrity Simons Ant
Speaker 1: or Shaden. You have to imagine that it's gonna be
Speaker 1: It's gonna be Simons, and you can't trade Shaden Sharp.
Speaker 1: Shade Sharp is the future. One guy makes rookie scale.
Speaker 1: One game makes twenty five million a year. One guy
Speaker 1: has one of the worst defensive ratings in the league.
Speaker 1: One guy has upside in terms of his defense. Sharp
Speaker 1: is probably the one bright spot on this team right now.
Speaker 1: To be honest, he's averaging twenty four to six and
Speaker 1: four with the steel per game. In last ten he
Speaker 1: is asking for thirty minutes per game. Welly, actually, I
Speaker 1: think that's Chauncey who thinks he can get thirty, and
Speaker 1: then Shandon is asking to start. So what is GM
Speaker 1: Joe Cronin have to say about picking between Shadon and Simons?
Speaker 1: He says, well, I think that's something we have to
Speaker 1: look at. I look at it as a great problem
Speaker 1: to have, but you have to figure that out. How
Speaker 1: does the fit work, how do the minutes work? Are
Speaker 1: there other holes that you need to fill instead? Pause?
Speaker 1: Woo that part? That part, Yes, you know that there
Speaker 1: are what are you fucking talking about? You know that
Speaker 1: there are holes other than shooting guard to fill. Anyway,
Speaker 1: it's an exercise we're going to have to go through
Speaker 1: and evaluate. No, we're not. You already know what the
Speaker 1: answer is. But on an individual level, I love both guys.
Speaker 1: I think they're both omega talented and I'm thrilled that
Speaker 1: we have them. By Anthrony see you later, enjoy Boston,
Speaker 1: have a good time with all of the beans and
Speaker 1: the racism. Last year, the Blazers acted like they were
Speaker 1: gonna make money moves and they got Gary Payton. And
Speaker 1: didn't they get a Cody Zeller. Yeah, they did. That
Speaker 1: was our move. We got Tony Snell and Cody Zeller,
Speaker 1: Gary Payton, Jeremy Grant. Well, thankfully we get the opportunity
Speaker 1: to overpay Jeremy Grant now that he wouldn't extend with
Speaker 1: us for a reasonable salary. So good for us this year.
Speaker 1: I don't think Dan's putting up with Cody Zeller. I'm
Speaker 1: getna guarantee you that's not the veteran he wants. They
Speaker 1: must make money moves, and who do I think that
Speaker 1: they get. I think it depends on the outcome of
Speaker 1: the lottery. If the Blazers have the number two overall
Speaker 1: pick and they can move that piece, maybe another young
Speaker 1: guy like Anthony Simon's for a guy like Pascal. That's
Speaker 1: a good look. I think that Toronto is gonna be
Speaker 1: rebuilding pretty fast. I'm not sure the Bridges is a possibility.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure that JB is gettable. It is certainly
Speaker 1: worth a try. You try and try all you can.
Speaker 1: All I know is that if you are a Blazer
Speaker 1: fan and you see the Blazers pick a player in
Speaker 1: the lottery this year, just no dame is gone, and
Speaker 1: we are in trouble. Trouble, trouble, trouble,