Portland Trail Blazers Draft Targets: Best and Worst Fits and Biggest Upside Swings

Portland Trail Blazers Draft Targets: Best and Worst Fits and Biggest Upside Swings

In today’s show, we’re talking best fits, biggest swings, and more for the Trailblazers in the 2025 NBA draft. Welcome to Locked On Blazers. Let’s get into [Music] it. You are Locked On Trailblazers, your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. What’s up world? Your past first point guard and trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond. You are listening to another episode of Locked on Blazers, part of the Locked On podcast network, available wherever you get podcast and also on YouTube. Thanks for making this show your first listen. Coming at you each and every weekday, Monday through Friday. So make it a part of your daily routine. Make it your first listen. Tell your friends to do the same. It’s Locked on Blazers, your team every day. In today’s show, we’re talking trailblazers in the NBA draft. And I’m going to share with you who I think are the best fits. Just kind of who would be if you’re drafting specifically for need, who would Blazers best fits would be the biggest swings. If you’re looking for upside only, who do you take the biggest swings on? And then my least favorite fits. Some of this my own personal draft philosophy and some of this is uh perhaps uh siding with the research that I’ve done a little bit. Uh we we will get into all of that in today’s program. Let’s start with best fits, though. thinking of best fits. I’m I’m I’m I might say best fit, but what I I really mean here is like what are the Blazers team needs? I think they have a couple, right? I think they could use some more shot creation like some some somebody you could say like here go score when we need it. I don’t think they have a they don’t have a ton of that on the team and if they kind of lean into their uh the youth youthful lineup uh slightly younger group u they they have even less of it. Certainly there’s players that could develop into that. You hope Shane Sharp continues to develop as a as an as a a self-creator and he’s he’s been there um to varying degrees. Sometimes very good, sometimes not so good. Scoo Anderson has probably more to show in that area, although he hasn’t shown it yet. Obviously, Denny Oia took a big step in that direction this year. Um but I think creation is a big need. I also think shooting is an obvious need. if they if if they don’t really change much like if if Afrey Simons is back and Jeremy Grant is back like obviously those are like probably the Blazers two best shooters both like in theory and in practice. Um although Jeremy Grant didn’t shoot great last year but he wasn’t a terrible shot north of 36%. But they just they don’t have a lot of ways to put out like a bunch of shooting lineups or even like a a shooting a lineup that features like multiple above average shooters. So, when I’m looking at the draft, like projecting for self-c creation is pretty hard. But I think if you’re just looking at like shooters who could do a little bit more than shoot, I think the these are kind of the names that I land on. And granted, the Blazers are picking 11. And some of the names I’m going to throw out here are not going to be on the board at 11, but if I’m I’m thinking like in the, you know, let’s assume Cooper Flag is absolutely not available. Well, let’s assume that it’s fairly unlikely Dylan Harper is available. Anyone below the top two, I’m kind of thinking in that tier, although like best fit like Flag would really help. I think I think Dylan Harper would would be a really interesting piece to add just because of the the size and the and the he’s like a big guard and I think that would that would be pretty intriguing for what the sort of Blazers are building. But the names I’ve come up with here kind of fit that that shooting with a little bit more type of profile. The first one is Trey Johnson from Kentucky or excuse me from uh from Texas. He’s like he’s a dude who shoots I think more maybe more than a shooter at this point. He’s a like he’s going to get him up. He’s going to he’s going to try to try to get try to get a bucket, right? Um some of that is probably the nature of his role on his particular Texas team. Some of that is his the type of player he is. He’s a dude who’s going to shoot it. Um he ranks pretty highly on the sort of self-created uh threes in in terms of points per possession on self-created threes relative to his draft class. He’s a guy who can score and score off the bounce from distance. And I think that is something the Blazers could really use. They don’t they don’t just need three-point shooting, but they could use just like kind of basic shooters like either a guy you could park in the corner or a guy you could bring off a screen hard and like get a shot off of, you know, off a hard cut. They could use both of that, but they also kind of just need like someone who’s scary from a little bit further out that brings a little bit of gravity that brings that sort of natural spacing and natural natural gravity from defenses. And I think Trey Johnson fits that. The other names that are like, excuse me, another name that I think quietly fits this isn’t going to be available at 11, but is like um doing more research on the draft. I just uh I heard first heard this on locked on NBA big board in April, but uh I dug into this a little bit more. Uh and quietly Ace Bailey is like a really good catch and shoot three-point shooter. The problem is he doesn’t really fancy himself as that. Um he’s like, you know, I from what I’ve seen him, he’s fancies himself like a dude who gets into his shots off the dribble and takes hard jumpers because he’s a capable tough shot maker. Like that’s how he views himself. like a shot creator who’s going to get, you know, get to mid-range pull-ups and get to fadeaways and get to, you know, get to challenging shots because he can create for himself and he is like 610 with an an intriguing handle for sure. Um, and so maybe if you could convince him that he’s not either not that or that that’s not his primary tool. I do think Quietly Ace Bailey really profiles as a pretty interesting shooter. He shot 38.7% on catch and shoot threes. Um, 36 of 93 per synergy. That’s that’s pretty darn good. Um that’s you know uh Trey Johnson was up above 40% on catch and shoots. So like uh by by that by that same service. So like he’s not the best of the best. But like Bailey with that shooting, he also rates pretty darn well as scoring as a cutter and an offensive rebounder. What if he’s an offball play finisher type? Like what if Baileyy’s being um pushed as this like primary guy and what he is is like more of that that that like intriguing role player who does stuff. He’s like um you know Michael Porter Jr. if he knew how to dribble type of thing. Like I think that’s that that might actually be closer to what his best version of himself is. It’s like he might not view himself as like gap filling role player who can really shoot it. So maybe you don’t ever get that out of him. But I think that’s intriguing. And maybe if you’re talking just like best fit, that version of Ace Bailey is really intriguing to me because you get the size. He’s, you know, 610. Uh you get the the shooting, you get the shooting ability plus the the the other tantalizing stuff that if it does fill out in terms of his ability to create his own shot, then you have a real a real interesting player. I would bet Bailey goes three and Trey Johnson goes five based on the mocks. But if they’re there at 11, that is certainly like that gets you into the category of best fit. If the Blazer could just like pick their guy, um that’s th those two seem to be like really fit the um the really address a specific need on the current roster as it is currently constructed here at the end of May. The other name that may be there at 11, but I just I don’t know, is Konipple from Duke. Um it seems like he’s going to be a top 10 pick based on the mocks, but if you are in that sort of seven, eight, nine range, which I think you see Canipple uh maybe mocked as high as like five and then he’s like maybe in that five to 5 to 10ish range on most mock drafts. I would say that’s that’s his like most typical range. If you’re there, obviously it only takes one dude. Like if you were going to go 10th, it only takes one dude to creep up into the lottery and be like, “Wow, I can’t I can’t believe Cedric Coward went that high.” So like um Kibble could be on the board for sure. He’s reasonable, but like 6’5, he doesn’t have long arms. He doesn’t maybe doesn’t fit the Blazers like MMO of like big rangy athlete, but he can shoot. I think he’s strong enough to be a driver at the next level. I I think his defense while he’s never going to be a lock down defender, I think it was kind of fine in college. um obviously he’s playing behind like two pretty awesome defensive players and and um Malawatch and Flag, but like I I think Kipple has the like shooting um and then attacking closeouts type of of skill set that the Blazers could really use. I think he’s he’s an interesting um person per for best fit. So, I mentioned some guys that are probably like too high like in Johnson and Bailey like they just like won’t be available. I think they’ll be too high up up on the up on the draft uh up on the draft order. But for guys who are maybe it would be a slight reach at 11. Two more that are sort of the best fit Philanid types. Jace Richardson from Michigan State. Um you know he’s like a six foot combo guard. He doesn’t he’s slightly you know he’s a little taller than six feet barefoot just under 6’1. He he’s not um he would not be the profile of player I would go after but hyperefficient creator who can shoot catch and shoots and maybe have some off the dribble game and like um yeah like he’s a pure shooter and I think that is a fits a need and then Rashir Fleming he didn’t shoot well his first two years right he didn’t shoot well as a freshman he didn’t shoot well as a sophomore but then his junior year he shot 39% from three and he is like a a big four who might even be able to sneak some small ball five depending on how he fills out and maybe can shoot. Like I think he’s more five than three. Although like you hope that he can guard threes. Um in terms of skill set I think he’s more five than three but like uh size-wise he’s probably certainly more three than five. It it happens. Uh but like he’s a a stretchy four shot 39% from three. Is it a small sample size and we’re getting caught up in one really good collegiate season or is it proof that he progressed from year to year and got better? I think Fleming is for me probably a reach at 11, but I do like him as a first round pick. Like I think he’s I think he has an intriguing skill set. And if you’re talking about just best fit, it’s like a four who he doesn’t rebound particularly well defensively. Did not in college. Um so that’s maybe not an ideal fit, but for what the Blazers need because they desperately don’t want another um the the sort of Jeremy Grants fill in. Um they want a four who can grab rebounds, but you know, a shooting four which with some defensive upside. Um, I think that is I think I think if Fleming is intriguing, Richardson is intriguing, Canibal, Bailey, and and Johnson. If you’re just talking about best fit, I think that’s probably it. Certainly, some of you have other opinions. I support you to do that. Again, I like I said at the top of the show, this is sort of my like my own personal bias mixed with some research I’ve done about about these draft guys, but always like this time of year, like I I’m not going to be able to avoid my own personal bias, so I’m just going to lean into it. Let’s talk about biggest swings. If the Blazers just take a swing for biggest upside, who could be targets at 11 if they’re just swinging to hit the deepest moonshot home run possible? Join me on that second segment. We’ll talk about biggest swings. First though, let’s talk wayfair. The days are getting longer, the weather’s warming up, and people are spending more time outside, which means it’s the perfect time to refresh your outdoor space. 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There’s a huge selection of outdoor furniture online at Wayfair this summer. Get outside with Wayfair. Head to wayfair.com right now. That’s wyfir.com. Wayfair. Every style, every [Music] home. All right. So what if the Blazers don’t go best fit? What they don’t draft for need, right? They don’t say we need this is a team that desperately needs shooting and we just need to be able to put more shooters on the court. What if they say our our philosophy here is to hit the hit a home run is we’re going to take the biggest swing possible knowing that we might strike out but we want to draft the player with the biggest up the the most upside imaginable. I think there’s four names I kind of have here in that category. Let’s start with Carter Bryant forward from Arizona. Played a year in college. Didn’t didn’t have a big minute role. Didn’t have a hyperproductive role, but just like looks like an NBA player, right? He’s just he’s an NBA forward size. He has he has the athleticism. It’s the shooting at least in theory looks like it could be something real for him. And I think all of that bodess well if you’re just if you’re just upside hunting like if you’re looking for a player who is just under 67 barefoot and shot 37% from three on like a 100 100 attempts in college. That’s not it’s not a tiny it’s not a tiny little number by any means. He didn’t he didn’t you know he he took three three threes a game basically. Um the majority of his shots came from from outside the ark. He took about five five attempts a night and three of them came from three. Um that’s where he was living, right? And he has this athletic profile to be like, you know, six, seven wing who can shoot. It’s just we haven’t seen a ton of production from him and he’s when you are hoping for a guy like him to rise, there are a lot of bumps along the way. How much can he do on offense? How, you know, he looks like a pretty darn good defensive prospect. How real is that? How much does that translate when you are like moving to a role where it’s like can you be a primary stopper as opposed to like oh yeah pretty good defensive player right there are so many places along the way but in terms of frame age because he’s he’s on the younger side for this draft class frame age and athleticism Carter Bryant seems like a pretty big swing and and why he is jumping up draft boards from a guy that was like you know probably a first round pick no problem to like he’s going to go eighth or whatever is because he just if you’re projecting like tools and frame. That’s that’s exactly what it is. And that’s kind of everybody in this category. The next name on my list for biggest swings is Noah Sen. You know, he’s the appeal with the Seni is that he’s super young and he’s really long, a really long defender who’s super young and has been productive at the professional levels despite having some warts, which is the type of upside swing that you want to that you you take on a guy. You say like, you know, he’s been able to be productive, but he can’t shoot. He’s been, you know, one of the better players on on a team that’s, you know, still competing into the playoffs. Um and like but he can’t really dribble. He’s been he’s like he doesn’t he’s has holes in his game and he is um you know one of the younger guys in the draft. Again physical tools the right type of physical frame tools and frame is what you’re drafting for here. But like the bumps along the way like is he just going to be like a pretty good defensive player who doesn’t you know is he like is he like a fun version of Alfukaminu or something like that right? Um, which obviously is is certainly a risk. Alfred Gumino was the eighth pick in the NBA draft. Uh, like it is it’s it’s Asen is the type of player who if the shooting does come along and if he develops his handle and the playmaking a little bit and the sort of offensive um all of his offensive tools are just a little sharper and the defense can the defensive playmaking same with Brian who’s you know a shot blocker defensive playmaker. Sen like the defensive playmaking can translate to the league all of a sudden like he has the upside to be very very good right because he he fits the physical profile of that multi-positional defensive wing who can maybe add a little bit off the bounce and that’s what everybody’s looking for is like playmaking ballin hand type of wings that can guard multiple positions that’s ideal right um you’re not going to find it with everyone but that’s your next upside swing is first Carter Bryant now no sen And then the next one, a little bit outside of this exact profile, but I I’ll go here next is is Jagor Dean. Um, he just is so big and skilled that if the if the offense if the shooting comes around, like the actual can this dude score comes around, you’re just not probably going to find people his physical size with the skill set he has, right? um probably the best passer in the draft, the best playmaker in the draft at 69 is pretty good. You know, he’s the shooting is maybe leaves a little bit to be desired. And how aggressive is he getting to the rim and getting his um and getting his own offense and does the sort of some of his athleticism challenges make him like who does he guard type of thing? But at 69, you can almost always fake it, right? You can almost always fake it. Even if they want you in the dance for, you know, they pick on you in and pick and rolls every time you’re 69. Like you’re just you’re just going to be big and in the way, it’s so much easier to fake it when you are that frame and skills at that frame. Jaggor like it might not come together for him, right? He may never be able to shoot enough for it to matter and he takes a bunch of threes. He might not ever be able to be aggressive enough to get himself to the rim and be a guy who lives at the free throw line and be like, um, you know, if you’re going to be a ball in your hand type of creator, you need to be able to score because you have to keep defenses honest, right? You cannot just dribble the ball around it for 18 seconds of the shot clock and try to pass. That’s not how it works in the modern NBA. If you’re going to be a if you’re going to be someone who they give the ball to, you have to be aggressive looking for your own offense because you have to create advantages by being aggressive. And if if that clicks for Deme just the side the sheer size and skill set alone is not going to come around a lot of prospects and that that in and of itself is intriguing. The last guy is someone who’s just shooting up draft boards. Um and and and beloved here on this particular program because he went to a lamit. Go Bearcats. Uh but but Cedric Coward who who metriculated from D3 and then most recently played at Washington State. He’s he has the upside to be a really interesting part if you are just taking a big swing. Coward might be might be a home run. He also might just be a dude who played six collegiate games and looks the part like he, you know, spent a bunch of time injured last year and because there isn’t a lot of tape on him doing stuff that always helps. Uh limited info is like is somehow sometimes not somehow is sometimes like really intriguing this time of year. So you go back and say like well we can you know you don’t have 34 games, you don’t have 41 games to pull from. don’t have um you don’t have as many bad games or bad moments in good games to pull from and then you people get excited and I think he’s shooting up draft boards and you know admittedly he was awesome in his his uh his second season at Eastern Washington before he transferred to Washington State and and that’s when he only played uh six games last year in the in the beloved West Coast Conference I was about to call the Pack 12 but like you know he was a hyperefficient scorer in in the Big guy as a at at Eastern Washington, but you know, at at Washington State, even with the tiny little sample size, it’s like 17 and seven and shot 40% from three on five attempts per game, which is like uh you know, pretty decent volume. It’s not it’s not crazy volume. It’s it’s eight and a half per 100 possessions, but like that’s pretty good volume and pretty good accuracy. Obviously, not a ton of games. Plus, he has the physical profile like um he’s not he’s he’s not gigantic. Measured just over 6’5 uh barefoot, but like looks like a but the you know, super long arms, right? 72 wingspan in that frame at 215 lbs. Um I think there are so many outcomes where Cedric Coward is just a dude where he’s just like he’s just a dude with like good physical measurables. But if it all pops, the athleticism, the shooting, the long frame to be a really really disruptive defender. Um, that length, strength, shooting combo. Again, that’s that is what the multi-positional ability to get your own shot type of uh type of wing. That’s that’s the the coveted position, and he is that. Those are my biggest swings. Let’s talk to close the show about my least favorite fits. These aren’t even necessarily bad players. I just have like a draft philosophy about how the Blazers should approach this. And none of these guys fit into the plan as I see it. Uh join me in that third segment. We’ll talk about my least favorite fits for the [Music] Blazers. All right. Still a pass versus point guard. I’m still Mike Richmond. You’re still listening to Locked on Blazers. Let’s talk about my least favorite fits for the Blazers in the draft. So, um, part of the challenge in thinking about what the Blazers need and what, you know, like and and and why I don’t I don’t think there’s like someone who just like jumps off the page at 11. This is the absolute guy who’s likely to be there. Go get him. Like, and you obviously people have their own preferences, but for me, I don’t like see every time it’s like you talk yourself into like, oh, Carter Bryant would be interesting. Cedric car would be interesting. Is that too high for him? Yeah. What do you mean? What if he can’t shoot? Like all of even the biggest swing guys, it’s like they’re not perfect. uh Rasheed Fleming. It’s like is is he a like is he like a what is his floor? Is he like a low-level role player? It’s it’s hard to it’s hard it’s easy to talk yourself out of anyone who would be at 11. Um it’s easy to talk yourself into some of these guys too, right? Because there seems like there’s a lot of um dudes who hit like not even their 90th percentile upside, but something like their 70th percentile upside and they’re for sure an NBA player. And if at 11 you’re trying to draft a quality rotation player that hopefully is a starter. Like your goal is to draft a a like a sort of like your fourth or fifth starter. I think is like a reasonable hope here. Like if if you get it right, obviously you can draft freaking Sha Alexander, but like a reasonable outcome is like this is the at 11 you get your fourth starter and that player plays on your team for a decade. Awesome. Nailed it. Super awesome draft, right? But obviously there’s some um there’s some big hits in there along the way. you might end up with Klay Thompson. But, uh, thinking about the Blazers and their needs, right, the roster is kind of full and they got young players every position. Scoot Anderson, it’s like you want to see more of Scoot, right? You want to see like even if you don’t think Scoot’s going to be very good, the Blazers owe it to like the process to kind of give Scoot runway to find out that he’s not good. If they find out that he’s really good, awesome. Then you go from there and you’ve got a good basketball team. But like they kind of owe it to themselves to give him that runway. I would say same with Shane Sharp. He got a bunch of minutes this year, but you don’t want to have it have him have a lesser role. Tumani Kamar, Denny Abia, those dudes look like they need to play because they are good basketball players. You don’t really want to be like, “Okay, we got to prioritize this 19-year-old we drafted, right?” Um, and uh, you know, Don Mcllingan is not going to be someone who plays 35 minutes a night at any point, but but um, you you still don’t necessarily want to um crowd that position, although I do think you need center depth. which is kind of a contradictory thing to what I’m about to say. I am when I’m thinking about my least favorite fits recognizing all those youngsters plus DeAndre Aiden still on the team. Ary Diamond still on the team, Jeremy Grant on the team. They’ve got not only do they have young players, they have, you know, young veterans. Jeremy Grant a little bit older, but like Ant and and Da and aunt Nathan are like young veterans, right? There’s like 26 year olds. These aren’t ancient, right? uh young veterans behind them plus some other parts if you’re curious like oh what’s Chris Murray and what’s Ryan repair going to be. So, when I’m thinking about best fits, I’m thinking about like, okay, the roster is a little bit crowded, but you can always use more wings. In part, you can always use more wings because the Blazers have shown a comfort with essentially playing Tummani Kamar at what is effectively shooting guard. You know, he might play another position on offense, but it’s like because he’s capable of guarding guards, they put two other forwards on the on the court with him all the time and play a ton of minutes with him next to Jeremy Grant and and uh and Denny Avia. They’re comfortable playing him at what is functionally the two. Um I think it’s it’s means they really don’t have a like a two in there. But it’s like big wings, a point guard and a center. They also if you draft another wing and they’re really good, you can mess around and see what small ball looks like and see if you can get away with playing an all-wing lineup. Like you can always find a like a 66 to 69 dude who can score and defend. You can figure out how to get that player on the court. That’s that’s not an issue, right? like if multi-positional defenders. So like wings I’m not any any player who’s like functionally a 2 three four not really worried about that point guard is a little bit different because you have Scoot Anderson and like I said you kind of want him to play but I don’t think Scoot has been so good in his first two years that you’re not that you’ be should be worried about drafting a really good point guard if he’s there. I think like your mileage may vary on Jeremiah Fears. If you like him right on if you’re worried about the finishing around the rim um also that’s fine too. He’s he reclassified was one of the youngest guys in the draft class. You think like young players get better at finishing and he’s really good at getting to the rim. Um so may maybe you can talk yourself into him. Uh you know if they were Blaze were in a different spot I think Dylan Harper would be a no-brainer type of thing. So I don’t I point guards fine. I don’t I’m not too worried about that. I I don’t love and what I’m going to tell you about all these guys is is the sort of center types because I don’t think you can find a bunch of consistent minutes next to for for most of these guys next to Donovan Klingan such that you could play a super big lineup u just because I don’t I think the defense wouldn’t hold up and I think the offense with sort of typically lack of shooting would also be a problem and I don’t think using another lottery pick on someone who who you hope ends up playing half the game. It’s just a good use of resources. It’s not an it’s not like a terrible terrible plan necessarily. And I think like again, this is my personal draft philosophy. Yours may be different, but for me, the guys my least favorite fits are all the sort of centers, all the guys who are mostly fives. Common Malawatch, I think he might be pretty good. I know he didn’t test great at the combine, but I’ve watched him play. I I bet he’ll be a pretty good NBA player. Um, I don’t love him because he’s like a true five and it just doesn’t seem right for the Blazers in this current spot in terms of my least favorite fits. Um, this is not necessarily uh a comment on on Malawash as a as an overall prospect, but a prospect in the context of the Portland Trailblazers roster. And you could throw Derrick Queen in there, too. I love Derek Queen. He’s my type of player. uh smacktalking face up big man who can really pass. The highly skilled um kind of ball hoggy big man who can pass a little bit when he wants to. That that’s a that is my type of player, right? That that is a that’s he’s he’s a fun player. Um I do not like his fit on the Portland Trailblazers. I’m worried about how he could guard fours. I don’t think he’s maybe big enough to be a rim protector and play center a bunch. I like him and whatever team he plays for I will probably enjoy watching him but I in terms of like fit on this team not for me. The next two are probably maybe a little bit reaches at 11 but I think are worth mentioning. I’m not really an Asa new believer. I think he’s a tweener. I think he’s caught in between. I think he’s he’s he’s the build of a power forward and the skill set of a five and he’s just going to have to get so much stronger to play the five. Or you say, “Oh, we can play the four because he has athleticism to do all these things.” but he doesn’t have the offensive game to like be a four. He doesn’t do anything off the dribble. He doesn’t shoot. It’s like I think he’s he’s a he is a power forward size center skilled and he’s not um he’s not like the hyper talented where I can talk myself into him like in terms of just like fun skill stuff like queen. He’s he’s a project, right? He’s a he’s a guy who might turn into being in a really good player, but for me not my favorite fit. And the last one, I don’t think he’ll be I think 11’s probably too high, although I I do know some people like him, is Thomas Sorber from Georgetown. Um, fun defensive player. Uh, might end up being a pretty effective pro. But for me, these sort of the nonshooting big on the Blazers seems like a bad call. It just seems like a bad call if if if um that that’s not what fits the rest of their team. It’s not it’s like I don’t I don’t think a a perfect a pick and roll partner with Denny Ovia is a non-shooter. I don’t think a good pick and roll partner with Scoo Henderson as a non-shooter. I don’t think a front court partner next to Donovan Klingan is uh as a non-shooter is is like tenable. So, um and also like you just be really need to be very fleet of foot to play next to him as well. So, it’s like okay, if they’re just a backup, do they fit well with the starters in case you need to plug them in? Eh, not great. And if you were if you’re dreaming of playing two bigs together or sliding these guys down to the to the mile watch is a true five, but these other guys maybe he’s like sliding them down to the four. Um it’s like that doesn’t fit either. And if you have for me that’s the challenge here is that I would be against the Blazers drafting a center type w with the current roster. Obviously, if you draft a center type and then you make other decisions around the rest of the roster that make it make sense and you say like, “Hey, look, center depth is always going to be super valuable.” Having multiple types of big men that can play has been like very obviously useful in the playoffs, like look at um you know, you look at the Western Conference Finals and the and the flavors of bigs that both Minnesota and Oklahoma City can roll out. Really allows them to mix and match and play different shapes. I’m not against center depth. I’m against using on this specific team using the 11th pick, this resource on adding a center based on the current roster. If the roster changes, I’m totally I would be fine with it in a hurry and quite frankly like some of these players like Malawatch and Queen I think are pretty good. Uh, so like I wouldn’t um in in another context I might be like nice, that’s a really good choice, but I’m trying to do this with fits and contexts within the Blazers. That is going to do it for today’s program. Uh, fun stuff for you the rest of the week. We’ll continue with our uh season reviews for the Blaz final three players on the Blazers roster, plus an interview for a first time guest coming on uh the show later this week. Although it’s not confirmed when it is, so I’m not going to tell you who it is, but uh hopefully uh we will get that nailed down and I’ll be able to tease it for you on tomorrow’s program. Speaking of which, come back tomorrow. It’s what we do 5 days a week wherever you get podcast and also on YouTube. I appreciate you listening. I’ll talk to you soon.

A Portland Trail Blazers Draft show talking best fits, biggest upside swings and worst positional fits for potential targets in the 2025 NBA Draft.

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