Reaction To The Blazers Buying Out Deandre Ayton | Summer League Look Ahead | 138

Reaction To The Blazers Buying Out Deandre Ayton | Summer League Look Ahead | 138

[Music] d you have done it again [Music] oh M with a block and the Blazers win the series for the first time in TV what’s up guys welcome back to the Rip City Rundown podcast it is the summer month so that means of course if you’re a longtime listener we are together for the next couple weeks i mean a little under two weeks but we’ll be whipping out some pods for you guys um just relating Blazer news and we had a big bomb drop last night in the middle of dinner we weren’t able to turn around and get a podcast up in time and we actually wanted to kind of just kind of let it let it simmer a little bit to figure out how we feel about it it’s the fact that DeAndre has been bought out by the Portland and Trailblazers if you told me that a year ago year and a half ago I would have said you’re crazy but um at this current moment I’m not sure we think it’s that crazy uh but we will dive deep into kind of DeAndre Aton as a player DeAndre Aiden as a fit on the team and uh what we’re doing going forward so uh take it away Wes where are you at um with Aiden
i just want to Can we just get a round of applause he’s no longer on the squad okay I’m kidding um man when I saw the news at first I was like wow so we like couldn’t trade him we had to buy him out his value was that poor
well Wes what does a buyout mean specifically like
yeah get into the nitty-gritty
the nitty-gritty if you will so from my understanding a buyout is where the player and the team have like a mutual agreement to basically forego the rest of their contract in terms of like the years and the money and become a free agent now obviously Aiden will be getting paid like we are buying him out we are paying him to for him to become a free agent but on Aon’s side he’s foregoing a portion of his $33 million contract because he isn’t expiring um so he can become a free agent so that’s kind of how it works so So essentially he cut millions of dollars just to not live in Portland
we and we don’t know that uh we I mean I assume it’s millions because it’s going to be a portion of his contract but we’re still waiting on the number for all we know we could only be paying him 10 million and we’re opening up a lot of cap which uh if that’s the case great even if it’s just a couple million like I don’t think it’s the end of the world especially with the direction the Blazers are obviously going with the Yang draft pick along with Klingan so I mean
I mean um I mean DeAndre Aiden as a whole I mean when we traded Nerk for him to be honest I wasn’t a big fan so at this point I am happy that he’s gone i mean he he’s a talented player he has the tool set but there were just some I don’t know frustrating moments as a fan where you just look at him and say to yourself like like the mentals what’s going on here too so I heard rumors of him not playing on really stupid like minor injuries like finger injury or some just you know BS like that and that’s not the mindset you want for a five on a championship squad so at this point I I’m I’m I’m happy that he’s going to be gone actually
yeah i don’t know to me Aiden has this mindset of like you said he’s not he doesn’t show a bunch of competitiveness like even in Phoenix that was their problem with him and so I’m kind of like you want to you’re in a situation where you don’t have any pressure to win and you you’re overpaid you make more money than you should so now you want to lose money and go to a winning situation because you want to be a winning player you haven’t shown that so that’s what I’m interested in now the living in Portland part is fine i mean every player wants to be on a winning team aiden’s probably just the player that doesn’t want to do anything on a winning team he wants to be the the A+ on a group project type guy
i will say it’s it’s not quite the elephant in the room but it’s I if you really just look at DeAndre Aton’s life or just career he went to high school in Phoenix he went to college at Arizona and he played in Phoenix at the beginning of his career so I mean he’s lived in sunny climate it never is rainy it’s never cold it is I mean ideally ideal weather for your life and just take out the whole weather aspect just he’s been in one place his whole life so I wouldn’t
he’s not going to go back to Phoenix
i don’t think he’s going to Phoenix i wouldn’t be surprised if him going to Portland instead of if he had gone to a place like LA or gone to uh Miami like it it’s just different now there’s no excuse you’re a professional athlete but it’s just worth a mention um
and you know it’s interesting that like this dynamic of just I guess over sensitive you know players athletes like they they all typically in the NBA I feel like fall into the 7 foot range cuz it’s just like you’re born you’re built with that such difference from other there’s like 3,000 people in the world that are seven feet tall did you know that
i think I’ve seen a stat it’s just like if you’re a sevenfooter and you grind basketball the chance of you making the NBA is just it’s really high and it’s just like your mentality is just not going to be the same as like someone who’s 6 foot who really has to earn it and there I’m not there’s so many just hardworking centers out there in the league but like I don’t know man aiden Aiden really pissed me off he did i’m sorry i’m sorry he did can we just talk
why do we think we weren’t able to find a trade partner for him okay um I I’d love to hear your answers
well I think
and does that scare you for Jeremy so well I’ll I’ll start with we’re fans and we are not in the inside sources and we are we’re describing Eightton as this so I’m curious what the intel of front offices are when they have a guy who maybe isn’t you know the hardest worker okay obviously he works hard because you’re not just going to walk in the NBA but like in terms of like having that dog mentality like I’m I’m going to like kill you every night i’m going to show up every night and play like I don’t think I think GMs are aware that he’s not that player necessarily you couple that with you make $33 million and especially in this new CBA where you’re hardcapped on like big contracts you like you can give out i think every team is aware that if you give out over 30 million to DeAndre and you can’t build a championship squad you can’t so unfortunately he made too much money and I think honestly like I I’m fine with buying him out like the market was going to be low and honestly like would people have even been happy if we had just traded him for the sake of trading him and Joe would have lost a trade because people would have come out of the shadows to yell at Joe for that
my thing is I we saw a trade yesterday where the Hornets traded Nerk for Colin Sexon in a second saying making the same amount of money both on expiring deals aiden’s on an expiring deal i’m surprised and I’ll continue after i’m surprised that we weren’t able to get someone on a similar contract where we are just an expiring contract and maybe we even get a pick out of it now I will say two things this most likely will open us up to have the middle level exception so maybe this is Joe didn’t want to take on any money and for all we know he’s saving $15 million by doing this because Aiden wanted to maybe leave Portland so bad plus we wanted to get rid of him so bad second off it just shows you where DeAndre Aton stands around the league also because it is so rare for you to buy out someone that’s averaging 15 and 10 like he has the counting stats something tells me he’s not he might not be liked in the organization they don’t see him fitting with us anymore in the future yeah you can like that’s
I I really I mean look
I think it was I think Aiden approached it more like I think we would have if the goal was to like
I don’t think it was impossible to trade him you can always trade someone it’s just Joe is probably like I’d rather there’s just more things that made more sense as a buyout like I don’t think Aiden averaging 15 and 10 and him getting bought out is like oh my gosh like he must be such a terrible person and like I think it’s just the factor of him wanting to leave and now he can kind of he can be a free agent and choose his destination he can you know he will make less money but he’s out of Portland we save money we probably Joe would probably rather have $15 million spent on what he wants than get two seconds in a bum like
yeah I think if you see us make a interesting signing I I’m sure the Blazers now are approaching for agency which starts as we’re recording in five hours where we will probably have some targets and I’m sure we have a little more money to play with who who do the Blazers sign
i don’t even know who it was available out there i don’t know well one more thing what position do they sign
probably a forward one more uh thing about Aiden is just a great thing about this trade
trade um trade
him being off the squad next season is it opens the runway it makes very clear for our our new centers to compete um Klingan go into a second year we want him to have a crap ton of more minutes with Aidan gone he’s probably going to start at this point cuz you’re not going to start
i still don’t know how to pronounce his name i think it’s Hassan Young
it is Young it’s Young
it’s Hans i think it’s Hansen Young hans
Hans maybe it is Hansen
but pretty much with Aiden gone it’s just like our centers our young centers
i want centers to play yeah they’re going to get so many more minutes
and that goes for Time Lord too timely healthy now it is kind of crazy how just over the years how Aidton’s kind of reputation around the league might have gone down you could argue he’s a after that finals he’s anchoring a team that made it to the finals he is the probably the third
most valuable player on that team and
you could argue he is
entering himself into possibly a top five center conversation and just three years later you’re arguing that he is fighting to be a top five center on the Blazers roster
no no you’re not i mean clearly they rather have Yang Time Lord Klingan they probably would rather play Denny at the five and they probably rather play SC that’s disrespectful but what we can do is let’s let’s see
what’s that Instagram post you saw yesterday about
Aiden oh so I Yeah I saw some comments from people just fans I guess which whatever they said Aiden was they’re like “How are the Blazers buying on the top five center in the NBA?” which made Cody and I yet yesterday we were like let’s on on the pod
seriously
yeah yeah on the pod let’s uh let’s do an exercise where we see how many centers are better than Aton so we’re gonna start all right you take Gobar and
Goar
you take C
chat
he’s a four he’s a five
hartinstein
hardenstein you take Yic
you take Walker Kesler
yep yep
do you take Sabonis
yep
do you take um anyone on the Warriors no i’m sorry quinton Post can’t take you do you take anyone on the Lakers no but you take Zubots
yep
i’ll take Zubots you take I’ll take AD
take Mark Williams
i wouldn’t he’s too hurt
i’ll take AD i’ll take Gaffer i’ll take Lively
gaffford and Lively
well we we’ll give two out of the three because one they all they can’t all play so
all right we’ll take two of them we’ll take Wimbayama shocker we’ll take Senon that’s 11
mission Michel Robinson
hold on say division i’m saying division here would you take anyone on the Grizzly take Edy i probably wouldn’t yet
probably not yet 11 i’m not going to take Missy either yet
uh Queen you can’t sell yet
no he’s not a five that that’s 11 in the Western Conference
that’s interesting
should we go to the Eastern Conference
and that’s not even and like I’m not taking Klingan right now but I wouldn’t be surprised if Klingan is better this year
yeah okay we’re taking BAM
yep
taking Wendell Carter Junior or
Oh oh we’ll hold
okay are we taking Capella or Okongu probably no Capella’s not going to be taking anyone maybe Okongu though
anyone on the Hornets i’m not
um not taking Burner
no anyone on the Wizards
um probably not
i don’t believe so
okay only one right now aiden would cook Cook in the East right uh we’re taking Jared Allen
yep
we’re taking Miles Turner
yep we’re taking Jaylen Durn
y
are we taking Vousvich
y
and are we taking um
I don’t know if I can give him Brooke
yeah Brooke is bad
brooke is old now
it’s It’s tight though it’s like in the window card
are we taking Yaka Purle
um I think I’ll give it to him because one of the one of the ones where we’re like maybe maybe not
yaka give Ple sure that’s 16 or that’s six i’ll take
We’re taking Cat
we’re taking Claxton
are you taking anyone on the Celtics probably not i’m not taking the
Oh I’m probably taking Zingus we missed the Hawks now but
sure we’ll take Zingus and we’ll take Joel Embiid
the argument is Aiden’s probably not top 20
yeah well that’s 10 in the East and 11 in the West so that’s 21 centers that we’d probably take over DeAndre in this
and I would say that’s not a it’s a bias that’s that’s a pretty unbiased
we are Blazer fans
yeah anyway something interesting that I just I just found it funny top five center in the league um
that was funny
so anyway 21 he’s 22nd 22nd at best i mean people we didn’t even like is like Mwok better than eaten
i mean maybe okay this is this is an argument me and Wes have all the time is DeAndre Aiden considered a bust not a not a massive bust he’s not going to be on the all-time bus list but he was the first overall pick in 2018 never been an all-star has probably had I’d say just one good year i mean he’s only made the playoffs one time and
he’s I don’t think he’s a bust is he going first in the reddraft absolutely not
i think in the re I don’t know the draft you told me one time John Draen was a bigger bust than Ben Simmons do you stand by that
i I think it’s a I would stand by it because I at least Ben Simmons gave you four elite all-star years i’ll give you four what has Do you count this these past two years with the Blazers as quality years at all
i mean I don’t know you were the one that was like “It’s crazy he’s getting bought out with his stats.”
I know it is that just shows how invaluable he is
again we talked about the the reasons for a buyout so I mean invaluable not invaluable um what are you what are you going to look up
i just want to look up Aton’s just career stats over his years
while Cole does that that’ll be the last thing we’ll say about Eidon i want to move on from
Yeah oh we can transition to just what’s the team going to look like next season
we know what it’s going to look like
the pieces are coming together who do you think the starting five will be and give me like the four most popular minutes off the bench
okay it’ll be
What are you thinking
i think it’ll be Drew
starting so Scoot on the bench
i’ll be scooting Drew maybe sharp
i think Scoot’s on the bench and Shaden starts
okay sure drew Shaden to Denny Klingan and the bench right now is going to be the guard who doesn’t start it’ll be
It’ll be Well you have Jeremy but
Well we can get into that
yeah we’ll get into Jeremy uh it’s going to be Hunson
robert Williams if he’s healthy uh
you said Hunson’s starting
no it’s a Cllingon starting
so he’s on the bench hans played in the Chinese Basketball Association
i know i’m just saying
rob Will’s coming off the bench
that’s what I said
oh he did
robert Williams and Scoot and then we’re also gonna bring Chris Murray chris Murray uh Dan
I guess Jeremy if he’s here yeah that boy’s off the team
you think Delano’s off the team bold prediction not bold i think he’s literally off the team right now
he’s off the team right now
i don’t think he has a contract as of now i think he’s a free agent
oh okay interesting anyway we have uh 14 $15 million to sign someone who will be in the rotation
which I believe I believe i don’t want to confirm that but
I saw that the MLE will be available which when we traded for Drew that went away and that was a small sticking point of why people didn’t want to bring on that much money for an Anthony Simons trade but with us most likely uh opening up some money
i I I agree with the buyout
i think it’s better than a trade
really
i think um
because like you’re going to have to match salary you gonna are you gonna want what we get in return for Aidan i wouldn’t
probably not i’d rather have the money it’s
a lost cause i guess so
it’s a some He’s a sunk cost
i think if you could have found a deal where it’s like you’re picking up
Well done Joe
count on them so long i know they have no value
like just looking at the Hornets one I just think like
Hornets yeah I know but like you bring someone like a Sexton that’s just like a good vet to have that’s a quality vet that’s That is a good especially on a one-year contract and then they also got a second round pick in that so um I don’t know and I’m sure the Jazz will just buy out Nerk
yeah probably
so that’s the same same thing at the end
let’s just remember uh DeAndre Aton’s nicknames are Tiger not sure where that is dominator and Dominate
so um I mean going back to the bus thing I mean he peaked at 18 points per game like he’s had a couple good years in his career but I mean to be bought out at age 26 or something 25 like he has his only uh thing he’s gotten in his career is all rookie team um I don’t know i mean I guess if you just look back at the past
I mean I’m playing number one pick
simmons literally like could not shoot a basketball
yeah well at least No I’m never mind
could not shoot a basketball to the finals
yeah and I know of to to help the argument will be like he didn’t do anything
he’s talented i’d say Ben Simmons is a bigger bust to be honest but
well it’s meant to be hot
the fact that it’s even like a conversation
we are going to be such a good defensive team next year i mean
we are
it’s crazy how we went from during the Dame era one of the best offensive teams with one of the worst defensive ratings 28th in the league 29th I think 30th in 2021 or two and now we’re gonna go to go you know what’s interesting
possibly a top top 10 D
you know what you know what’s interesting
what
we went 36 and 46 last year but we finished the year at 20 the second half of the year we were 23 and 18 which if is that is the yearly pace we flip our record to 46 and 36 so we closed the year 23-8 with the third ran defense in the league we add Drew Holidayiday you get rid of Eightton as bad you know as much clown at like compared to Klingan he probably it’s actually close i don’t know cllingon might actually be better than Eaton but I guess I guess my question is do do the Blazers win 40 games this year
i think I think that I think
which is sad
when Vegas drops the overunder I think the overunder is going to sit somewhere in the 36 to 40 range just because Western Conference is so good someone’s got to have not a lot of wins
but I think the Blazers like you are you are going in with the expectation that you will be the 10 seed i think
well that’s the that that was signaled by trading for Drew i mean you have that defense to close the year you add probably one of the best perimeter guards in the league
and we’ve heard rumblings that even I know everyone’s saying like Drew could be flipped i I think
no staying healed
it’s not happening we can pretty much confirm that
we have some can’t disclose but some insideish sources pretty much Drew will be in a blazer uniform we think and playing this year of course there’s a chance he gets flipped but we’re pretty confident that he will be in a Blazer uniform this fall and be playing all season long
which I think signals um there’s we we’re not done with the rebuild but we are we’re officially for the first year going in with expectations that we’re not going to we’re not going to
attempt to lose well what I what I Yeah I think that’s the next step of the rebuild is like now you have rebuilt and you you you drafted guys like Scoot and Shade the next part of the rebuild is like you need to see if these guys can be that those guys
i think you look at the two recent teams that have had successful rebuilds in the Western Conference you look at OKC they went from like
they literally had Shay when they when they suck
yeah I know second worst
like Scoot can be good they were the second worst team in the NBA in 3 years ago or four years ago three years ago then two years ago they were the 10 seed at 40 and 42 then they made a jump to the one seed and they lost in the second round then they won the finals you look at the Rockets they were one of the worst teams in the NBA then they didn’t make the plan but they were fighting for a playin spot and they were the 11 seed and then they made a jump to the two seed if the Blazers are at least in the conversation for a plan and fighting for it I think that’s show and obviously showing signs of growth that’s what you’re looking for can I add a key piece to this though the Thunder like their first year so they were terrible in 21
they were their first bad year they had two bad years 21 and then 22 they were bad in 22
um I they had two I’m pretty positive they had two bad years because they got the giddy pick and they got the chat pick which were both top six
okay and
their last good year was 1920 in the bubble then they went with Chris Paul then 2021 they were really bad 2122 they were really bad their first good year was 22 all I’m saying is with with the Rockets and the Thunder like I guess the Rockets were the same way but they both got
like when they were on the upswing they got Chad and then the Rockets were on the upswing and they got Thompson and it’s like honestly for the and I we talked about this for the Blazers to like really push the chips in and become like the team is the next few years we’re going to build and then in 27 we’re hopefully like becoming a playoff team and now we have all these picks coming up so like we’re a playoff team and we’re picking potentially top five because Giannis has left the Bucks or you know the magic something catastrophic happens and everyone leaves Orlando and you know something like that or we trade the picks for the star but I honestly think like looking at the Thunder the best way in the new like CBA with contracts to to build like sustainable success is you have to have contributors on rookie deals
yep
because like because the Thunder drafted Sorber who’s going to be the Hartinstein replacement hardy makes 30 mil they’ll let him walk that’s 30 extra million and Sorber will can will help on a rookie scale contract jaylen Williams on a rookie contract like it’s crazy so I got a question for you guys in terms of with within the rebuild we’ve obviously this is funny thing to say our our most fun nights are draft night and then probably summer league is a pretty fun time for a Blazer fan where does your excitement for this year’s summer league rank in terms of other ones because obviously Klingan will be back for a second year most likely klingan’s not playing summer
he’s not playing summer interesting well that just shows that we he’s going to be he’s going to be the starter but we will confirm that here
um Yang’s going to be in summer league caleb Loves on a two-way i’m sure there would be a couple other players but but the real person is Yang most likely uh where does it rank in terms of excitement to see Sharp who obviously only played like nine minutes in summer league and then obviously Scoot this past year um
Scoot did play summer league
it’s exciting i want to see what Yang can do obviously
wait did Scoot play this past year i meant I meant rookie year Scoot but rookie year um people are calling him Oh I was thinking about the the funny joke nickname um the what help me out chinese Yokicage yes that’s what they’re calling it
what are the funny ones
no we’re not we’re not going to go there why not um I’ve seen some highlights on on the tube right some YouTube highlights um obviously the Chinese league is not as competitive so it’ll be interesting interesting to see what he does in summer league i think summer league is definitely closer to NBA level than uh Chinese level but you know summer league is definitely a good step from Chinese to you know tough in night out regular season NBA games but I don’t know man so just a 7 foot2 guy that can shoot is just so pretty and that’s just what you want cuz when you’re that tall the chance of you being a a great shooter it’s really low so for him to you know solid shooter well I think people have called him
they’re calling him Chinese Jokic because like
he play too
he play makes he has some like
mannerisms I guess to yo like some some spin moves some passes out of the post where he like will pass it over his head again like the passing lanes in the Chinese basketball association are probably 10 times as wide as the NBA like the athletes it’s not even close um and I think he projects to be like he has good touch i think he can become a good shooter i’m not sure if he’s going to walk in and shoot threes i
I wouldn’t be surprised if we see him this year not play much for the Blazers get a lot of remix time if we’re if if we see Klingan take a big step and then if Robert Williams is still on our roster like they’re your centers right there um it’s you just got to trust the pick of course come out to be honest you would rather um when you’re making the trade for Drew you probably would rather looking nearsided have a more a pick that’s going to contribute this year more but
uh I just wouldn’t expect Yang to play much this year unless he comes out in summer league and lights the world on fire and we truly have someone that we’re really working with uh this year i want to set those expectations on
but I will say I feel like when Dallas went to the finals they had the rotating sevenfooters and I think a lot of people in the league kind of saw that as like like if you have size and you have players that can protect the rim and you can build your defense from the inside out and you can like you’re not bringing off an you’re not bringing on an undersized guy now I understand there are cases like Rudy Goar where he struggles to stay with it in the playoffs now I guess for the for the Mavericks it worked out because you know they just
I think you have that right now i think Robert Williams is a much like Yang we didn’t draft Yang for his defense i I’m I haven’t read one write up where raving about his defense but he’s but he’s 72 so like at the end of the day it’s hard pretty hard to be bad at interior defense when you’re 72 now will he project to be someone who can hold his own out on island probably not i would assume
he looks kind of skinny he is right he’s I mean he’s 72 he’s got thick thick legs like he’s 7’2 man
oh I mean Chad’s also 72 he ain’t a 72
good i just want to confirm but he’s closer to Nerk than he is to he’s not
all right pull up his weight i I doubt it’s over one or two 50
i mean 725 if he’s over 250
he looks like 80 in my opinion
if he’s over 250 I’ll be very happy um
he’s over or under over
you want him to be over
yeah i’m 265 we’re in Montana the internet sucks
okay 265 that’s good
i wonder what he measured into the combine he’s 249
249 okay so he’s maybe on the
71 249
that’s a Yeah
I mean that’s pretty good i mean Nerk was 7 feet 290
i mean Zion 66 285 zion New Orleans man the food that’s why I was a little worried for Queen
did I see what happened to Ben Mlemore see what happened to Malik Beasley
yeah Malik Beasley this morning wow that was crazy
that was like yesterday
i saw some clips of him like sweating at the end of games
yeah trying to cover the spread
it is kind of
Okay what What do we think what do you guys think we do with Jeremy oh I will say this kind of scare it scares me a little bit i don’t even think you can buy out Jeremy since he’s not in the last year of his contract but but I also think what Cody said like who’s our starting five and our four rotation guys i was struggling to name bench guys so like
if Joe’s like if his mindset’s I want to be competitive
like I get you you’re overpaying and like the the the tears of who you’re paying is backwards but we’re also not trying to have a clean book for the next eight years so we can be a championship team right now like if we’re paying Jeremy we’re paying Jeremy but bring Jeremy off the bench man
i will say this i will say this jeremy’s value h is probably at the lowest it’s ever been i don’t think it can go lower he had he had a very poor season last year i think if he comes off the bench has good shooting splits
uh it’s it’s a possible deadline flip just because he’s played playoff basketball before but I mean he I mean I can’t I think he shot like 30 something% from the field
um
I think what would make me really upset this season is if Jeremy took the most shots obviously I think there’s no shot
well I think there’s two question i want you guys to listen to this
what
this is a tweet um I don’t know how accurate it is i’m not going to say who it’s by either but it’s they’re verified take it for
me anything on Twitter
okay okay
can I go
take it for what it’s worth but I’ve heard from multiple sources that the Eightton buyout is an underthe deal between the Blazers and Lakers blazers let Aton go and will sign with the Lakers and then the Lakers will trade Ruie for Jeremy lakers essentially get two players for the price of one and the Blazers get rid of both Aiden and Grant aiden and Grant have the same agent
i would love Ruy that’s a better option
compared to Jeremy i don’t know if I want Ruy but compared to Jeremy
rory’s a good shooter man
ruby’s not Oh also I didn’t say Thyel in the rotation
oh Thelable
oh Thiable yes he does
yeah cuz right now they’re saying this guy was like scoot Shaden to Denny Klingan and then off the bench Drew te Jeremy time Yang i don’t know if we’re bringing off the bench
i don’t think Drew came here to be on the bench
yeah Drew’s going to start
drew’s absolutely starting you think Chanty Phillips gets his hands on a guy is it going to start jordan Clarkson is getting bought out by the Jazz but he’s probably better than no one’s clowning them i guess
you think we’re paying all this money for Drew like a buyout’s not that bad
all right so back to what I was saying i just don’t want Grant taking a lot of shots cuz I feel like a lot of people on our team you know they’re not
Who do you rather take shots Jeremy or Chris Murray cody rapid fire
jeremy
that’s all I wanted to ask okay but like I don’t know scoot can he create his own shot he can do some ISOs but he’s not the best mid-ranger i guess Shaden Sharps are our best and Jeremy Grant are our best ISO players at this point denny’s more of a you know transition guy on the run run the floor can he ISO he can but he’s no Simons like Simons was our ISO guy now that now that he’s gone it’s just like dude I’d honestly like we target some like young
freak bucket like I don’t care bro like here here’s the thing with Joe and and I appreciate it i said it the other day like one strategy to building a good team is just make your strength even stronger so we’re going to we project to be a very good defensive team why not get more defense it makes it even better and then you’re the best in the league at said thing which is a high high floor to have but at this point man like I’ll take a guy who plays no defense and gets buckets like we can hide him
yeah like sign someone that can shoot at least like off ball um okay wow da Excuse me guys um anyh who
I think I think in the free agency pool I think you’re not necessarily looking for creators you’re looking for guys that either can just hit make get buckets on the ISO or you’re you’re really looking more for spot up shooting off the bench like if you brought in a I saw Duncan Robinson might get bought out i’ I’d take a Duncan Robinson off the bench can knock three threes like we don’t have that guy right now unfortunately which like
okay but
it’s going to catch up to you after a while you can’t win every game 90 to 85
to I’m trying to put myself like I feel like what Cronin is thinking or a logical thing is like it’s much easier to find guys with offensive bags than defensive bags
that’s true
so let’s stock up on defensive guys and then we can
we know Caleb Love can come off the bench for us and knock down four like realistically that’s what I’m saying
microwave scorers can grow on trees we can get them in a snap of
We talked about that with Simons for a cheap price too so it’s like defensive players are rare and the fact that we’re building them and stocking them up it’s good stuff man
signed Quinton Grimes in the offseason he’s a free agent
literally like
he’s asking for 25
he won’t go he won’t go for 14 cuz he dropped 50 once
he’s asking for 25 but uh
is there is there anything else we really need to cover
all I’ll say is free agency is tonight starts tonight
tonight
according to Sean there going to be some
Do you guys think any other major Blazer news will h I mean two massive yeah I think
yeah I will say right now i thought get traded before the season starts
does Drew
I I can’t say no because I thought like normally Cronin makes all his moves pre-draft but to make a move here that just shows this is the busiest off seasonason of the Cronin era outside of the Dame trade
ruy for Jeremy straight up would be
that’d be I wonder what Ruby’s making his contract
uh that I wouldn’t be surprised i’d be
who gives
He’s not making 30 plus million i can tell you that but I guess that makes sense them able to do that because they’ll be able to sign Aiden for like under 10 million probably um the Lakers need him
but at the same time I wouldn’t be surprised if Aiden doesn’t go to the Lakers because just when things happen like this and centers are on the market everyone’s just like
you also saw like when Aiden has a proper point guard he can pass like how good he can be with Chris Paul and Luca will make any center look good
that’s true now Luca and Aiden those are
Tommy Scoot’s not a proper point guard
no not yet not yet allegedly you know Luca struggles with conditioning and doesn’t care about basketball and allegedly Aidan does too so we’ll see if you know that pick and roll cares
but LeBron’s on a threeyear Ruy’s on a threeyear $51 million deal
good deal
average annual salary 17 mil signed it in July of 23 so I believe he’s coming into his final year the deal at $17 million
we picked up a Ruy i also what I thought you were going to say I thought it was going to be like we are able to sign like a Dorian Finny Smith in a signing trade which also would be cool because I know he’s making around 15
we just need guys who can
we need
I just I’m I’m happy we’re kind of talking about a roster in the sense of like what we need to win like we’re not just like
we’re not we’re not just like let’s get the young guy the youngest guy possible
i’ll take Ruby let’s focus on the draft next season no like we’re just talking about stocking up players
well I mean I I think
getting the best record we can get
i think we’ll be lottery at the end of the day i don’t think we’ll be lotterying
i think odds are we’ll be No no you realize if we make the plan and lose in the plan we’re still in the lottery
oh I’m aware
so you really think we will be playing in a playoff series next year
i do
okay that’s fine i love that
i love that i love that
you know what that’s a better like hot take than when we said the Blazers would have four Allstars that one year
as long as no one gets hurt Danny
i’ll say I’ll say carry this team to the offs
i say Blazer I say Blazers 910 they win the 910 game lose next game that would be my prediction right now who
two i don’t know
golden State or something
grizzlies or something grizzlies
or the
All right so okay how about this
just who are the teams that are
I was going to say la last thing who are teams that are on par or worse than the Blazers jazz
so the Jazz the Pelicans
i don’t think those two are on par i think they’re both worse
on par or worse
okay
so Jazz are worse pelicans are worse i’d say the Kings and the Suns that’s four right there you need one more to get in the plan
okay i mean one of the top teams will fall like Warriors or Grizzlies
i could see the Grizzlies or Warriors being bad i could see um one Jokic injury and the Nuggets are not going to be good they don’t have depth well okay i don’t want to bank on an injury
but I think that’s what will happen one team like the Suns were were projected top three seed going into last year and they obviously just
happens every year one great team underperforms and they’re at the bottom so one of those will happen and then
I don’t think the Mavs are just guaranteed to be good when they have no guard play right now dude and it’s like OKC and then who kyrie
I think OKC is for sure going to be good i really think the Rockets are going to for sure be good because they have depth and they’ve just got even if KD goes down that team is still a good team without KD
i think Minnesota will most likely be a good team do think the Lakers are going to be a good team because Luca just wins basketball games and as long as one of them I think the Clippers are one of those teams that could fall off just with
and the Nuggets are like in this top six probably if Yic plays
say the Nuggets and looks I love the Spurs I love the Spurs but it would not shock me if the Blazers are better than them next year it wouldn’t shock me
i think the worst Spurs would be better
that’s interesting blazers are better than a player who has a top 10 player
i mean look at Houston did anyone expect them to get the two Knicks last season not saying we’re gonna get the two
i I understand that we don’t have a Senon but Senon isn’t a superstar and neither was Thompson neither was Jaylen Green and the Rockets were able to win games
yeah clear
like would it shock you if the Blazers had a player that is putting up Senon like numbers the only reason
Blazers get home court
yes it would
but it would not shock it would not shock me if the Blazers were
Blazers are legit boys
i’m solid i I don’t know i’m not getting my hopes up it’s just like what does going 40 and 42 get you like that’s a plan
i would think so and then also it’s just it’s just steps there’s no such thing as if the BL I I swear if the Blazers next year are within four games with 10 to go of the plan and they decide to tank I will not be happy
i won’t be happy
yeah but the draft stack
draft was stacked this year and we walked out with Yang and I love Yang but
well guess what if we make the play and lose we’ll just be the Mavericks and get the first overall pick basically
yeah because that’s how it works apparently yeah literally who’s the last team to have the worst record playing
the Mavs yeah they lost the second plan game to Unbelievable Grizzlies just think losing that
yeah and and and Nico Harrison goes the bold fa uh the fortune favors the bold well did you really think that you were got trying to lose when you traded Luga no you said you were still trying to win and then AD got hurt and then because AD got hurt Kyrie was taking a lot of shots and he got hurt just think if they won that playing game they would have never gotten Cooper that that playin loss set them up for the next 15 years
and of course the Blazers were like a number off for 30
if the Blazers won I think two more games than they would have been where the Mavericks were i’m not saying that’s the lottery would gone the same but
that’s kind of similar to
maybe if the Blazers didn’t purposely try to tank
kind of similar to the RVR Olympics you try to reverse engineer stats doesn’t really work like that
i mean I don’t think the numbers would have been different
all right so summer league is coming up we’ll probably do a pod on that especially if Yang goes triple double in his first summer league game uh if the Blazers sign anyone or any nudes of the Blazers tonight with free agency if a Jeremy thing comes out honestly if we sign anyone that’s like worth mentioning we might do a quick pod um anything else
i love free agency it’s all It’s very fun yeah it’s great for the Blay Allen Crab and Evan Turner but that’s all we got guys um make sure to uh subscribe like comment uh and follow the Instagram follow RCR Trivia of course we’re posting trivia videos every single day sometimes two a day so be on the lookout for that uh we guys will see you next time peace

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