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Listener Mailbag: Trail Blazers Dream Season! Portland’s Crunch Time Scorer? | Locked On Blazers



Listener Mailbag: Trail Blazers Dream Season! Portland’s Crunch Time Scorer? | Locked On Blazers

In today’s show, it’s a mailbag episode answering listener submitted questions about a Trailblazer’s dream season, who’s the go-to scorer down the stretch, and what’s wrong with a little bit of Jeremy Grant. Welcome to Locked On Blazers. Let’s get into 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? It’s 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 podcasts 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. Socks on Blazers, your team every day. In today’s episode, it is a mailbag edition of the program answering listener submitted questions all episode long. We will get into questions about the Blazers. What what is the most likely version of a Blazers dream season? We’ll talk goto score down the stretch and answer the question, what’s wrong with a little Jeremy Grant? That’s what we’ll do. If you want to get involved in a future mailbag episode, the way to do it is to email me. Locked onblazerspodgmail.com is the a is the email address. locked onblazerspodgmail.com. I’m pretty darn good at answering emails. Um, I wouldn’t probably not 100% return rate, but I’m I’m up there. I’m up there. I’m pretty good. I’m pretty good at it. That’s the best way to get in contact with me for sure. You can do uh you can find me there just like Scott has. Scott asks the following questions. The listener Scott, a fairy tale season would be 50 wins and a top six seed. What would that look like? Which path is more likely? You could tell Scott is a longtime listener to the program because this is exactly how my brain works. This is exactly how my brain works to me. Like, you know, I think some people do it differently, right? And I do my show the way I do my show, for better, for worse. But the way my brain works is like, if the Blazers were to have a great deal of success, how would they get there, right? Like I like to I like to say, if this is the if this is the end point, how how did they chart that path? Like that’s the way the logic of my of my thinking about basketball and about the sport works. Um, so like, yeah, Scott, you you’ve listened to a handful of these, right? um you’ve live listened to I’m going to guess Scott hundreds many many many hundreds if uh because this is exactly how my sort of uh my basketball brain works and so so this is the what’s more likely if you’re familiar with the program you know we like to play that game here I stole that one uh from from lockdown rap Raptors and Shawn Woodley Sean congrats on the newest addition to your family and also thanks for giving me this game that I stole what’s more likely dream season edition here we go scoot Henderson Shaden Sharp Tunni Kamar Denny Aia and Donovan Klingan all take significant steps forward and Drew Holiday and Jeremy Grant are more 2023 24 than 2425 or one of the young guys takes an all-star leap or something unforeseeable. We’ll get to the unforeseeable part in a moment. Um I do think so this is like what’s the Blazer Dream season? A 50 win season top six seed like they’re they’re squarely in the playoffs. I think if they win 50 games, they’ll they’ll probably flirt with homecourt advantage, right? They’ll probably that’s probably top four in the West, I would assume. Like that that would be right. I I think if you have homec court advantage in the playoffs, you’re a team that that has had a a really good year and has a chance to do something special because you’re going to be playing home games to kick off a playoff series and perhaps a home game to kick off two playoff series should you win the first one. Dream season. So, what’s more likely? one of the sort of core young five scoot shade 2 Denny Klingan they all take significant step forward and the sort of the veterans the older the older headsuh Drew Holiday and Jeremy Grant get back to their their their better seasons of two seasons ago as opposed to last year when they both had down years or one of those youngsters takes an all-star leap like a singular all-star leap or something unforeseeable I think it’s something unforeseeable right I think it’s always going to be that’s the most likely because if you could predict it um you would you you know like If you could predict it, uh, it would be simple. So, it’s like, yeah, you know, Chris Murray shoots 45% from three and all of a sudden they’ve got this elite like depth coming off the bench. I don’t think that propels you to 50 wins in of itself. I think the probably like win 50 games is probably what what’s more likely is the allstar leap because I think it’s the singular talent that they’re missing. Like I think the Blaze are going to be competitive enough to be like to win 35 to 40 gamesish, right? Like give or take. But I think there I don’t I’m not going to make actual season predictions till we get to like August or whatever, September. But yeah, like I right now I feel like they’re somewhere in the 35 to 40ish win range. I think that’s pretty reasonable. And you know there’s outcomes on either side of that. But if they were going to take off and win 10 more games, it’s because it’s like Denny Aia is an all-star. Shaden Sharp is an allstar level player and that is what takes them there. I think the first one is fairly fairly likely to be like the scoot, Shay, to Denny all take significant steps and Drew and and Jeremy Grant get back to like Drew and JG get back to uh productive levels in the similar to the 23 24 season. Um I think that is a team that wins 45 plus games, right? That that’s a team that like is very squarely in the mix and finishes seventh or eighth. I think the the like true baseline of where they are now plus an all-star leap like not a hey everybody’s a little bit better significant step forward but like allstar one it’s so hard to make the all-star team in the west if you make the all-star team in the western conference you’re almost certainly one of the 20 best players in the league just because of how much how much more talent is in the west than the east particularly this year when some of the top end talent in the east Hallebertton Lillard Tatum are all going to miss significant time if not the entire season right like if you make the all-star team in the Western Conference you’re one of the 20 best players in the league and if Denny Abdia or Tumani Kamura um Shaden Sharp Scoot Anderson I think it’s really Shay and Denny and two are are realistic candidates although Scoot could surprise um and I guess Klingan could too but it seems pretty unlikely. Um like if one of those dudes makes the all-star team and one of the 20 best players in the league then yeah that I could see that being the most likely thing that gets that propels the Blazers forward. Uh, Scott asks like something unforeseeable and offers some offers some examples and I like these so I’ll share them with you. Rob Williams has a defensive player of the year type season. A trade that brings in real depth and that would be like real top end depth as opposed to like, hey, you’ve got some interesting pieces here and you can play 10 guys and kind of like be okay, but like real, you know, frontline depth. I think that’s like like real like okay these are you have eight players who could play in a playoff series and you wouldn’t be worried about them even one little bit type of depth. I think that’s what what Scott means here or a back half of the roster guy becomes a starter. That’s that’s what I’m talking about with Chris Murray’s like Chris Murray shoots 45% from three. Oh um like I don’t know Ryan Rupair just like it pops for him, right? He something he figures it out and it like light bulb goes on and all of a sudden he’s like um you know he’s he’s like oh Ryan Rupair is better than Shaden Sharp. That’s obviously that’s a wild thing to say, but like that level of of like, oh, Ryan Rupair like deserves to play Ryan Rupair deserves to play, you know, 28 minutes every night cuz he’s so freaking good. Okay, that might be something that propels him there. I I I think so. I’ll rank these in what’s more likely what’s what what is more likely path. I think the first one is the most likely path for like reasonable could happen to the Blazers. I think the second one is most likely in terms of what would it take for the Blazers to win 50 games all-star level leap. And I think the last one, something unforeseeable, is probably the most likely in terms of of of like if you just had to pick one of these, what would a fairy tale season be? It would be something that you can’t name on July 10th that happens in, you know, on January 3rd of next year. That’s what’s more likely. Scott, this is a really good one. Thank you. Um, if the Blazers win 50 games, boy is it going to be a fun year of podcasting. I since I’ve honestly Oh man. Okay, this is not a wo is me. I’m I’m here by choice. Um, I started to do the podcast in 2019. Um, I didn’t take it super seriously, but at the end of that year, um, the Blazers had their Western Carmen’s finals run and Damon Lord hits a hits a freaking 37 foot the bad shot. uh game series winner. There’s a four overtime game. They make the Western Conference Finals. The best, you know, the best they’ve been in 20 years, right? The best run they’ve had in 20 years. Um since then, I kind of started taking it seriously more seriously the following season. And like since then, they’ve been mostly bad. They they’ve been mostly bad. I would love I would love to podcast about a good I would love to podcast about like a legitimately good successful fun Blazers team because um I’ve really cut my teeth um and I’ve improved at it uh by virtue of them being bad, right? So they’ve kind of given me uh some some place to improve my craft, but um I feel like my craft is at a place where I would love to just talk into this microphone about a good basketball team. So let’s hope they win 50 games. That’s what that’s Let’s just Let’s just get there and um see if I can see if I can talk about wins more often than I talk about losses. Okay, I got another question about who’s going to be Blazers late game score. Join me in that second segment. We’ll talk about goto in the clutch. Uh that’s what we’ll do in the second segment. Join me there. First though, I want to tell you about monarch money. Have you ever thought to yourself like, I just wish it was easier to save money? I wish it was easier to manage my manage my wealth. 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The question is, Mike, now that Anthony Simons is gone, when the Trailblazers are down by one with 10 seconds left, who’s going to be the go-to guy? Yeah, that was Ant last year. Um the his numbers in the clutch, which the NBA defines by five-point games, uh games within five points in the final five minutes, pretty good. Shot 38% from three in those in those closing minutes. Um he would on on some some volume. And he was the go-to guy because of skill set, right? Not overall talent, but skill set. And that’s some of what they’re lacking here. here. And by the skill set, I mean when it comes down like 10 seconds left in the game, you’re trailing, everybody in the world knows you need to shoot, you kind of need someone who is comfortable taking jump shots off the dribble because in those situations, you can’t always get to the rim. And why I emphasize that is because I think Danny A is the is the Blazers probably best just downhill dude. Like, hey, go get us a bucket downhill driver. But Denny isn’t doesn’t have much in between game. And I know there’s been some and and Denny has mentioned this that sort of the team said like, “Hey, we don’t we want you to take shots at the rim in threes. We don’t want you to take mid-range pull-ups.” But like that’s specific to Denny. Shaden Sharp takes mid-rangers. And Simon take mid-rangers because they’re better at it, right? Like it’s not that the team says nobody can take mid-rangers. It’s like we got to we got to make sure everyone’s doing what they’re good at, right? Like you kind of that’s that is um like people get confused with sort of the analytics movement being like no one can take a mid-range jumper. W and it’s not that. It’s that like we have a lot of data that suggests that is easier to to sort of parse to say what do guys actually excel at and teams can try to carve out plans for getting guys to do what they do best. Now, I don’t know the Blazers always do that. I don’t know that all NBA teams always do that, but certainly if Denny Obia had more mid-range pull-ups Arsenal um he would be they would let him do it, right? So, I I think Ant was just their best bet last year because of the shot creation and the comfort shooting off the dribble, the comfort shooting from deep off the dribble. Um, like he was better at it. He doesn’t get to the rim all the way to the rim as well, but he’s a good he has, you know, good floater, weird off- foot floater game. Um, and he was like he was useful in that role. Um, not elite at it by any means, but in terms of the Blazers best option in that mo in those moments, Ant was the guy. He’s gone though. And I think there’s two obvious choices for who kind of steps into that role. And they’re the Blazers best like shot creators. Uh for all Drew Drew Holidayiday’s gifts, not a shot not a shot creator. Not a dude you can throw the ball to and say, “Hey, we need you to go get a tough bucket on in a pinch. Drew can take jumpers off the dribble, but like that’s not where you’re going to maximize his skill set or appreciate his skill set. It’s Denny Odia and it’s Shaden Sharp. Shaden Sharp at the end of the season was an elite finisher and got to the rim pretty darn well. Um he’s also has he’s comfortable taking mid-range pull-ups. He’s not a good three-point shooter, nor has he been, which makes this down one with 10 seconds left. Um, you know, guys are going to pack the paint. They’re going to say, they’re going to dare him to shoot from distance and and say, “Hey, we’re going to give you a little bit of space. Go ahead and shoot it.” If Sharp takes a step forward as a shooter this year, it is a very big deal, not only for the final seconds, but for the first 47 minutes and 59 seconds that precede it. That’s a huge, huge thing for him. I think the the choice though for the most part right now is is between Shaden Sharp and Denny Avia. Denny’s got to get some in between game. Um they gota unleash his in-between game. They gota, you know, there needs to be some comfort with the coaching staff allowing him to experiment with a little bit more of it. Denny’s got to get more comfortable like with with kind of a floater or a pull-up jumper. He just doesn’t have that move right now. He didn’t have it in Washington. He didn’t develop it with the Blazers. that is on him to to a skill that he needs to develop and convince the coaches that he can go do. Um, but he’s just such a good driver. Um, he’s he’s he’s he was the Blazers best player last season and in the sort of simplest terms at the end of games you give the ball to your best player and say go go score. Um, and I think it’ll be Denny, but I also think this speaks to the Blazers challenges this season. Last year on a points per play basis, uh, according to Clean the Glass, the Blazers were 24th in half court offense. Uh what points per play is is that it it it’s points per play. So it’s when you go down and take a shot, but it excludes offensive rebounds. That would be points per possession. You can get multiple plays uh in in any given possession if you were to get offensive rebounds. They also have a points per possession stat. But in points per play, excluding offensive rebounds, players were pretty bad half court offense. And I think they got worse because DeAndre Aton has some bailout stuff with just he’s a really good mid-range shooter and you can you can get to those spots and Simons was the Blazers’s best off the dribble shot creator and they didn’t replace that skill set yet and I can’t imagine that they do moving forward necessarily. Um I think one of the things that I would be a little bit worried about here in the Blazers late game score is the hierarchy of Jeremy Grant. If he’s a dude who closes games, Chanty Bilips has shown a willingness to play through Jeremy Grant in the clutch. And I don’t love that because Jeremy Grant doesn’t pass and he forgot how to make twos last year, which I think is actually a much bigger problem. Um, he’s a good three-point shooter. He was worse last year than his first couple seasons in Portland, but like he is a good three-point shooter. he was still above average three-point shooter even if he was took a step back from where he had been, but he just shot horrendously inside the ark. Um, and it’s hard to be a go-to go get a bucket type of guy if you if you just can’t score inside the ark. And Jeremy Grant’s just not a natural playmaker. They used to they’ve run a couple of these sets late games where it’s like throw it into Jeremy and he has a chance to make like a read off, a handoff, and then go to work. He always fakes the handoff and goes to work and everybody knows it because it’s Jeremy freaking Grant. So, I do think there’s a little part of me that worries like Grant and sort of hierarchy and and and um I don’t know the respect that comes from being the elder statesman and having a track record of being a pretty good scorer at at certain times his career ISO score, decent ISO score certain times his career that earns him that spot. I would like it to be Shaden Sharp and him take that step forward. If he is incapable of that and he might be, I think Danny Aia is the obvious choice. Although I think his lack of comfort pulling up and taking pullup jumpers off the dribble makes it a little bit dicey, which speaks to the whole thing. The Blazers are were a bad half court offense last year and are probably a worse halfcourt offense this year considering their their personnel. Um, and I think they’re going to they’re going to be good on defense. How good, I think, is is is within question, but I think they’re going to be a good defensive team, a very competitive defensive team, I should say. I think good is has a it suggests some sort of relativity that I’m not really ready to make yet, but they’re going to be a very competitive defensive team. Um, and have an opportunity to be a really good defensive team. Like they just have a bunch of good defenders. That’s how you make a good defensive team. But if they get in these games where it’s like tight, score down the stretch type of thing. I think we saw this a little bit with the Rockets last year. It’s like um they could score and they were a really good offensive rebounding team. Um, but they scored in transition and they locked people up on defense and they got their and they rebounded their own misses. But like when it came down to moments where it’s like who’s going to get us a bucket down, you know, three with three minutes left, down two with two minutes left, down one with a minute left, tied with 30 seconds left. Like they didn’t have that. And obviously they’re more even that group is more talented than the Blazers are uh in terms of offense and shot creation. But I but I think it’s a similar feel and we saw kind of what that looked like. Okay. Hey, to close the show, got a question about Jeremy Grant. What’s pro What’s the problem with a little Jeremy Grant? We’ll answer that to close the show. Join me in that third segment. Still a pass for his point guard. I’m still Mike Richmond. And you are still listening to Locked on Blazers. We’re still rolling through a special delivery mailbag. If you want to get involved in a future mailbag, email me locked [email protected]. This question comes from Professor Pete. Professor Pete asks, Professor Pete, also a longtime listener. Shout out to you, Professor Pete. Professor Pete asks, “If we can’t get anything decent for him, I don’t see what the big deal is in keeping Jeremy Grant around for a while. Even though he is overpaid in some sense, the team can afford it right now.” Actually, sorry, let me read that sentence correctly. Even though he is overpaid in some sense, we collective pronoun, shout out to Professor Pete, we can afford it right now, he is a good shooter and a good defender, which is what we collective pronoun need and fits into the identity of this team. What’s the big deal about having an overpaid guy that’s still pretty good? There’s something to this, right? As I mentioned, the Blazers were a heinous pretty awful bottom seven in the league half court offense. Like they just they they were they were a very very very very good uh offensive rebounding team, but they just they still struggled to score in the half court. When the game was in the half court, they struggled to score. And I think they’re probably worse in half court settings, barring significant steps forward from Scoot Henderson and Shaden Sharp, which uh and Denny Aia and Tummani, etc., etc. like they’re going to need someone to take a take a take a maybe a huge leap, but a leap, a meaningful step, a meaningful progress in order to to improve there. And I think that’s what they’re banking on. That’s the whole that’s the point of the roster to some extent. So, uh maybe they will get there, right? Um but like they they are light on shooters. Um they just are they’re light on above average shooters and um the half court offense speaks to that, right? because it’s not just that like they’re 20th in in like three-point accuracy in the league, right? It’s it’s it’s just like if you can’t generate easy points at in any way, shooting is a good way to alleviate it because um it does add a maybe a little more variance to it. But like the whole point of shooting in the NBA is that the threat of threes opens up shots at the rim. That is what this era is all about. That is what the space era and the three-point era is all about is leveraging the space on the court, leveraging three-point shooting to generate looks at the rim. The Blazers got to the rim a bunch. Um, they just don’t get to a clean paint often because you just don’t have to worry about enough shooters. And if they do have a shooter that like if they do have like a proven above average shooter in the lineup that’s definitely going to play on night one, it’s Jeremy Grant. I think there’s a world in which Scoot Henderson graduates into an abovea shooter. although we’d have to see it for a fairly big chunk before I think defense is worried about it. Shaden Sharp I’m a little worried on quite frankly um this far into his career at the level he has shot the ball at. It doesn’t mean that it’s the thing is written but um yeah like he just he’s he’s had a he’s had a long enough stretch in in the league as a below average shooter to make me a little like hm even if the aesthetics of the jumper look beautiful. Um it is what it is at some point has to go in. Tumani is a good shooter. Uh he’s a good shooter. Shot it very well uh last season, but he doesn’t shoot enough and he doesn’t fly around screens at a level which which like opens up the floor yet. But I think there’s a world I think there’s a I think there is a a way to have Tumani like really start bombing away enough that that it becomes a meaningful shooter. Danny took after a really rough stretch took major strides as a shooter. Um but I again he doesn’t get treated like a shooter. Klingan can’t shoot. Um Hansen can’t is can’t shoot probably. I’m guessing we haven’t really seen him. Rob Williams doesn’t shoot. He’s taken seven threes in his entire career. Um like the I do but like are are you going to play your fourth center to like shoehorn shooting in there? Matis Thyel career below average three-point shooter. Had has had stretches where he shot very well but never for any significant amount of time. It’s Jeremy, right? It’s Jeremy. So that gets us to Professor Pete’s question. And it’s like Grant is the only dude in the lineup who is a proven above average shooter in the league. And even last year where he was where he was awful inside the arc, just forgot how to make two-pointers. Shot under 40% inside the arc, which is outrageous for someone of his size. Um, still still even with a step back from shooting three, still was a 38% three-point shooter. Has had seasons where he shot 40% from three. Jeremy Grant quietly is one of the great developmental stories of of the last I don’t know 10 years, right? Like he was such a nonshooter athlete defender when he came into the league and has turned himself into like a good a good shooter during his career. He’s he’s um he’s someone you can point to was like what kind of just like when’s the last time like a raw superdefender actually becomes a 3 and D wing? Jeremy Grant and he’s made I don’t know $250 million for his troubles for that development, right? He’s it’s it’s worked out well for him. So that gets me to this question. That was like that’s classic Mike. I just spent five minutes talking about whatever. Let me answer the question. I was trying to set the stage. I wasn’t talking about whatever. I try to provide I try to uh what do what’s the what’s the phrase I used the other day? Texture and nuance to these questions. I’m adding some texture and nuance. Grant does indeed have a skill set that the Blazers lack. He does indeed uh defend. He did defend pretty well last year despite some uh offensive struggles. Um, I thought he had stretches where he was very good on defense, some stretches where he kind of didn’t always bring in, but like I thought he had stretches last year where he was like, “Oh yeah, Jeremy Grant’s Jeremy Grant’s good on defense. Wow, he really helps.” Um, you can Wow, if you have Tumani and Denny and Jeremy Grant on on the court, wow, you can really have some nice stretches where it’s hard to score, hard to drive, hard to get easy buckets, right? That’s that’s length and size and switchability and that versatility on the wings. Like I there was there was moments when he was really useful. shooting, defense, some size, doesn’t rebound, doesn’t pass. Um, but like defense and and shooting, they they need those skills, right? So, the problem with him in any individual game this season is very little. He’s useful. The issue is like the rush to trade Jeremy Grant if like what the big deal is keeping him around is the future, right? It is the flexibility that paying someone that he’s going to be paid owed over over 100 million, 106 million over the next three seasons. I believe it is paying for someone, you know, starter money who has who is producing like a like a bench level player. like if he has the season he just had um again in as he ages like that’s a problem because you are just in a salary cap league that is increasingly punitive for if you go you know if if you are a particularly expensive roster paying someone twice as much money as their production suggests limits your ceiling. It’s not going to limit their ceiling in this particular season, I would imagine, but it is going forward your options because he’s hard to trade, hard to move. If you do trade him, hard to upgrade when you make those trades. So, the problem with like the the rush to trade Jeremy Grant is not because they just have to rid themselves of him. I think that’s actually a misread. the rush to trade him was one. He seems like kind of in the way, but I think they they’ve because they got rid of Deion DeAndre Aiden and and Afrey Simons and returned one total player, uh they’ve they’ve kind of cleared some of the like who’s going to play log jam stuff. Um I don’t I still don’t know if waving DeAndre is deaf roster maneuvering. I think it’s just like they they just cut bait. Um I don’t think he’s necessarily in the way depending on how they utilize him. there’s a chance he gets utilized in a way that makes him feel like he’s in the way. But like on any given night, any given night, Jeremy Grant helps. The problem is into the future when you do sign Tomi Kamaro to a contract extension, when you do, assuming they do sign Shane Sharp to a contract extension, when you have to pay uh when you have to pay Scoot, when you and and and Denny, etc., etc., it’s still having that money on on the books for Jeremy Grant and maybe for Drew Holiday. We shall see. Well, maybe we’ll have this question about Drew Holiday next season um or or in a few months like like it is it is the lack of flexibility to upgrade the roster. And I think in the past iterations of the Blazers um that’s kind of been the problem. It’s like yeah, they have some functional players, but the roster was, you know, the role players were a little too expensive and and not highly coveted enough on the trade market in order to find clean, easy upgrades. And that’s the challenge with Jeremy Grant. It’s not necessarily that you have to have to have to trade him at this point. It’s that his if his production doesn’t match his salary and there’s no way to to rid the team of him while upgrading the team, you’re just kind of moving forward with him and your opportunities to upgrade the roster which you just at some point like it becomes you realize okay we’re we’re at this level and to get to this level this is like you know you have to make it you have to take a step and I think the Blazer will analyze some of this year is like what level they think they’re at and particularly in regard to how the young guys play. Um, and if you don’t have the flexibility to trade the sort of ancillary pieces, the other parts on the roster say, “Okay, these four dudes are definitely part of the future. How can we get better?” If if you have players in the roster that don’t allow you to upgrade, it really hinders you. I don’t again, I don’t think there’s necessarily a rush to trade Jeremy Grant. The challenge is if he is too expensive, he doesn’t hinder the 2025 Trailblazers, but 26 and 27 and beyond Trailblazers, those years when you’re still paying him more money and you have less fewer and fewer outs and more urgency to be competitive. That is the problem. Professor Pete, I hope that answered your question about what’s the big deal about having an overpaid guy on the roster. That’s going to do it for today’s show. Tomorrow’s show, we’re going to talk Summer League, what I’m going to be watching and how I’m going to be watching it. We’ll talk uh Yang Hansen and uh and and others, but it’ll be a Hansen focused show because that’s who I want to watch at summer league. And I’ll talk about kind of my what has generally been my methodology and approach for watching for watching basketball in Vegas, which is mostly pretty ugly. Uh that will do it for this one. Come back for tomorrow. It’s what we do 5 days a week wherever you get podcast and also on YouTube. I appreciate you listening. I will talk to you soon.

A mailbag episode answering listener submitted questions about a potential dream season for the Trail Blazers, who gets the ball at crunch time this season, and whether Jerami Grant MUST be traded?

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10 Comments

  1. My dream season: Scoot and Shaedon take big leaps. Shaedon wins Most Improved. Clingan is serviceable at around 30 MPG. Hansen is a capable backup big. Toumani Makes All Defensive 1st Team. Deni stays at the level he played at during the last few months of the season. The Blazers make the 6th seed or higher and have a competitive first round series.

  2. I think that this season, at this point in time, which is one day before our first impression of Yang Hansen, is a crap shoot. The defense looks potentially really, really good.

  3. Dream season; we win 50 games we sign dame the last day possible and he comes off the bench in the playoffs and shoots 3s while everyone else steps up and we win the championship 😅 but I live in reality so that’s probably not gonna happen

  4. Shaedon Sharpe might not be a great 3-point shooter, but something that is notable is that he made a three in something like 42 straight games. That isn’t just luck – it tells me that Shaedon doesn’t get into his head as much as other players do. He isn’t as susceptible to catching either a hot streak or a cold streak. Maybe he’s the type of player that the pressure of knocking down a shot at the buzzer isn’t such a big factor. I’m ok putting the ball in his hands at the end of the game.

  5. If Jerami is taking the final shot at least it’ll be sweet to have a chance at a top 3 pick this year

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