RETURNING: Damian Lillard is BACK with the Portland Trail Blazers

RETURNING: Damian Lillard is BACK with the Portland Trail Blazers

Locked on Podcast Network presents Locked On Sports Today. Dame Time is back in Portland after a brief hiatus in Milwaukee. Also, TJ Watt is now the highest paid nonQB in the NFL. And speaking of the highest in the NFL, is Lamar Jackson really number one on the list? Is he the best in the NFL? I’m Peter Makowski. Starting your day with the can’t miss stories and biggest debates in sports. You’re locked on sports today. Searching all major sports found. Let’s start with the biggest story. He made the jersey swaps really easy. Damen Lillard, after being waved and stretched by the Milwaukee Bucks, is headed back to the Pacific Northwest, returning to the Blazers on a three-year reported $42 million deal. Mike Richmond from Locked on Blazers joins me now. And Mike, I know you’re going to have to take a break from all the exciting summer league action right now because Dame is back. Um, what did what did you think of this when you first saw it? Well, I had known that Dame was very, very, very, very interested in returning to Portland, but I probably misjudged what that timeline looks like. I had heard from folks who know him well that he wanted to be home, but he wanted to come home. He lives here, right? Like he he this is his this is the the place he lives. This is where his kids are. Um, but I was surprised that it happened now and not two years from now. I I I figured like maybe many did that he would go play for a team with a little more proximity to a championship, but instead he prioritize being back in the place where he’s king. And now he’s back and he can be king. I I I feel like I’m I am looking at it this way. You tell me if if I’ve oversimplified it in your mind. He was loyal to this city, built a a reputation, the city, built a family in the city of Portland, and then he felt like it was time to move on, to go win. He he goes to Milwaukee, that doesn’t go great, but he’s in the mix. They go to the playoffs, some bad luck happens, but he he tries it. And then the injury happens, the the pain of being away happens, and he realizes, you know, would just be great at this point in my career to be happy, to be with my family. I’ve made the money. I chase the title. Now I I just like to play basketball and be happy. Is that Am I oversimplifying it? I I do think it comes down to as simple as that. And he goes back to a place where he’ll be prioritized. There’s not a he will not be treated like a uh he just turned 35 this week. He’s going to probably miss the entire his entire age 35 season recovering from an Achilles tear. So he’ll be, you know, a year removed from basketball coming back to play in the NBA at 36. You go to any other city, any other franchise, and you’re a 36-year-old who they hope recovers and you’re a nice story and maybe even a bench player in Portland, you’re Damian Lamont Ali Lillard Senior. You’re on Mount Rushmore. Like, you are you are you are Dame. You are the letter O. You are someone with deep history. You are an icon. Like, you like I said, he’s a king. So, not only did he prioritize peace and happiness and kind of maybe what he wanted from an emotional human standpoint and say, “Hey, the grass isn’t always greener.” I I I went and checked out that grass and, you know, beautiful cream city. Uh, but like it just didn’t it just it wasn’t for me, right? It wasn’t for me and I don’t want to be the guy who chases that forever because I’ve seen my peers do that and not have the enjoyments. And I think he just he he not only got to prioritize that that you know the good vibes and the happiness, he got to do it at a place where he knows that he will have some say in how the story gets finished. Okay. So, how do how do the Blazers move the story forward here? Because they they made um they they’ve made other moves in the off season, the the the Celtics trade, Drew Holiday, Anthony Simons. So, how do they move forward here with a team that look technically is going to have Damen Lillard, but practically will not? Yeah, they did add two 35-year-old point guards to the roster this summer. Would have been my guess if you had said, “What are they going to do this summer?” I would have said, “Well, Peter, I think they’re going to add two adults. They’re going to need to find two gentlemen uh who’ve played 15 years of NBA.” They could have just called us, I guess, if they’re if they’re trying to find, you know, guys in their late 40s or late 30s. Yeah. Uh I I guess I do fit the bill. Maybe a little a little short, but yeah, I’m I’m I’m with it. I’m still I still got eligibility. Yeah. I I I think some of this is figuring out what you have. Like one of the reasons that I was like, hey, it’s weird to bring Dame back at this time before, you know, days and weeks before this happened is because they’d kind of created a lane for the young players to have space to develop and evolve and see what you have and Scoot Henderson and and uh Shaden Sharp. And this throws a little wrench in the clean development of those gentlemen. No doubt about it. There’s no way there’s no way to sugarcoat that that it it does it doesn’t send a great uh message of positivity to believing in your future with the franchise necessarily, but I I think they have a little leeway cuz he’s not going to play to figure out what what it all looks like. And then if they’re going to have to make some tough decisions at some point and they will have more clarity, I guess they’ll have the the luxury of of some time to figure out what hard decisions they do have to make. You can stay up to date all year on the Portland Trailblazers by subscribing to Locked on Sports Today and Locked on Blazers on YouTube or your favorite podcast app. You’re locked on Sports Today. Coming up, TJ Watt is about to be a very, very rich man. Well, you know, even more. Before we get to that, the status quo in college athletics is no longer sustainable. We’ve all been there. Logging on early and waiting forever for concert tickets to go on sale, only to lose your spot for a show you’ve been dying to see. Live music should be about making memories, not dealing with the stress of ticket shopping. That’s where Game Time comes in. Game time makes getting concert tickets faster and easier than ever. Prices actually drop as it gets closer to Showtime and you can save up to 60% off with their killer lastminute deals. If you’re tired of endless scrolling trying to find the best deals, Game Time Zone deals pick the best seats in your section for you. And with Game Time, the price you see is the price you pay. No hidden fees. Take the guesswork out of buying concert tickets and show tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account, and use code locked on NFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem code locked on NFL for $20 off. Download the Game Time app today. Last minute tickets, the lowest price guaranteed. President Donald Trump is considering an executive order that would direct federal agencies to clarify whether college athletes are employees. A major move that could reshape college sports. The order wouldn’t ban employment outright, but it would pressure the Labor Department and the NLRB to take a stance that protects schools from having to treat athletes like employees. The goal appears to be preserving the current college sports model where schools pay athletes as independent contractors, not full employees, to avoid unionization and the collective bargaining that takes place in pro sports. It is a clear sign that Trump is siding with athletic departments and the NCAA in a fight that is only just beginning. In summer league, Bronnie James and the Lakers squared off against the Boston Celtics. We got to start with Jordan Walsh as I’ve been doing all week long. And I got to say, this is clearly easily Jordan Walsh’s best game uh of the summer. 17 points, six rebounds, three offensive. Uh an assist, a couple of steals, no turnovers, just two fouls. Uh six of 11 shooting, two of four from three. Uh only knock on him is three of six from the line. But overall, his clearly, like I said, his best game. And I think I’m calling it a bounceback game after the ejection. We can people said I overreacted and you know the network clipped my reaction and put it out there on a a one minute clip and it it tends to carry a lot more uh weight. There’s a little less context to it. I didn’t like the ejection. I thought I thought it just showed a lack of first of all lack of awareness because he said he forgot about the first tech. You can’t do that. You just got the damn thing. So it I didn’t like where his head was at there despite Joe Mazul being like I like this side of you like okay that’s nice to show some fire and you know maybe out of cont like in context of the what the Celtics have seen from him they want more fire from him and they’ll take this and whatever but I think it was a bounce back because he said it was a dumb decision. uh they you it was mentioned many times on the broadcast uh that Brad Stevens on the sideline kind of like telling him to calm down after that. So this was I think Jordan’s most under control game. I think he just not too overly animated except at the end he had the big windmill dunk on a breakaway and he had a three-pointer in the corner where he turned to his teammates on the bench and said something. Uh so obviously there is some fire there which is good. We like fire. And Scotty Sheffller missed 11 fairways in the first round of the open championship. Played half the day in sideways rain and still walked off Royal Port Rush with a three under 68. Just another day for the world number one. Sheffller may have called the pursuit of winning not fulfilling earlier this week. But if this is him uninspired and unfulfilled, the rest of the field might want to start being very, very worried if they weren’t already. The Pittsburgh Steelers have agreed to a three-year deal with TJ Watt that would make him the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL. Lockdown Steelers host Chris Carter reacted to the news in real time. Ladies and gentlemen, Omar Khan knows how to mess up everything in my schedule. I literally I promise you I literally just did a Friday episode. It was up. It was ready to go. I had everything. We had nice cool talking points. Throw all that out because TJ Watt has signed a massive and I mean massive contract extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Omar Khan getting it done in crunch time just before Steelers training camp. Literally Steelers report to camp next Wednesday. So huge move for the Steelers to keep their number one guy. Now, this has been a talking point, and I mean a major talking point for Steelers fans for months because this is the last year of TJ Watt’s current contract. He was making about $30 million a year. Miles Garrett got a contract that paid him 40 mill a year, resetting the market for what edge rushers are going to be paid. And so many Steelers fans have been saying, Chris, is that too much money? You know, that that sounds a lot. $40 million. Quarterbacks used to make that kind of money. Quarterbacks still got to make that kind of money. What What are we doing here? Bottom line is, as we’ve said here on the Lock on Steelers podcast for months, this was always going to be done. I kept telling people, you’re worrying about it right now because it’s not signed on the dotted line. You don’t have everything lined up right in front of you, but TJ Watt was always going to get this deal once the Steelers had everything locked in. I’m pretty sure the Steelers had an offer out to TJ Watt. There were some things here and there they had to make sure of, but TJ Watt locked it down and and uh and was going to sign with the Pittsburgh Steelers. That was always the plan. We talked to uh his teammates, Alex Highmith, Nick Herig. He posted a picture with Nick Herbig earlier today and he uh and he talked we talked to Denzel Martin, his position coach. Everyone said the same thing. They expect TJ Watt to be a Steeler. And not only will he be a Steeler, he will be showing up to training camp with a deal in hand, no questions asked. So, what does this mean? Well, let’s get all the details for this contract first because that’s the really big thing here, right? Is trying to see, okay, how much exactly did TJ Watt get paid? It’s a three-year extension. What does that mean? It means it’s goes on top of this current year, which was the last year of of his contract. So, now he is under the Steelers uh the Steelers salary cap for the next four total seasons, three on top of this current season. He is going to be making $123 million off in new money on those next three three years. That is going to be a big part of what uh what what the Steelers have been looking at. But the bottom line the bottom line to this is it’s a $41 million a year contract. That is how much money TJ Watt is going to make on average on the new three years of his deal. And it’s also $108 million in gu in guaranteed uh in guaranteed money. That’s a big part of this, too, is the guaranteed money. We’ll get more into that in a bit. But for those who are sitting there wondering, $41 million, that’s a lot of money. Chris, not in today’s NFL salary cap. And I’m going to keep hammering this home. I’m not trying to break my desk as I literally hammer this home for the millionth time on this podcast, but $41 million is less of today’s salary cap than it was when TJ Watt signed for an average $28.5 million per year when he signed his last contract extension with the Steelers back in 2021. That was it is less of the salary cap now $41 million is than $28.5 million was back in 2021. That is how much money the NFL has been making to expand their salary cap so that the numbers that you thought what a position should be paid is broken. That they’re not what you thought they should be anymore. This is now going to be the number that edge rushers, top tier edge rushers are paid for. I also think it’s huge for the Steelers that they get this in before anything happens with Michael Parsons because if something happens there, maybe that resets the market again. But now Omar Khan, you don’t have to worry about it. You don’t have to ask questions about it. Right now, the Steelers have their guy TJ Watt locked in, ready, ready to go. Uh, moving forward. And I think this is huge because nothing happens with this team without TJ Watt. Nothing this this team has a lot of other moving parts to it. Aaron Rogers, that’s exciting. The offensive line could develop this year. They have other good players on defense. They just added Jaylen Ramsay. But TJ Watt is still the centerpiece of this team. And without TJ Watt, they’re going to have to find so many different ways to win. That’s why it was never really in the equation for the Steelers to trade him. Let him go. I That’s why every time that was brought up, I said that this was not there was no question he was not getting traded. Stop asking, “Oh, is it going to be two first round picks, two first round picks in a second?” That’s why we kept saying on the locked Steelers podcast, this was never happening. If you’ve been watching us, you’ve been listening to us, it’s what it’s always going to be. And that’s that. And again, I think there’s a lot of Steelers fans who are right here on this on this live stream right now. Uh, shout out to everyone who’s who’s here with me saying, “Hey, he earned it.” This is money deserved by TJ Watt. This isn’t to Omar Khan handing out a pass work. This guy is still one of, if not the best edge rusher in the NFL. One of still of the best defensive players in the NFL. I just did a show yesterday talking about why since he’s been in the league, he has the most sacks, the most tackles for loss, the most forced fumbles, the most pressures, the most quarterback hits of any player in the NFL since he’s entered the league. And he did the same year as Miles Garrett. He also has in that time the most interceptions and passes defense of any edge rusher in the NFL, any defensive lineman in the NFL. You will put him in that category, take away defensive backs. He’s got the most. He is that guy. And he still is that guy. The question people, well, he had 11 and a half sacks last season. Yep. You know what? Teams made him the most blocked and chipped player in the NFL la last year. And again, KD breakpoint. This got ahead of the Micah Parsons deal. Shout out to everyone who’s contributing in the chat. I’ll try to get to all your questions there. um uh uh because that that’s a big part of his. But to me, this deal was always going to happen. He is a Steeler through and through. He’s an all-time Steeler. He’s a one of the best players in the league. You don’t let those guys go out into the market. You don’t trade away those guys when they’re locker room guys, when they’re leaders, and they’re still projecting to be the best the best potential player on the defensive side of the ball in the NFL. Stay up to date all year on the Pittsburgh Steelers by subscribing to Locked on Sports Today and Locked on Steelers on your favorite podcast app and on YouTube. Coming up, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen deserve more love than Lamar Jackson. As you might have seen, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson came in number one in our NFL Player 100 rankings. Locked on hosts Tyler Roland and Michelle Majuk believe that either Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen should have been number one. So, listen, I disagree with the ranking obviously, but let me at least play devil’s advocate. If you were looking at the rankings, say who is going to be the most productive player in 2025, then you could make the argument it’s Lamar Jackson, the natural talent that he has with this, how much he’s progressed as a thrower. And you look at last year, I would say that Lamar Jackson had a better statistical season, a more productive season, but Josh Allen had less help around him and led his team to some better things. So, I think that you could make the argument from that direction that it’s Lamar Jackson, I guess. But for me, the way I look at it is who is the player that if I had to draft just draft a football team, I had any player on earth and I had to start a football team to win a game for my life. Who am I taking? That is the best football player on earth. And that is Patrick Mahomes still to me even after some down statistical seasons. I’m not going to let that kind of ruin the the truth of the matter. We all know if we had to pick one player now, maybe you could say actually I’d pick Josh Allen and Allen would be my number two. Allen’s my number one. And it’s funny that he says the only reason he didn’t win MVP is, you know, voting fatigue. I just don’t think that’s true. I mean, maybe if he didn’t win it last year and one of the worst MVP seasons of all time, like 2023 season, he shouldn’t have won MVP. It should have went to Josh Allen. It really should have. But because he threw too many interceptions Yeah. because he threw too many interceptions, he didn’t get it. even though all of his numbers absolutely destroyed Lamar Jackson. Now, it’s really funny now that Ravens fans are like, “Well, Lamar’s numbers were better than Josh.” Yeah. Well, Josh had way better numbers the year prior and didn’t win. It’s not just doesn’t come down to just straight up numbers. Josh Allen was playing with a lot of guys that most people would not be good with. And guess what? It’s Josh Allen that leads the NFL by 35 touch, sorry, 36 touchdowns since 2020. He has 215 offensive touchdowns since 2020. That is first in the league. The next closest is Patrick Mahomes at 179. And again, Josh Allen has 215. If I needed one game, one quarterback, I would pick Patrick Mahomes. But that’s not what this list is. In fact, if you go back at least two years, so 2023 and 2024, Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson were each better quarterbacks on balance than Patrick Mahomes. Part of that is what Patrick Mahomes was asked to do. Part of that was the structure of the offense and the issues, but let’s not pretend like what Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson had was anything close to the greatest show on turf in terms of supporting casts. It wasn’t. Those guys elevated the players around them. They played quarterback at a higher level than Patrick Mahomes in the postseason. Mahomes has Andy Reid and Travis Kelce and Steve Spagnolo, which can’t be discounted here. Chris Jones. Those guys take over games. And I include the coaches here. He is still the most clutch quarterback in the NFL. one of the most clutch quarterbacks ever, but better. Not right now. Not right now. This is a bit like when Tom Brady during parts of the late 2010s or for stretches, Peyton Manning was outproducing him. Frankly, outplaying him at times. Aaron Rodgers out producing and outplaying him. Tom Brady widely considered the greatest of all time. But in a given season, like when Aaron Rogers wins MVP in 2020, 2021, 2011, 2014, Aaron Rogers was the better quarterback. That’s what’s happening right now. Lamar Jackson has played the last two seasons at an MVP and MVP runner-up level, and a lot of people thought he should have been the MVP last year. I didn’t, but I did vote him number one in the locked on top 100 because he has been the best player in the NFL for a couple years now. You can make the case for Josh Allen. I thought he should have been the MVP in 2023. He won it in 2024. I thought Lamar Jackson was not as worthy in 2023, was worthy in 2024. You net out at those two guys having one MVP each. That makes sense to me. Those two guys are playing better than Patrick Mahomes right now. So if you want to make the case for Josh Allen, I’ll listen. I think those guys are 1A 1B right now. Patrick Mahomes is third. Right now. Right now. Based on what we’ve seen lately, he’s third. And finally, Mike Williams is calling it a career. The 30-year-old wide out surprised the Los Angeles Chargers this week by retiring, stepping away after seven seasons that saw him rack up almost 5,000 receiving yards, good for 10th all time in franchise history. He also added 31 touchdowns and was a fan favorite, plus a favorite for Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, who said it best, “You can’t really replace a guy like that. He was coming home to the place where it all started, and now he’s just going home.” If you’re catching this episode after hearing your favorite lockdown show, make sure to subscribe to Lockdown Sports Today on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast so you never miss an episode. Also, if you’re a new subscriber to Locked On Sports Today, we’re here for you with the biggest stories in sports every day. Coming up, Stefan Diggs could be available for the New England Patriots by the start of the NFL season, but will he be enough for Drake May and this offense to take a step? So, at least until tomorrow, stay locked on Sports Today. Locked on Podcast Network presents Locked On Sports Today. For more episodes of Locked On Sports Today, go to our video on demand. Click on sports at the top of your screen. There you’ll find past episodes of Locked on Sports Today, plus other Locked On shows on demand.

Dame Time is BACK in Portland after a brief hiatus in Milwaukee. Also, TJ Watt is now the highest-paid non-QB in the NFL. Is Lamar Jackson really the best player in the NFL?

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