LIVE: How Jrue Holiday and Anfernee Simons FIT with Blazers and Celtics | Garden Report
Hard hat’s all about showing up to play hard, doing what it takes to win. If you want to cement legacy, win another. He’s your third center. You don’t want to pump him up too much, but it’s hard not to. This is maybe the most I’ve ever agreed with you. Hey, Bobby Manning here. Welcome to a Friday night edition of the Garden Report. checking in here once again this week with Sean Hiken, good friend of the Garden Report and of course the head uh Trailblazers reporter over at the Rose Garden Report, which is a great subscription right now, especially as Drew Holiday heads over there. And that’s what you’re here to talk about, Sean. Drew Holiday joined the Trailblazers, which I know you went on with Noah right after trade happened. Now, um lots happened since then. One of the two guys that was involved in that trade has even done a press conference by now. Yes, we’re still waiting to meet Anthony Simons who is over at the facility from what I hear. Um, is he is he going to be on the team or are they gonna I I’m I’m sure I’m sure they’d like to find a trade because they’re just trying to cut money, but are they gonna are they is he gonna be on the team on opening night? I think so. I think that would be my prediction at this point. And I think the latest reporting that’s out there points in that direction, too, that they’re not in a huge rush to just make a deal happen there, right? Uh I don’t we we’ll get to him in a second here. I want to start with Drew. I don’t see a destination for Simons, though, just to tease it, but we’ll talk about that in a little bit. Uh but Drew introduced in Portland. And this one’s interesting because again, I haven’t talked to you about this on here since the trade happened. I’d have to imagine when it went down it was at least slightly surprising to you that this is the direction Portland went in this uh off seasonason to go get a guy like this especially after they had him two years ago. I was a little surprised definitely that that that was what happened. You know, you you think when you’re thinking about the off season, Anthony Simons, because he was going into the last year of his contract and also because Scoot Henderson and Shaden Sharp both took big steps the second half of uh last season, you kind of would you kind of figured that that would be the, you know, one of the guys that maybe they would look to move was Anthony Simons. And you know, as as as you kind to your point uh with uh with the Celtics maybe not being able to find a trade for him, I just didn’t really know what the trade was or what the team was. That makes sense. I certainly did not have Boston on my radar. And I did not have a reunion with Drew Holiday after he was previously a member of the Trailblazers for I used to have I I when I the story I wrote the night of the trade, I had the exact number of hours and minutes between the two press releases, but it was like three days and and change that he was a member of the Blazers two years ago between the Dame trade and the trade to the Celtics. So, it was definitely a bit of a surprise when that was the direction that they went with it. But honestly, like when you start to think about it, when you think about kind of what their goals are and how they think that somebody like Drew Holiday can complement kind of what they’ve already got, it started to make a little bit more sense. I’m still curious how the minutes distribution and stuff is going to go and that’s going to be something that we figure out uh once training camp starts a couple of months from now. But it was I mean it was definitely an interesting move. Yeah. And I I think it makes some sense for them because they’re going in a defensive direction, right? You look at their starting lineup and how they finished last year. It was all defense. Uh, and I think that’s going to be their identity going forward here, especially with Klingan moving to center now with Eightton gone and some of the other moves they’ve made here. And I I think you look at his recent history and everywhere he’s gone. Milwaukee win a championship first year, Boston championship first year. I don’t foresee that happening in Portland this year. I don’t either. But playoff appearance, I think that’s a win for them. And I think that’s that’s their goal. Yeah, that’s what he can make possible, I think. So, what’s their starting lineup now? Holiday sharp. If I had to guess, and this is obviously we’re talking about this on August 1 and training camp hasn’t happened. So, there, you know, whatever could happen could happen. I kind of think it’s going to be Drew playing off ball at the two and Scoo as the starting point guard. I if you made me, you know, guess who the opening night starters are today, again, August 1st, we don’t know who’s going to be healthy. We don’t know who’s going to have a good camp and who’s not. I think right now, as of right now, the five starters that I would be more inclined to guess are going to be the starters opening night are Scoot, Drew, Aia, Kamara, Cllingon. Interesting. So, Grant, and Sharp off the bench. Uh, yeah. I mean the J the Jeremy thing’s interesting because like he had he he is the most you know the highest paid guy on the team and or I guess I guess I guess technically Drew makes a little bit more money than him now but like you know based on just tenure and you know years in the league and years on the team you would think that Grant would be kind of pencled in as a starter but I mean you know he had kind of a down year last year and there’s no way that either Kamar or Avia is not gonna start. So, somebody’s got to be the odd man out. And I kind of think it it’s going to be Grant unless he just comes in and has an incredible camp. Yeah. And the interesting thing about them, too, and we’re going to talk about Simons in a little bit here, but he led the team in scoring last year. Um, Sharp right up there with him. So, Simons has gone sharp in the scenarios off the bench. AIA was great last year like you mentioned. Grant down, didn’t play a ton of games, not super efficient last year. Uh, and then Eightton’s gone too, who is one of the top five leading scorers. So, the big question with this team obviously is how they’re going to put up points. And that’s a good question. It’s a great question because Drew’s, you know, Drew’s giving you 10, 12 points a game at this point in his career. Like, he’s not going to fill into the scoring role Simons did here. He’s just going to reinforce the defense and bring a lot of intangibles. So, I guess that’s probably the question from the Portland side of things here is is this the right time in Holiday’s career to be bringing him in because he took such a backseat offensively in Boston that even though we’ve seen him in the past have those big scoring nights, I’m sure he still has it in him if he’s getting enough open shots. He’s not going to play a lead offensive role for this team necessarily. Maybe that’s good because he’s playing alongside young guys that Portland wants to start pushing into, you know, the next phase of their careers, but offense could definitely be a struggle for this team as I start to envision how good they could be this year. Yeah. I mean, whether it’s the right time for him to come in depends on what you’re bringing him in for. If you were bringing him in expecting him to be your leading scorer and, you know, be kind of the focal point of an offense, that’s just not what he is. And I don’t think that’s what they envision him being. But just from a defensive standpoint, he’s a huge upgrade over Simons and he also can play either guard position. You can play you can play him at the one with Sharp if you want to and he can be a point guard. You can play him at the two and play him off ball with Scoot if you want to and he’s still a good enough three. I mean, his shooting took a little bit of a of a step back last season. That could have just been a down year. Maybe he’s starting to decline, but either way, he’s still a pretty good shooter. He’s a good enough shooter. Yeah, he got way back up for the playoffs. He had a weird slump midway through the year. I’m not that worried. He’s been a good shooter most of his career. He’s gonna be fine. I’m not that worried about that. But like yeah, he’s a good enough shooter. You can play him off ball with Scoot and it would be fine. And defensively, obviously, it’s just, you know, it’s night and day from from Simons. So I think from that standpoint and also just given the and this, you know, this was all very reinforced with when we got to talk to him a few days ago at the introductory media availability. He seems on board with the idea that he’s here, who knows how long he’s here, but he’s here for right now, to be kind of a veteran presence and just, you know, help bring Scoot Henderson and Shaden Sharp and some of these other young guys along. And he seems cool with it, at least for right now. Uh, but you know, from that standpoint, and and you know, one of the things I said when they made the trade, and this was obviously when they made that trade, this was before they knew that Damen Lillard was going to be released by the Bucks and then would end up coming back to Portland. Ever since they traded Dne, as good of guys as somebody like Anthony Simons or Jeremy Grant or, you know, your guy Timelord who’s still here, as good of guys as those guys are, none of those guys are like the vocal guy in the locker room that everybody, you know, is the is the guy that everybody gravitates towards. And Drew is one of the handful of guys in the entire league that’s as good as Dane at that. So just from that standpoint, it made a lot of sense to bring him in. And honestly, even after they brought Dame back, Dame’s not going to play this season. So having a guy who has that role and can, you know, is that, you know, veteran, you know, guy on the bench that everybody that everybody, you know, gravitates to, who actually can play, I think is still valuable. Is he officially out for the season? I mean, they didn’t say it, but I mean, he’s he’s not gonna play this year. I’d be stunned. That’s how I feel about Tatum. And Tatum got hurt even later than he did. No, it would be it would be silly for bo both for both of and for Hallebertton. Hallebertton was obviously way later, but no torn Achilles should be a full season when you do it when you have the injury in the playoffs. It should be a full season injury. You know, it’s you think about uh and you know, I’ve been like I I have a mailbag coming out next week where there’s some stuff about this with regards to Dne, but you know, the one guy that we can think of that came back from a torn Achilles and was basically the same guy that he was before the injury was Kevin Durant and he missed 18 months like some which some of that was because of COVID, but like he missed that whole next season and then like he came back at the beginning of the following season which started in December because of co everything got pushed back but when he came back he looked incredible he looked like Kevin Durant but then on the other end of the spectrum you look at and this was a long time ago and obviously medical science has advanced since then but when Kobe to his Achilles he tried to come back in eight months and it just didn’t go well for him and you know just just going off of what you know people around the Blazers organization said both you know off the record and at Dame’s press conference I don’t think anybody is really in any rush. They they know that like the deal here is they brought him in as like, you know, to help along some of these young guys. He’s going to play, you know, they they still see him as a highle player, you know, the second and third years of his contract. We’ll see, you know, what he looks like after the torn Achilles that his the track record of guys his age coming back from that injury isn’t great. But, uh, I definitely got the impression that they’re not going to do anything shortsighted as far as his recovery. So, I’m just until I hear otherwise, I am operating as though Dame is not going to play this season. Yeah. And of course, he’s back in Portland. I I probably should have considered that more seriously as a possibility. I know you mentioned it to me when I when I reached out to you and was like, “Where’s this guy going?” Like, it makes all the sense in the world that he’s back there for a bunch of different reasons. And I want to talk about him in a second here. But for Holiday, you were at the press conference. Uh I know he mentioned and I Brad has said this too that he got a call early gave him a little bit of a heads up that a trade was going to be happening here. He prepared Brad Stevens did Holiday and Porzingis for the fact that they were probably going to be gone um because of the Second Apron stuff and tax and all that. So he wasn’t surprised by it unlike the first time around, you know, heading from Milwaukee to Portland, which was a pretty big shock for him. And he said I was excited. I knew that obviously I got traded here before so it was kind of full circle talking to Chanty, talking to Joe and I really do appreciate what they did for me the first time around. That was sending them to a good team in Boston, right? You know, trying to set them up. That really did a lot mean a lot for me in my career. I know this time around just talking to them, they’re just kind of like, I got another chance to get you and they thought I’d be I’d be a good piece here. So excited to be here. There was a report when he first went to Portland that he wasn’t thrilled um with it. So, I don’t know where that came from. Um, there’s a lot of stuff out there, man. I I I mean, look, I’m sure piss was the word. Yeah. Yeah. Look, look, man. I’m sure he was probably because he, you know, obviously he liked, you know, he’s he’s had a good couple years in Boston. I don’t think he was thrilled that he was getting traded, but yeah, this idea that this idea that, you know, it was kind of the same thing like I’ll bet when Dne first got traded to Milwaukee after he wanted to go to Miami that whole summer, I’ll bet he was not I know, in fact, I know for a fact he was not thrilled that that was where they sent him. But, you know, after he cooled off a little bit, he was like, “All right, this is actually not the worst situation in the And Drew actually kind of alluded to this in that quote that you just read that was from his media availability that I was at the other day is that when the Blazers first got him from Milwaukee in the Dame trade two years ago, they were never going to keep him. They were always just he was like the piece that they were going to turn around and turn into more assets. And they very and Drew has been very open about this publicly in the past, you know, with you guys in Boston with, you know, Boston media. I don’t remember if this was a group thing or a one-on-one thing, but I remember uh either Jay or Jared, one of the athletic guys had a story about this a couple years ago that basically as soon as he got to Portland, Joe Cronin and Chanty Bilips said, you know, look, we know that, you know, you’re still you still have a couple more years left of being, you know, a highle guy that, you know, you want to contend. We want to give these young guys some time. This isn’t the right fit. let’s work together and get you somewhere where you want to go. They could have just said, you know, we don’t care where we send you. We’re just going to send you to the highest bidder. They worked with Drew and with his agent and with his family to say, okay, this makes sense. This uh, you know, this is a fit. This is somewhere that I’m open to going. And I would say that that worked out pretty well for both sides because Drew got a ring and a pretty big extension out of it. And the Blazers got back with Malcolm Brog. I mean the the timelord thing is, you know, he he just unfortunately might be such a bummer because of the injuries. That just might be unfortunately that just that just that is what it is. But Malcolm Brogden and the two picks that they got from Boston in that trade were the assets that they sent to Washington a year later for Denny Oia who was their best player for a lot of last season. So basically they traded in the in the end they traded Drew Holidayiday for Denny Oia. And so I would say that kind of worked out well for Drew. It worked out well for the Celtics because they got a championship out of it. It worked out well for the Blazers because they ended up getting Denny a year later out of it. And so there was already some goodwill because Drew was appreciative of the organization for saying even though we’re not going to keep you, we want to help you get somewhere where that’s actually a good situation for you. And so then when this time around when they traded for him and the cell was, hey, we had a better year than expected. were trying to take the next step and become a playoff team again. You know, can you kind of be, you know, the vet and help out some of these young guys, help out Scoot, help out Shaden? Because Drew already has positive feelings towards the organization because of how they worked with him the first time. That I would imagine made him a lot more amenable to, you know, what the situation is now. Yeah, definitely. and then on a championship contending position right now which is the killer probably from his standpoint because you know he’s in the late stages of his career at this point and this could feasibly be his last team. Um we’ll see obviously signed for three more years here at this point and that’s what Boston needed to get off of most importantly this summer and you know we’ll see what he has left. Again I think late in the season he started resembling himself a little bit more than the slow start he had. There was that game, a very infamous game early in the season where the Grizzlies left him open to take like 24 shots. He had a pretty rough night that night shooting, but the defense was still there. He didn’t play a ton last year and I think he’ll be good last summer. He’s playing the Olympics and he’s playing a pretty sizable role on that team after the championship run. And then to start the following year, he just seemed banged up. Uh like he had put on a lot of miles that previous year. always the guys that play in the Olympics, they’re always he had a sizable role on that team, significant one. So, it made sense that he was a little down last year, but know what is he 35 this season? Yep. In his 17th season. I mean, he was playing in 2010 back on those Philly teams with like Andre Widal and Evan Turner. Like, he’s been around forever at this point. And, you know, the defense is always going to be there. You know, there’s always going to be a leadership component with him, but again, the offense, he went from 48 to 44% from the field last year. You knew he was going to come down from 43% from three, which was just ridiculous that championship year. He was so good that season. Comes down to 35. And that was up a little bit from where he was earlier in the year. Um, playoffs got off to a solid start. Got hurt pretty quick, had the hamstring. He was decent in that Knicks series where they lost there. He finished the playoffs 48 from the field, 34 from three, um 10 points, four assists, four rebounds. So, he he’s like the ultimate complimentary piece and like you said, there’s a professionalism to him. There’s a respect and a leadership factor that’s almost unmatched around the league. So, I have no problem with a team like this saying, “All right, we’re trying to take the next step. Let’s just get a adult or two between Lloyd in the room like this.” Yeah, the Dame thing coming on the table. That was a little bit. And again, like I said, Dame is not going to play this year. So, one of those two guys is actually going to be able to contribute on the court. And that’s the thing I keep kind of uh trying to trying to tell people is that yes, the Blazers do like what Drew brings as far as like the leadership stuff and the mentorship stuff and the locker room stuff and all of that. They still think, and I think this is probably going to still be the case, you know, to to your point, he was kind of banged up last year and he had the Olympic stuff. He’s still, they didn’t just bring him in because they were like, “Oh, we need an adult.” They brought him in because they like the fit that he has with their other guards and with what he can actually bring on the court. And, you know, obviously he’s the kind of guy Chanty likes as far as, you know, mentality and, you know, focus on defense and all that kind of stuff. It’s like the exact type of guy that Chanty has always gravitated towards. So just from a fit standpoint, even besides, you know, the offc court stuff, the onc court stuff they thought was a fit, too. Yeah, definitely. And I think that could work if the other guys continue to evolve their games, grow, all that sort of stuff. Scoot specifically, because they’re just going to need someone to lead this offense. And he’s going to have to be the guy probably more likely than not. Um especially if it’s going to be him in the starting lineup over a guy like Sharp and Grant coming off the bench and all that. See what happens with training camp. Yeah, for sure. So Holiday seems content there. The big thing for Boston though, like it’s 32 this year, 34 next year, million, 37 player option in 2028 when he turns 37. I when when this trade first happened, my reaction was thank god they got off this deal. Like I think they just had to get off that deal. And it’s not a devastating contract. Like it’s 21% of the cap this year. Yeah. As long as he’s still good, it’s a good contract. Now, who knows what happens at 36 when Lloyd comes back. And then 37 is really that year where this could be the big risk, right, for Portland, but Boston brings back Simons, and that’s been an interesting saga since it happened here. I want to talk about that um because that’s the other side of this trade here. First, want to shout out Prize Pix because it’s summertime, but Prize Pix is still the best place to turn your sports knowledge into cash. With millions of members, Prize Pix has made daily fantasy sports accessible at all. You just pick more or less on at least two players for a shot to win up to 2,000 times your cash. Run your game all season long on prize picks. Uh available in over 30 states. 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Um, two, we know guard is the most saturated position in the league. Everybody has a point guard that they’re happy with for the most part. I think maybe every team does if you go up and down the league. So, not everyone’s itching to add a guard making $28 million this year and who needs a new contract and who knows what the value will even be on his next deal. And um this looking back on it probably is more than Portland would want to pay, especially in this new CBA environment here. So, they move off him in this trade. He was obviously a big part of what they were doing for a couple years there. And um now the Celtics have to decide all right is this guy going to be part of what we’re doing going forward or is this just going to be part of that slow reduction of salary here and it feels like the latter which is unfortunate because I do find him intriguing as a player and I do find him intriguing as a fit on the Celtics because when you look at the amount of threes they take when you look at the way they create shots and he’s definitely capable of creating some long distance threes and shooting them in droves efficiently. I’m I’m interested in watching what it looks like at least to start the season. And like I said earlier, I think that’s where this is going to go that you have to start the year with him and maybe build up his value and just see what the interest is. Maybe other needs open up around the league later in the year or teams want to make an upgrade or a playoff push. Um, I think a lot of it will depend on where Boston’s at, too. Like, are they gonna start the year strong and maybe be better than people think, or are they gonna sink and have injuries and head toward a tank here? Because I think that’s where you’re moving off him closer to the deadline if you can. What they obviously don’t want to do is attach draft capital to move off his contract here. And I’m sure those opportunities have been available and that’s just not what they want to do. Uh, so I have no problem with starting the year with them. And in fact, there’s not a lot to be excited about in Boston this year. And this is actually one of the guys I think fans can be interested and intrigued by and and maybe fall in love with to start this year. Yeah. So, I don’t know if he’s necessarily a fit for the Celtics long term, but I think this is a pretty good situation for both sides for this season because, you know, Tatum’s not going to play this year. Nobody thinks they’re going to be real contenders. like maybe they could get into the playoffs in the East as a like a play in or a low seed if they decide not to pull the plow. I have them in like that 789 range right now. Yeah, the in in the e in the west there would be no chance but in the east like the east is so bad outside of the top like three or four teams that I you know I think that just being competent will be enough to get them kind of in that playin mix. But a it’s a good offense for him because they just to your point they do such a good job of creating open threes. he’s going to get a ton of those and we know he can knock those down and he can also just create a lot of them for himself. So, I think the spacing is going to be a really good fit for his game. And it’s also just a good opportunity for him because he’s going to probably outside of Jaylen, he’s probably going to be the primary offensive option on this team, right? If he So, there’s a lot of debate right now of whether he should start or pay Pritchard should start. And I lean Pritchard just because he’s been here and I feel like he’s earned it. Uhhuh. But there is an argument to start Simons and have Pritchard stagger against second units because he was so good there last year and that’s where he’s thrived throughout much of his career obviously. Yeah. But either way, he’s going to have plenty of opportunities to score a lot and put up a lot of numbers and he’s got a contract year coming up. So, it’s not the worst opportunity in the world for him to kind of build his value. And I I’m like you. I don’t really know what his value is going to be on the open market because guys like him that you know kind of undersized uh score first guard who’s not a great defender like those types of guys do not have the kind of value that they used to look at this summer Colin Ston went for Nerkich uh I’m trying to think of what other guards moved in trades this summer got waved Jordan Pool got like salary dumped uh Y it’s just it’s a lot of it’s a lot of those types of like I guess you know the Bulls are kind of still figuring out whether they’re going to pay Kobe White or not or you know what what that’s going to look like. So there’s just a lot of like that his type of guy is not the thing that’s super in demand right now anymore. You you know you look at the types of guys that succeed in the playoffs and it’s um you know versatile wings, it’s you know good defenders. It’s, you know, it’s really, honestly, it’s a lot of the types of guys that the Blazers have targeted to build their post Dame roster, like guys like Tumani Kamar and Denny Odia and, uh, you know, I guess Drew Holidayiday can kind of be put into this because he plays a bunch of different positions and he’s a, you know, and he’s a strong defender. But then, you know, you look at you look at Oklahoma City or you look at Houston or some of these upand cominging teams that are like, you know, they they have one guy who’s like the scoring, you know, you know, the main scorer on the team, but then there’s also like they have so many of these like in Oklahoma City, it’s like JDub and uh Kase Wallace and like Lou Dort who are just, you know, can defend all these different positions. And then in, you know, in Houston, it’s Amen and Tari and Jabari. It’s like all these different guys. That’s more the types of guys that teams think is valuable right now than a guy like Anthony Simons as good as he is at what he does. So what is his game? What does he bring to the table? What role was he playing in Portland? As I look at the numbers here, he was 42 last year from the field, 36 from three on the eight attempts. He’s been shooting eight nine threes a game. Yeah. The last three three years now, scoring 20 points a game. So he’s just been an offensive engine for a team that hasn’t been great offensively overall. around five assists a game, too, which is pretty impressive with only two turnovers. Gotten better as a playmaker. Yeah. So, yeah, there’s a lot of possibilities for him offensively. He’s only turned 26 this season because he came into the league so young. 70 games played last year. That’s a nice stat. Like I always Yeah. So, there’s a lot to like here. And like even some of the analytic numbers you look at offensively are just so good. Uh but Portland was worse with him on the floor because of the defense. Obviously, I think on a good team he’s a sixman. You know, the last the last few years, you know, when he was I guess when he was when when he was in Portland early on when Dame and CJ were both still here, he was coming off the bench. Been there for a while. Yeah. 2018 draft. Uh after they actually when they traded him, he was I guess I I guess if you don’t count Dne being back now, he was the only he was the last player left on the team that Neil Ola drafted. Mhm. They completely turned the roster over in the time since Joe Cronin took over as general manager about four years ago. But um the LA, you know, after they traded CJ at the 22 deadline, he was, you know, for a lot of that time, he was starting at the two alongside Dame and kind of playing off ball, which given his shooting ability, he, you know, he he has the ability to do that. And then after they traded Dame, he obviously kind of took over as the start. You know, at first they, you know, they they tried playing him with Scoot and, you know, where he was playing the two and Scoot was playing the one and then Scoot struggled. So they started, you know, playing him with Shape and Sharp and, you know, he just has kind of toggled between playing the one and playing the two. And he can do both. He has the ability to do both, you know, but his his superpower is shot creation and and, you know, and knocking down those those off the dribble threes and he, you know, he he’s he’s phenomenal at that and he’s going to have a lot of opportunities to do that in Boston. I actually think it’s a pretty good fit. Yeah, for sure. And we’ve just been so spoiled by the defensive aptitude of this team going back years and years and years now. So, it’s just going to be interesting to see how they deal with when the whole rest of the roster is good defenders. You can have one guy that you have to cover up like you you can have one or two. You can’t use the center thing is going to be interesting, right? Because they don’t have a ton of rim protection. They don’t have a ton of reliability at that position in general. Now, Kada who Okay, cool. hasn’t played much. Awesome. Who hasn’t played much? It’s amazing. You go from Horford Porzingis. It’s Cornet. Yeah. Cornet who was great last year to Kada Luca Garza who’s mostly played in the G- League and Blazer summer league champion Luca Garza was he? Yeah. In 22 he was on that team with like Jabari Walker and Trendan Watford. Yeah. So that’s how much he’s been floating around. I didn’t even know he was on the Portland summer league team. Uh but yeah, it’s it’s going to be an interesting season for everyone involved because everyone’s just gonna have to do a little bit more. Like Pritchard maybe starts. Brown is obviously leading this team now. So that’s the other good thing for Simons is as many questions as there are in this roster. They still do have a lot of offensive creators and that could open him up more than even he was able to play in uh Portland. And you know I think Joe’s a pretty good offensive coach. He’s going to find some ways to free up guys playing with more pace. And I’ll say this about him too. This is another thing I’m interested in with him is like he is an athletic fast player who just plays with a ton of burst and they have won a dunk contest. Yeah. And they haven’t had like as good as they’ve been in recent years and you saw it especially this last season and Brad has talked about it. They just weren’t very fast last year and they slowed to a halt into the playoffs. And so this season they’re obviously going to be worse, but I do think they can end up playing a more entertaining brand of basketball where they’re playing up and down a little bit more. Jaylen obviously loves to play that way and he’s going to be in control. Now Pritchard’s another guy who loves to fly. Um, and Simons fits into that a little more athletic. I’m interested to see the defense because it feels like he has the tools to be a little bit better on that end. And was it just being on a losing team, not having a ton to play for these last handful of years, you know, going back however long that’s rebuild’s been going on there. And does does he just end up in a better system now? And again, it’s hard to say that cuz this team’s just turned over so much now in Boston, but can they’ve been a pretty good defense over the years and have had a lot of good principles on that end where maybe they figure out a way to get better results from it on that end. Cuz one thing I’ll say is that Joe Joe’s going to get frustrated with guys not being in the right places or right positions defensively and he could fall into that a little bit here if that continues. Well, he does care about that perception. He has talked to us many times about h knowing that he has a reputation as not being a good defender and wanting to change that and not and you know thinking it’s not fair to him and thinking it’s not at like he he he does he’s not he’s not a guy that just like does not care about defense and just doesn’t even try to be better on that end. But it’s just you know at his size. It’s just there’s there’s going to be some physical disadvantages in most matchups that he’s going to have and that’s just the reality of it. So yeah, I I agree that he has the he has the athleticism to not, you know, be terrible on that end. It’s just I and I do think that given, you know, some of the other personnel that the Celtics have and how many good defenders they have, I do think it could put him in a position to, you know, either be covered up for a little bit more or be able to have to do a little bit less and, you know, be able to be more successful at that. I I it’s not like it’s not like a Trey Young thing where like you just know going in that he’s just going to be a complete zero on that end of the floor and that just is what it is and it’s always going to be like that. It’s always been like that that I don’t think that’s quite the case with Simons, but just you know the physical limitations with his size are just they are what they are. Yeah. And you can try to hide a guy. You can try to put him in positions where they’re not getting exposes consistently on that end. I think you know Joe and company will do a decent job with that too. That’ll probably determine a lot of what they’re doing with the lineups here as well. Um but personalitywise, I know I listened to you talking about Noah about it. He just seems like more of a quiet guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He’s he’s not a huge personality, but he’s he’s a good dude. He’s, you know, everyone gets along with him. Yeah. And that’ll fit. It will be interesting with this room because I’m thinking like Derek’s still here. Jaylen’s Jaylen. You know, Kate has been a good fit in this room, too. like Hower’s been there for a while now, but the the turnover on this roster is just incredible this off season when you think about Horford going out who’s been there on and off since 2016. Uh Jaylen’s been there that long for sure. Tatum’s going to be there but you know not active obviously. So that’s a little bit of a different dynamic. So, there’s still enough continuity here roster-wise, especially among the leadership. Uh, but it’s going to be different and there’s just going to be a different play style that they have to embrace. They’re going to try going into this year to be competitive. Like, I have every sense that that’s going to be the case. But, I don’t know. Like, I’m curious your perspective on it. There’s a lot of pessimism about how good this team’s going to be this year. And I think people are just used to the Celtics being pretty good, fans especially, and believe that this is going to be fine. At least the overunders 43. I think that’d be fine. Like if they get to that, like I think that would actually be a solid season for them. 43 could be like a top four seed in the East. Yeah. But you do look at the depth of this roster and if there’s one significant injury even for a couple weeks, Yeah. could be a hard hit here. And like the five teams I I tweeted this out last week. Milwaukee, who’s just in complete flux. Indiana, who obviously lost their best player, too. Miami, who was really bad after the Butler trade last year, especially on offense. And I guess I’ll throw Philly into that mix, too, who was obviously just really bad in general last year. We just don’t Well, we just don’t know how healthy PG or Joel are going to be. Like PG has already had a surgery and Joelle is going to have to be managed for the rest of his career with like it’s so if you assume Detroit and Atlanta are going to be pretty good. Yeah. Then you’ve got New York, uh Cleveland, and Cleveland. So that’s like your top four or five right there. Orlando as well should be in that mix, I think. And then that next five team are going to be five teams are going to be your six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Yeah. And if you’re 10, like you’re into the lottery if you’re losing the playin. And if you’re six, you know, you’re a pretty competitive playoff team, you know, in the East at that point. So that’s the range for them. I don’t know if you want to stack that up or just give your thoughts on Boston in general going into this year. But what do you expect then? Well, I somewhere in that kind of six to 11 range if everybody stays healthy. Like I think the Celtics are just competent enough that like you look at some that you know they they’ve most of these guys have obviously Tatum’s not going to play and you know Drew and Porzingis and probably if Tatum is playing it’s a whole different kind well right if Tatum is playing then they’re not you know we’re not talking about them as like maybe a playin team like if if Tatum’s playing then you know we’re putting them in that top group with B with Cleveland and uh and and uh New York Orlando but like this is still a team like most of these guys have been playing together for a while. They’re well coached. They have a system. They have a higher just baseline level of competence and consistency even without Tatum and with some of these other guys getting traded that like cuz Jaylen’s still there, Derek White’s still there. Like they have enough Jaylen’s gonna have to be great. Yeah. In a new role, too. cuz but Jason’s just been there every day for years now. And like to go from a guy who never misses games to missing every game. Yeah. It’s pretty jarring. It’s tough. I mean it’s it No, it sucks because you know Jason was like pretty much the identity. like he was but like but anyway so like my my point is like if you’re starting from a base even with Tatum out you’re starting from a baseline of they have the coach they have they have the kind of supporting guys they’ve had they’ve all played together for a number of years are you going to trust that more or are you going to trust like I don’t know whatever Toronto has going on or I don’t trust Toronto whatever Philly is with whatever health PG and MB may or may not have and just those other kind of weird stuff around it. Like I still think there’s just enough like there’s just enough competence and there’s enough consistency with Boston that out of all those teams I could see them like just getting a six seed by default if they wanted or you know they could just decide to take a gap year and say you know what we’re going to that’s what the roster looks like right now. find a center. They’d be like, you know, we could come in and try to be competitive to start the year, but if it’s not really happening, then, you know, suddenly whatever’s going on with Jaylen Brown’s knee, suddenly maybe he’s going to have to miss some time for that. Or they can do something that the Blazers actually got very good at doing over the last few years is, oh, you know, we this this guy who’s out for two weeks with a with a h ankle injury, he could he could be out for four or five weeks. It’s fine. and then hope that you know the gap year thing kind of pays off and they can kind of you know do what do what Memphis did you know a couple years ago or New Orleans or some of these teams where like they don’t or like you know what what Philly did this year where like they you know they were a playoff team they had the season from hell with injuries they ended up with a third overall pick they end up taking BJ Edgecom and now you know whatever you know they’re going to come into this season trying to be competitive again that’s the best case scenario for Boston is they, you know, they aren’t they don’t have a great year this year, but then they get one of these lottery picks and then next year Tatum comes back healthy and then and you know, they they go from there that I could see it going that way. I don’t I don’t I don’t think they’re going to like try to force it in that direction. But if they get to like January and they’re 10 games under 500 or something, then they might suddenly again start saying, “Well, you know, Jaylen Brown could miss a couple extra weeks with whatever minor knee thing he has.” Or, you know, we could we can do some stuff to just make sure that they kind of stay in that, you know, top five to seven range in the lottery. Like they could it could go that way. It could just organically go that way by the end of the season. Yeah. Yeah. And that’s how you want to see it happen is organically cuz you don’t want to force you don’t want to do what like Utah and Washington I don’t think you can even if you tried. It doesn’t it doesn’t work. There were Blaze like I there were all these Blazer fans this year cuz you know they they won 21 games last year and they picked seven. This year they were terrible the first half of the year and then when they started winning a lot of Blazer fans were like well they’re messing up they’re messing up the lottery odds. They’re not, you know, and then it’s like the fans are so obsessed with the lottery. You go into the lottery. You go you go into the into the draft. I was in the actual drawing room for the lottery. The two teams that were the most egregious tankers this entire year, Utah and Washington, they both fell back all four spots that they could have fallen back. They were picking fifth and sixth. So, they threw away entire seasons for those picks. They still don’t have the guy. Meanwhile, Dallas, who made one of the stupidest trades in NBA history, but were not like the top three are just unfathomable. Like San Antonio, they had no aspirations to tank last year. And Philly, I mean, there were probably a lot of people who had them as a one or two seed in the East. They’re picking third like the year the year before. And I mean, obviously, it’s not the same draft. It’s not a draft class that has like Cooper flag in there, so people don’t really talk about it as much, but Atlanta had the 10th best lottery odds when they got the number one pick. though like which which that was what the system was designed to do. It was designed to disincentivize teams from just throwing away an entire season like Utah is doing or like it’s crazy that teams are still doing it and they keep failing consistently. Brooklyn last year like Brooklyn got off to a good start. I think it’s great. Yeah, I think it’s great that that stuff doesn’t get rewarded because like let me like let me tell you man like I get I understand from like a coldly objective mathematical standpoint that it is the quote unquote correct thing to do. But like having covered it the last few years, it just it sucks. Like you do that for a certain number of years in a row, fans check out like they they’re like, “Oh, these guys aren’t going to put a competitive product on the floor. Like why should we watch? Why should we buy tickets?” Like you have to think about it from that standpoint, too. There was this one stretch of back-to-back games in March of this year in Portland, and this is when the Bladers were still going for the playin after they had kind of had that unexpected uh hot streak. So, they were trying to win these games. On back-to-back nights, they played Toronto and Washington. And Toronto was up six in the middle of the fourth quarter, and they pulled Scotty Barnes and Yakob for no reason. And then they ended up losing the game. And then the next night, uh, they played the Wizards and Middleton and Smart both did not play the second half, which is whatever. Like the veterans on a young team not playing the second half of a game in March. I’m not going to kill a team for that. But Alex Sar, the number two overall pick in this most recent draft, did not play after like the middle of the third quarter because they were clearly just like trying to make sure they lost the game to get it’s like at that point it’s like what are like what are we doing? Like who’s this helping? What’s this doing? Yeah. It’s tough to watch too late in the year and then you’re questioning like how much of those late season runs were legit by some of the teams that you know went on those tears like you know Blazers among them. Chicago went on a little bit of that too and then they flamed out. How good are the Blazers going to be this year in your mind, you know, as we look at it here and adding Holiday and some guys taking steps eight out the door. I don’t know. I’ve always see what Yon Hansen is. See, see, dude, we haven’t we’ve gone this far in. We haven’t even talked about Yon Hansen. That’s the story. excited to talk about him cuz you you were with you and you and Noah were with me at one of those uh summer league games that he was playing or just like a couple different plays that he made. We looked at each other and were just like, “Uh, okay. This is this could be something.” So, this thing’s so crazy. And I don’t know how much he’s even going to play this year. Oh, he’ll play. I’m glad cuz I mean cuz so so look. So, Klingan’s probably going to be the starting center, but they bought out DA. Yep. Your boy Rob, as we’ve talked about many times, is just never healthy. And even if he is healthy, he’s not going to play back toback. He’s probably not gonna be able to play more than like 12 to 15 minutes a game. So there’s going to be minutes for Hansen. And you know, Klingan, even Klingan is probably not going to play more than like 25 28 minutes a game. But so so Hansen’s going to be able to play. He’s going to get minutes. Why not, right? Because they want to win this year, but they’re also trying to develop. And the only way you develop is if you play. And there’s probably going to be some growing pains for him. It’s It’s just so crazy to me. I obviously had no idea who he was going to the draft. I read about him late. I talked to one of the draft guys. I think it was Rafael Barlo. Raphael was the one guy that was like in that like draft scout analyst circle that actually was like pretty hot like had him as a first round talent. I think he said he was his favorite center in the draft. And you know, you’re talking about Cal Rener and sure, you know, all these Maxine Rayard and all those different guys who are in this class, even um Malawak and you know, some of the others there went to Phoenix. This guy, you look at all the draft boards and it’s like 40, 35, 45, like he’s just flown around that second round area. And then um I remember watching the draft and it got announced as uh Cedric Coward, right? Because they did a trade with Memphis. Yeah. And so I actually thought they drafted Coward and I was like, “Wow, this is great.” Like another defensive wing, like another big, you know, maybe can be more of an offensive piece for them down the line. Like I love that fifth for Portland. Then it’s like, oop, they trade him for Yang Hansen and it was like what what everyone’s kind of everybody’s reaction, everyone’s immediate reaction was, “What the hell are they doing?” And then he gets on the floor at summer league and he, you know, had a few press conferences that were funny and all that and it was like whoa, this guy’s a sensation. and he was the most talked about guy at summer league alongside Cooper Flag, I’d say. Yeah. Um, you’ve had a blast covering him so far. Like this is just about to be a whole experience. He’s got to be good, right? Like you don’t want this to just become a thing where it’s like he’s this like he’s a meme, right? Exactly. Like the what the hell like the what the hell stuff. Like that’s funny. But the thing is I think I think he’s the thing that I think was encouraging was it’s so hard for Bigs to look good at summer league just in general. And he and he looked good and he looked good in ways that were like the type some a lot of the turnovers that he had were passes like entry passes that he threw that some of their summer league guys couldn’t get to that Shaden Sharp or Denny Aia are going to get to. Yeah. And you know, his the rebounding is there, the rim protection, I think, was even a little bit better than people thought it was going to be. The thing that really impressed me about him covering those games, and you were with me for one of them, like we just said, um, he doesn’t, when we were sitting baseline, which is close enough to hear what’s being said on the floor, he basically doesn’t speak any English at all. He has a translator with him, but he was still he knows enough basketball terminology that he was talking to guys calling stuff out and directing guys and like calling out defensive coverages and yelling like cut or get back like he knows enough of that type of stuff that even though he doesn’t speak English outside of basketball, he can still communicate on the court. And the fact that he was, you know, vocal in that way already with the language barrier that and the other thing about it is that like it seems like, you know, you saw some of the passes that he was throwing and that’s just like kind of his favorite thing to do. He’s like an unselfish guy. He seems like he’s a guy that guys are going to have fun playing with. Yeah. So, but also just the thing that the thing about you know how a how much of a sensation it is and b like what the bar is for him to be good like he think about so think about this there have been eight players not counting him there have been eight players from China that have ever played in the NBA I’m talking about Chinese like born in China so like not Jire not like Jeremy Lynn that’s like a different thing but like eight players from China that have ever played in the The only one that’s ever done anything is Yao. Yep. And it’s a country that has more basketball fans than the United States has people. So if he’s even just like a good rotation big, he’s the second best Chinese player in NBA history. And honestly, if you get a good rotation big with the 16th pick, like that’s a pretty good pick. Yeah. And what I love too is like all the passing stuff you’re talking about, that’s going to be the way he makes it is just, you know, the the Jokic thing is silly to throw around because it’s just like it’s not going to happen for anyone. He he plays like that though. Like is he is he as good as Joic? Obviously not. But you can understand why those comparisons were there. He’s kind of one of the first guys coming up in this generation where they can say like Joic was my guy. He has talked about like Joic was his favorite player as a kid, which makes me feel really old, but like he’s tal like, you know, he’s there’s like a now going to be a new generation of kids coming up that are like Jokic was their guy in the same way that like Kevin Durant was Anthony Edwards’s guy or somebody, you know, LeBron was a bunch of people’s guys or like a lot of the guys were Kobe guys growing up or, you know, whatever the case may be. We’re just now starting to get to the point where Joic has been in the league long enough and playing at the level that he’s been playing long enough that there were kids like Hansen who are coming up saying Joic is my guy that’s who I want to play like and it’s going to be really emulate. Not Yeah. not the worst guy to emulate, especially when you’re that size and you know, if you have that passing ability and you know that it’s I don’t know how good he is or isn’t going to be, but I I after I watched that summer league, I came away from it thinking, okay, he’s an NB he’s going to be an NBA player. this is not this is not going to be like a and and it’s been so interesting to me the last you know month and a half since they drafted him just kind of figuring out you know why he was so off the radar and the thing that I think I’ve kind of gotten to is just that the Chinese basketball association is so hard to evaluate and it’s not that accessible like if you have most international prospects that you’re talking about they get like drafted in the first they’re from France or they’re from, you know, one of those Balkan countries or they’re from Spain or Greece or whatever. One of the one of those countries where like all those all those Euro League games all like those different like Euro League, Euro Basket, like all the different like domestic leagues in Europe like that. You can watch most of those games like on the NBA app. Like they make those games very easy to watch and it’s also like team scouts go over there all the time just to watch these games. So those guys are like known. The Chinese Basketball Association, you cannot watch their games outside of China. They are not shown anywhere. So it’s not even easy. So it’s hard to even find like reliable just game film if you want to scout one of these prospects. And then if you want to get over there and actually see them in person like Mike Schmidt and Sergey Oliva, two of the Blazers assistant GMs did. It took them months. I talked to them about this after the pick was made and I wrote a story about it. It took them months to even plan that trip like logistically and get all the visas and stuff that they needed to get approved. And as you can imagine, the Chinese government and the Chinese basketball association is not super super accommodating or transparent about that type of stuff. Which, you know, this could also explain why there have been so few Chinese players in the NBA that have been, you know, have panned out considering how big of a country that is and how much they are, you know, a basketball country. But that also would explain why, you know, it was not as much of a consensus that this guy was as good as he was during that was the biggest thing you heard. We just we just don’t know given the competition over there. Yeah. And we don’t know based on how much we’ve watched him and how much, you know, he’s shown to this point. How old is he? 19. He literally just turned 20. He turned 20 the day after the draft. So, so like there’s so much mystery and intrigue here and I like I it’s a fascinating coverage point for you. Play around with getting some of my stories translated into Mandarin. I p I published one the other day and this is going to be China’s team potentially. You know, they’ve got they could be the new Rockets. They could be Rockets. Like they’re probably going to start playing preseason games over there in the next couple of uh years. Yeah. So there’s so much and again he’s got to be good for all this to matter. But if he’s good, this is going to be a whole experience. And you’ve covered winning Blazers teams, you’ve covered losing Blazers teams, but to cover like a legitimate sensation like this and that’s what it felt like at Summer League. summer week’s pretty rockous environment where fans gravitate on the certain guys and like there does become like the stars like Bronnie and you know random other guys but this was the guy out there and the crowd just roared every time he did something and he did a lot you know there was a lot of flashes out there from him and how much is that going to matter when the season gets started we’ll see but the fact that he’s going to get to play as you said that he’s going to probably get to handle the ball like there’s no one on this roster who’s going to dominate the Oh, it’s going to be pretty egalitarian, I’d have to say, offensively for this for this team, at least until Dame gets back. That’s going to give him a lot of opportunities to do stuff here. And, you know, he can make some mistakes. He can play through them. Like, it’s it’s almost a perfect environment for him to make his NBA debut in. And, you know, Klingan’s ahead of him, but like that’s not an offensively gifted player. So, they’re going to have to mix and match lineups a little bit. And I do hope Robert Williams is healthy this year. Who knows how long sticking around. Love Rob. Rob’s the best dude as you know. He’s awesome. He’s a great guy. Everybody I’m sad I forgot. So I was stack I was ranking teams with L Murray the other day and I did it on um my column that I do over on BSJ this week too. I forgot about Robert Williams. I really did which is Come on, man. You covered the Celtic. You covered him for how many years in in Boston? He’s played like 25 games. I know. I know. No, I’ve had that. I had that I just I have a mailbag coming out next week that somebody uh asked me like, “So, how do you see those center minutes being divided up between Donovan Young and Dwop Rereath?” And I’m like, I had to write in the in the response to the mailbag question, “Uh, Robert Williams is also on the team.” It’s easy to forget, but he’s on the team. I hope he can stay healthy, too, because he’s like even like, you know, his health is what it is. He’s still so good when he’s healthy, like as a rim protector, as a you know, rim runner. Talk about like defensive identity. He’s the anchor of a legitimately top five defense if he’s healthy. That’s why they haven’t traded him because a like because 13 million bucks too. That’s the thing like his health history is what it is. And so because of that teams aren’t going to really give up, you know, real stuff for him. And if they’re not going to give up real stuff for him, then the Blazers are like, well, you know, we like this guy when he’s healthy. We’re not just going to give him away. So, it’s kind of played against the Celtics yet. No, he hasn’t. He’s He’s played a total of 26 games over the two seasons that he’s that he’s been in Portland. He played 20 games last year and then he only played six the year before because he had the knee injury pretty early on in the season. Oh, man. Yeah. And you’re just starting to think, all right, maybe it’s just not going to happen at this point. But might just unfortunately his his body just might not, you know, it might it just might not. I hope I hope he’s able to recover and have a long career because I you know he’s a really fun player and he’s also a really good dude who I like a lot personally. So I hope that it ends up working out for him. But you know the the history is what it is at this point unfortunately. So, as I stacked up the teams, like I said, I did a rankings over here and in that Philly, Milwaukee, Boston, Miami, Indiana sandwich there out west. I did have in the mix for 10 Portland and Memphis. 10 like overall in the league or in the West? Oh, in the West. Yeah. No, I think that’s I think that’s like a reasonable place to put them because if you look at because if so you look you look at the west like the three teams that I think you say are like the top three teams in the in the west are Oklahoma City, Houston, Denver in some order. You probably have Minnesota at the four spot. Mhm. Both LA teams are going to probably be pretty good assuming they’re healthy. Yep. So that’s six. That’s six. And then it’s like, okay, Dallas, San Antonio, San Antonio, like if WMBB’s healthy, San Antonio’s going to Dallas, the Dallas thing is the Dallas thing could go either way just because, you know, I’m pretty high on them. I think the defense you don’t know when Kyrie is going to play. Like AD’s hurt a lot. Like you don’t know what kind of like that one could go either way. If they’re healthy, sure. Like I think that team’s going to be really good. But just there’s so many question marks there that you don’t really know. San Antonio. Yeah. Like if WBY plays, you know, 65 games, then yeah, they’re they’re a playoff team for sure. Like that’s that. And then, you know, Golden State, like those guys are getting kind of older. Like Jimmy Butler never plays regular season games, but like that team’s still probably going to be pretty good. Then you’re get that that’s kind of where you then get to like is Portland going to be better than like Memphis has already started having a bunch of injury problems? I think the highest that Portland’s going to get in the West as far as the standings just because the West is so stacked. We just ran through like a bunch of teams. I think like nine or 10 is probably the reasonable ceiling expectation. You know, be a be a playin team. Maybe they win two play, you know, playin games and get into the playoffs and lose to Denver or Houston as the seven seed or something like that’s probably what they’re what they’re looking at because so the teams that are I think are going to be worse than them obviously Utah probably New Orleans. New Orleans could be very bad. And then Phoenix I don’t think is going to be very good. Sacramento I just don’t like that roster like at all. I don’t like they have some talent but I just I don’t like the way that roster fits. That’s That’s four. So that would put Portland at 11. So really I don’t like Memphis either. Starting with Jackson Hart. Yeah. So like that could be that could be the path to the 10 seed. But I think as far as like if you if you made me I don’t really bet on stuff so I don’t really get into like overunders and stuff. But they won 36 games last year. I think it’s going to probably be roughly the same number of wins this season. But I just don’t think it’s going to be like they were so bad the beginning of the season and then so good the first half. I see 33 and a half for them. That’s the overunder. Yeah. Yeah. I’d probably take the over on that, but probably not like super over that number. I’d probably I think like 35 36 like right around where they were where they were last year, but just more evenly spread out throughout the season. Not being terrible the first half of the year and then going 23 and 18 the second half. Like I think it might be more of like a normal 36 win season. like in terms of like when they when the winds happen. That’s kind of where I have them in the West. Yeah, they got Pelicans 31 and a half, Suns 31 and a half. That’s way New Orleans then of Well, yeah, it’s always health with them. And then Jazz 18 and a half. Yeah. I mean, the health thing too, it’s like there are just certain teams where it’s like, oh, if they’re healthy, but they’re never healthy. Yeah. You don’t know how these guys for his talent like Dallas is one of those teams where like yeah Dallas on paper looks like they could be really good but like Kyrie you don’t know if Kyrie’s going to play this year or if he does he’s not going to be back until like March Anthony Davis is always going to miss time because he’s always heard you know as good as Cooper Flag is like is he is he going to be a guy that’s driving wind as a rookie like maybe maybe he could be but you know it’s just a kind of like I think the ceiling for Dallas is higher and Portland, but I don’t think it’s as sure they still have a lot of question marks as far as like in the immediate term. I I I’m a defensive guy, so I love Portland. I love what they could do this year. And then, you know, the offensive people will be like, well, how they going to score? They got to figure out how to score. I don’t know what that’s I have no idea. Where did they finish offensively last year? Not high. I haven’t I don’t have it off the top of my head, but they were they were uh let me Are you looking it up or you want me to? Yeah, I’m going to pull it up. Yeah, I’d have to bottom half the league. I’ll bet it’s bottom 10. Uh so I got the playoff ones here. Regular season, Portland came in at 22. Yeah, that sounds about right. Heat Sixers range. Yeah. And then they their defense was third worst the first half of the season and third best the second half of the season. So that’s a pretty extreme swing in one season. Uh I think they have the 16th. Yeah. Well, yeah, because they were bottom three the first half and top three the second half, finishing right around the I think they I think they have the talent and the personnel to be a top 10 defense. It’s just, you know, the offense is the part where I’m I just I don’t know. Well, they’re two interesting teams. They’re probably in similar ranges as the numbers bear out right there. And I am a little disappointed. Before we wrap it up here, I do want to hear how Lillard ended up back in Portland because I was all for the idea of the Celtics signing him. And Tatum recruited him. They made an offer by our reports and they probably couldn’t offer much because Portland ends up giving him 18 a year here. And that’s a great offer for him. I know Milwaukee is going to offset some of that with the 22 million. Actually, he’s getting all his money from the Bucks. He he got the he got the mid-level exception basically like for start starting sage around 14 for his deal with Portland. So okay. So how they weren’t mentioned in a lot of these reports when he got released by Milwaukee. I think a lot of the talk was Boston Golden State. I thought that made a lot of sense for him and then the Lakers which I didn’t really see. Portland though again two years later he’s back and probably some sense of like all right should I have ever even left here I think so it makes a lot of sense and then family obviously too which we’ve talked about yeah that’s that’s a really big that’s a really big thing is that you know the kids are still in Portland and you know that was tough for him to be away from them and for you know for the two years that he was in Milwaukee and you know especially now that he has this injury and he’s not going to play this year. He, you know, it’d be good for him to be able to stay home and rehab and, you know, do do that stuff and be around the kids and use the Blazers practice facility, which he knows because he was there for 11 years. And from the Blazers standpoint, it’s, you know, he’s not going to play this year, but then, you know, it’s a good, you know, it’s a good PR move for, you know, for the fans. Like everybody has a good like feels good about it. And you know, he’s has always said that, you know, literally since the day that he got traded, he has been openly telling people privately that he was going to end his career in Portland. I think they thought that it was he was going to play out this contract, get a ring in Milwaukee and then come back and do like the Dwayne Wade or Scotty Pip and, you know, end your career with the team that you played most of your career for. I don’t think anybody thought it was going to be this soon, but you know, he the, you know, the involvement that he still has in the community here and the amount of, you know, fan love that he still has. And honestly, for as contentious as things were between him and the front office that summer, like it didn’t it was not that hard for him and Joe to talk and kind of get that get past whatever they needed to get past to make it happen. I think it just made so much sense for both sides and you know the the Tatum Lloy simultaneous Achilles recovery that was always idea to me but yeah how much do either of them get back to full form and then you’re trying to figure out how to play with each other too after that it’s like you know you go to that team and it’s you know what is that team at that point because they’ve already traded away most of the guys from the team that won the title two years ago whereas with and here here’s the Here’s the thing about this ro about this Portland roster and it’s kind of ironic that like this is how it’s shaken out but this type of roster with these types of like you know a Denny you know imagine if the you know those those best teams that Dame had in Portland the first time around like the 2019 team that went to the conference finals their two starting wings were Alfaruk Amnu and Mo Harkas. Imagine if Dame had if that version of Dame had Denny Avia and Tumani Kamar instead or like that was like around that time that was like after Nerkich uh had the leg injury. He was never the same guy after that but like instead of they they kind of tried to tried to do something with like you know Myers Leonard was in there they tried to get uh Celtics. Who’s the starting center that was West Finals? Uh and Caner was it really? Yeah it was Caner. It was oh my god Celtics legend. This is back when back before he changed his name and before he he used to just go back and forth between Portland and Boston. Yeah. Yeah. But like but uh like imagine if instead of that like center rotation where it’s just like they’re trying to put together whatever they could put together. They had Don Klingan. Yeah. Imagine if they had like, you know, like, you know, you look at like imagine if he had like a, you know, a guy like, you know, Shaden Sharp, you know, that he could like throw lobs to. Like the way the roster that they’ve built since he left is like the exact kind of kind of roster that they should have built while he was here. And now he’s coming back to it. And you know, who knows? Again, he’s not going to play this year. And then he comes back next year. like who knows what he’s going to do be able to do physically because again the track record of small guards in their mid30s coming back from a torn Achilles and being the same guy is not a strong track record but it’s about the best both on and off the court it’s about the best situation that he ever could have you know hoped for and and he’s getting all his money from both like there’s no offsetting he’s getting his full money from the Bucks and he’s getting that money from the Blazers on top of it so worked out well for him financially For sure. Yeah, I think it makes all the sense when you think of it and think about the other possibilities there that could have happened. So, obviously to see what this team looks like this year in Portland. And of course, Boston, there’s a lot of uncertainty as well here. But these teams have made a lot of moves, a lot of connections between them these last couple years here. So, it’ll be interesting to continue track where they’re both at. And uh Boston actually owes Portland from that holiday trade a couple years ago. They’re on all three of the picks. They’ve got it was 29 and they’ve still got all three of the picks they’ve got or the they’ve got the 28 and 30 swaps and the 29 pick unprotected still coming from the Bucks. Wow. And now Lloyd and Holiday are playing together which is just insane. I mean it worked out well for it really really the whole thing worked out well for everybody except the Bucks because the Celtics got a ring out of it after they did the holiday thing. The Blazers got a lot of picks and you know stuff and they ended up getting Dame back and they got Drew and it’s really just the Bucks that that lost in that trade. Yeah. And they are still losing. I mean the Lid Cap hit plus what they paid Turner just to have Turner. I guess them and Phoenix Phoenix is like Phoenix had to dump Nerk and like they had to wave and stretch to Seir Little and like I know I know they were kind of ready to get done with Eightton at a certain point but like Eton’s a starting caliber center. I never like that trade for Phoenix and I thought again eighton last year I get it there’s offc court stuff obviously he’s a good guy he gets I think I think there’s some stuff about him that’s been mischaracterized nationally I think I like I like him as a I like him as I mean he’s a double double for his career and is incredibly skilled. I think he’s going to do well in LA. I don’t know why the Blazers cut him, but I know why the Blazers cut him because they drafted two centers in the top 10 and it was but to cut him. Well, he gave back enough money that they could have the mid level without without uh and you know, he he he kind of he also kind of saw like, look, you know, they drafted two centers in the top 10. Clearly, I’m not a long-term guy here. I’m going into a contract year. And he was willing to give back 10 million. And he ended up in a situation where he’s definitely going to be a starting center. you know, we’ll see how that goes in LA. But no, I’m I I I I like DA a lot. I think he’s a good guy, and I think he kind of gets a bad I mean, I think some of the stuff he gets is deserved, but a lot of it I think isn’t. Well, there now, of course, as well. I was in Portugal writing about uh Neho and I put first part of that series out today when that notification came through. Um we were both out at dinner together when the notification came through and I was like, poorly. Yeah, dude. I was in I was in Indie because I went right from Vegas to Indie for the uh WNBA All-Star game and I had like I’m not going to get into it because it you know it’s a you know sports writers complaining about travel accommodations which I know is like the biggest cliche of all time but like I had like one of the worst travel days of my entire life getting from Vegas to Indie. Like it literally took me 24 hours with canceled flights and stuff. And so I get there finally and I’m just completely dead. Like I get I pick up my credential and then I go to my hotel and I just pass out for like 5 hours. Then I wake up and I’m like about to text like a friend of mine who’s also in town covering that to be like, “Hey, what do you want to do for dinner?” And literally the the notification comes and it’s like, “All right, well that’s the rest of my night.” Were you stunned? H I was a little surprised it was them as much money as it was. But after he got waved, I at my immediate reaction when he got waved was like, I just don’t think the time is right. I, you know, it could be like a couple years from now type of thing. But then, you know, after a couple days, I started hearing from people who are, you know, close to him and close to people who are close to him and they were all just kind of saying, you know what, this is not there’s not a zero% chance that this happens. Like, don’t rule it out as a possibility. And so, I was like, that’s kind of interesting. Yeah. My first thought was I should have thought of this, you know, and you mentioned it to me, so you already put it in my head, but yeah, I mean, the the kids is like the is a really big like that’s that’s you know, if he just wanted to go somewhere to ring Chase, you know, he could have gone to Houston or there are other places he could have gone, but you know, being a it’s a young upand cominging team that has talent that actually fits around him and b, you know, gets to be home with the kids while he rehabs. Like I I think it was going to be hard for anybody else to beat that. Well, of course, check out all of Sean’s great coverage. How many years have you been covering the Blazers now? Seven or eight. This is about to be my eighth year, I think. Yeah. And you can get Chicago before that. Yep. You can get all that coverage over at uh the Rose Garden Report over there. And there’s WNBA coming soon as well, right? Yeah. What year are they going to start? Next. Next year. Like eight months or whatever. Whenever whenever next season starts. and they they they started up a pretty good thing down there in Golden State. So yeah, maybe these like dual city things are going to continue to capitalize. We’ll see if the port we’ll see if the Portland expansion roll out uh how that compares. It’s been messy, huh? So far they so far it’s it’s not really measuring up to the standard that Golden State has set. But it’s been it’s been interesting to follow for sure. I saw Golden State’s coach. She’s pretty close with Missoula and the whole Boston staff. Yeah, she uh she was at one of their practices in Vegas and very nice. She’s probably going to win coach of the year. The Valkyries might make the playoffs as an expansion team, which is crazy. They’re the most fun team to watch in the league. Every time they’re on, I want to see them play. Yeah, I actually saw them in person while I was in Vegas at summer league. They were playing the Aces and I hate that we get a I went down Connecticut for the first time to see Paige uh a couple months ago and it’s just a it’s a tough drive. It was like two hours plus and it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere so you don’t really know where you’re going once you get there. And yeah, you got to go to the casino and all that. The sun are for sale. Is there a chance that the guy that just bought the Celtics could try to buy them and move them to Boston? I don’t know. This ownership thing, you’ve been covering an ownership saga for a while now. Yeah. The sale seems done, but the board of governors still haven’t voted on it and they pushed it back from Vegas and Yeah. Well, because I think they wanted to figure out what was going on with expansion before they did that. I think they I would expect because it’s it’s not a Minnesota situation where like there was like this arbitration and there was this battle between the two parties about who’s going to get the team. The Celtics like it’s going to get pushed through. They’re just they’re going to they’re just they’re’ll vote on it when they vote on it. And that’s what I’ve assumed. Like I think they’ll probably once that gets approved introduce the owner, introduce Simons and Nang. Even though it’s going to be like a that famous Chris Humphre photo after they traded KG and Pierce and all them and they brought those guys back. It’s going to be one of those type of things I think. Yeah. And Gerald Wallace. Blaz Gerald Wallace. Beloved in Boston, too. Gerald Wallace. That trade was directly the reason why the Blazers got Dane because they traded him to the Nets for a top three protected first round pick, which the Nets only protected top three because they only liked three players in the draft. And then that pick ended up being the sixth pick, which is what they drafted Dame with in 2012. And then the Nets traded uh Wallace and company to Boston and Yeah. with a couple first round picks that became Brown and Tatum. Yeah, that’s tough. Yeah, it’s it’s uh it’s interest every single great Celtics error has started with a big draft pick. So that might be where this goes this year. It could be going to re retool around the worst thing in the world to have a 25 win season and then be right back with Tatum and Peterson Deansa Deans from Brockton Mass. I think that would be yeah that would be a fitting thing if that happened. But again going into this year try to compete just see where it goes. Uh thanks Sean for stopping by again. Subscribe to the Rose Garden Report at roseguardenreport.com. Best coverage of the blazers that you can find out there. He’s over at hikenhkin on Twitter. Uh, subscribe to our podcast. There hasn’t been a lot of news lately, but when there is breaking news, just have that notification turned on. We’re going to go live whenever Horford signs inevitably. We’re still waiting on that one. Uh, somehow here as August begins and a couple other things floating around. Ben Simmons maybe to Boston. We’ll see if that ends up coming together. Um, small stuff at this point, but we’ll react to it if it happens. And subscribe to the Patriots stuff. They just had a big scrimmage down Foxboro as their training camp continues. Patriots press pass Bruins ringside. Subscribe to all the channels and CNS media for all the pressers interviews. We got the Kade interview coming up from Portugal and uh think we might talk to Payton Pritchard on Sunday. He’s doing a camp in Boston here. So, try to catch up with him. A Portland guy, no less. Yeah. Um, yeah, another connection here. West Lynn’s own and and the University of Oregon, right? He’s still got a lot of fans out here. He always gets a big reception with He started out there and he didn’t love the experience. So, we’ll see if he ends up starting this year. He’s going to have a massive season. I think among all the things I feel good about, I think he’s just going to have statistically a humongous season with the role he’s gonna There’s a hu with you know you take out however many points Tatum averages that’s a huge hole that somebody’s got to fill. That’s why I think both him and Simons have a big opportunity to put up some numbers if nothing else. Yep. For sure. So looking forward to that. Looking forward to the schedule be coming out later this month as well. We’ll seeuh when these teams are all playing each other. Holidays return to Boston, Porzingis, all the rest. When a lot of guys leave town, they come back for the first time. Maybe Rob will play actually in that game too. So, uh, looking forward to all of it. I think training camp’s probably just like two months away at this point. So, we’re getting there through the off season. Still some more stuff to come. Thank you, Sean. Thank you all you watching here live and watching it back the next day here. And we’ll be back next week with another show talking about some other stuff as we continue to uh move through the off season here. And that’s it for tonight. Have a good night everybody. Have a good weekend and peace. No one’s sneaking a vegan brownie by me. I’ll tell you that. Okay. You know what, John? We’re going to do it. You have to feel that way too, Bobby. I have to feel that way. A slide out over and and make Luke your first center. Bobby, we gave you Luke hour earlier. We are not going to end this on a damn conversation about Luke.
Bobby Manning welcomes Blazers reporter Sean Highkin to the Garden Report from the Rose Garden Report to discuss Jrue Holiday’s introductory press conference following his trade to Portland, how Anfernee Simons fits with the Celtics and expectations for Boston and Portland this season. Plus, his first impression of Summer League star Yang Hansen.
4 Comments
Best off-season Celtics podcaster award goes to…Bobby Manning. Good topics, good guests, good questions, good shows. Thx, Bobby.
Surprised Sean thinks Scoot will start over SS. He's one of the best young scorers in the league. If the Blaz don't want him ship him over to the Celtics please. We sure could use somebody through whom we can run our offense. The Celtics will have more trouble creating offense than the Blazers.
Imagine the defensive team the Blaz can put on the court: Holiday, Camara, Thybulle, Sharpe, and whoever at center. That quintet peobably won't ever be on court together, but wow. If Rob Williams could still play, think of how tough this team would be to score on.
Can't see Billups starting Scoot over SS.
An Anfernee Simons sighting at The Celtics training facility…Wow!
Stop pretending that people are interested in the WNBA. Not a single person I know cares, at all, about the WNBA.
Jrue Holiday is an asset to any team he plays on. Portland will surprise folks in the coming seasons under the tutelage of this multiple time champ and multiple time Teammate of the Year award winner. Jrue is a champion in every sense of the word. He will positively impact any team he plays on until the day he decides to retire.