Do the Trail Blazers Have a Franchise Cornerstone on the Roster? | Building a Winner in Portland

Do the Trail Blazers Have a Franchise Cornerstone on the Roster? | Building a Winner in Portland

Oh yeah. Okay. As long as we’re doing tours. Yeah. This is autographed Sergey Mona card right here. Not a lot of people got that. Not a lot of people got that. That’s an autograph Sergey Mona. In today’s show, Brandon Sprag joins the program and we talk about the Blazers future, our view of their vision, plus our confidence in whether the guy is already on the roster. Welcome to Locked On Blazers. Let’s get into it. You are Locked on Trailblazers, your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network, your team every day. What’s up, world? It’s your past first point guard and Trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond. You’re listening to another episode of Locked on Blazers, part of the Locked on Podcast Network, available wherever you get podcasts, also on YouTube. Thanks for making the show your first listen. coming at you three days a week in August for the first couple weeks of September as well. Then we will be back to five days a week. Joining me once again from 1051 the fan here in Portland, my friend and yours, Brandon Sprag. Brandon, how you doing? I’m doing great, man. It’s been a couple days, but I’m uh it’s nice to be back be back on and uh talk more Blazers. I’ve been thinking about our conversation and there was some stuff we didn’t get into that I’m hoping we get into in this one because uh interesting temperature right now in Rip City, I think, for the team. Well, well, let’s revisit it. When we spoke um about 48 hours ago, you had said that you wanted to talk about something. I said, “Let’s table it and let’s talk in two days about it.” Um, and we’ve uh, you know, we’ve we’ve reconvened two days later. So, what what do you want to ask me about? What’s what what temperature? Whose temperature do you want to take? Uh, well, the fan base. Um, I think it’s interesting like when I talk to Blazer fans in real life, the tone and the opinions and the feelings versus like what the internet tells me is a little different. And like the the overall take is the excitement for the team exists, but I’ve largely found that I think nobody can clearly define why other than to just say vibes to Denny’s performance, young summer league and Dame will be on the bench. And like when you get deeper into it and you poke and you prod, you find each person’s like individual standards. But I think the organization has basically said you don’t need to look for it. We’re going to set it for you. To quote Joe Cronin, it’s winning time for the Blazers. So it the excitement exists and I don’t know if every fan clearly can define why other than they just like what they see with some of these players right now. What is your now that sort of the dust is settled, the roster is full, what is your sort of excitement level um for winning time? Like what do you think where do you think this team goes? I want to ask you about like kind of the nuts and bolts of that in a second, but like I think it’s pretty safe bet that they’re better than last year, but are they going to win more games? Are they gonna like what what do you what are you where are you at with that? Well, they need some injuries if they’re going to win more games. I think if we’re just being honest there, um Utah is going to be the worst team in the league, if not in the running for it, and I think they want to be. They’re in the AJ Deance business. Look up who paid him to go to BYU. Um Sacramento was better than you. And I know Sacramento is weird and doesn’t make any sense, but like I don’t know if that’s a given. They got vets on that team. I don’t think they’re going to be great more talented, but I think they’re a worse team. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Phoenix seems like an easy disaster to see, but like I’d still love to have a Devin Booker as a start point. So like, you know, okay. And then after that, it’s it’s you’re kind of reaching a little bit, right? Like they’re the Pelicans. The Pelicans. New Orleans is going to be right there, too. So, but after that, like then you’re in the running. So, like what is it to me? I’m excited to see what Tumani’s development is. I want to see what Denny’s ceiling is. I think if we’re gonna see a ceiling, it’s gonna it’s got to be this year. Um, is Jeremy gonna have just as bad a year and has the falloff started completely or is it a one-off weird season? What’s the minute distribution with Donovan and Young? Cuz I don’t want them to play Rob Williams like literally at all. Just sit him and trade him. Uh, I hope to God that happens and I’m excited for that. But the overunder was not very high. And by their own definition, I think the season is a failure if you’re not in the plane. Yeah, I I think there’s a world Yeah, I that’s I I think you might be right by by by their their their outlook is like if they are the 11th best team in the West, they didn’t accomplish their goals. I I think that’s true. Certainly, I bet the players feel that way. Um it’s impossible to know what the front office cares about. Uh it’s like I think they want to be competitive. I think that’s real, but like what is their level of competitive? Or or have they just said like tanking is just like even if you’re this even if you’re Utah, what Utah’s going to do this year, you have a 25% chance to pick fifth and like that like is that worth it? Right? And I think they might be punting on, you know, like like the flattened lottery odds are bad enough that even if you’re the worst team in the league, um the chances that you pick number one overall are they’re dicey enough that who cares? So, I think there’s part of that. Um, is your okay for from your perspective, if they were to finish 11th, do you consider that a failure? Like, how do you view it? Because I to me, I don’t I if they missed the plan, I I I think that’s I think it’s fine. But I will I do agree with your logic that like it would be from their viewpoint a failure. But how would you view it, Brandon Sprick? Uh, I mean, look, you can have moments where it looks good and you can see some of the future. I think the tough part of seeing the future is how do you define the future? Is it Drew Holiday at 37? Is it Dame at 37? Is it Jeremy Grant still? Like they’ve kind of put themselves in a little bit of a weird position with some of this stuff. And so like I think you can look at, you know, I I don’t know how much higher Denny’s ceiling really is. Like I know he finished great. He had a great end, but if you go look at his numbers, they were largely the same as they were in Washington. There’s only a couple metrics that largely changed from like a season standpoint uh output. Tammani, I don’t know how much better his offense can truly get. You’re hoping he takes a fourpoint or more leap I think per game. I’m deathly concerned about their half court offense. I don’t know how people aren’t as good as their defense is like we’ve seen that recipe in the league before. Have stout defense, you have no offense, it’s going to be a tough struggle for you. Even with good defense, eventually it breaks. And if you’re on offense to respond, you’re gonna you’re gonna find yourself at the wrong end of blowouts. My true definition, barring injury, make the playin. Like, I’m with you. We don’t know everything that this front office thinks or is kind of pondering behind the scenes, right? All we can do, I think, is hold them to what they say themselves. And seemingly every press conference, they give us something. And sometimes I don’t think they want to give us something, but they end up giving us something. We’re going to go all in. It’s going to hurt. People are going to wonder what we’re doing. Nope. We’re going to trade off parts and we’re going to tank and we’re going to have trading gate. Uh they said it flat out like it’s it’s the general man if the general manager tells you, “Hey, Mike, thanks for having me on the pod.” Yeah, Joe, what’s your goal? My my goal is to win. We shouldn’t be doing podcast and radio shows where like you know they won 35 games but it was pretty good. Like that’s not their bar. Their bar according to Joe Cronin and the Dame Presser was it’s winning time for the Blazers. So to me you can have some good seasons from players but if you’re not in the playing like how else am I supposed to gauge this? I’m supposed to go, you know, they won one less game than they did a year ago. That’s a good season. I’m really supposed to say that with a straight face. I just I think you can point to good things, but that’s not being all the way honest. Now, can they be three games better, four games better? Because if they are, that’s the plan. That was what Dallas was. So, I I’m setting it at the playin. Like, be the 10 seed. I don’t care if you’re the 10 seed, nine seed, eight seed, whatever. Be in the playin. be in the play. One of the questions with this roster and I’ll be honest, I I found the whole off season on the whole like taken altogether very puzzling. I I was on the record like, “Hey, Damon Lo’s a free agent. They shouldn’t resign him. They should not pursue a reunion.” And then when they traded for uh Drew Holidayiday said, “Oh, this is all very puzzling. I’m baffled by this move.” And then they resigned Dame. It’s like, “Yeah, obviously I whatever my view of this plan is is not what their view is.” And and that’s not really important, right? Like I think uh sort of uh my preferences have are only going to be echoed here as opposed to like uh be what the Blazers are judged against. But I think one of the big questions for them is like to get where they want to go to be truly competitive and beyond a 10 8 through 10 seed is to be like consistently battling for homec court advantage. And to do that they need a guy. They need a thing to build around. I want to play a little game with you in the second segment where I I give you I’m gonna ask you for confidence levels in someone becoming the guy. Well, I’ll throw some names at you. Join us in that second segment. First, I want to tell you about FanDuel. Summer sports are in full swing. Whether you’re about baseball under the lights, golf on the green, or high stakes, footy action, soccer across the globe is going on. And FanDuel is the best way to make games even more exciting. You’re already watching sports. That’s what you do. You’re listening to this program. 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Um, I want to ask you about confidence levels. So, give me a confidence level. We’ll we’ll go on a 1 through 10 scale. I’m going to throw out a name. And this is a confidence your confidence level in this player developing into the guy. But I think before we get into that, the guy for me and and I you can tell me if if you’re sort of on the same page here, is someone who you could be confident that you put out on the floor and the team has a baseline of winning half their games. Now, you it’s it’s not necessarily that they’re the best player on a championship team because I think that level is like one of the five or seven best players in the NBA. And I I think that’s maybe too high. But I’m talking like a dude who you put out there and say, “Okay, if you know, if you play with him every night, you’re going to win 40 games. And if you add another player of his caliber, you’re going to be in the mix.” So, who is what is your confidence level in Denny Avia becoming the guy? Uh, not hot. I think Denny, uh, Denny’s a good player. He’s a guy you want on your roster, right? He wants high level minutes. I think he gives you production and he has those random bursts where he goes off and you’re like, “Man, look at Danny Abia.” I don’t know if I’m somebody that subscribes to running an entire offense through him in terms of him holding the ball and running everything. I think when he gets a rebound, most of the time it’s great. He has sometimes where you’re like, “Dude, slow down. Slow down.” And you’re like, “Damn it.” He on a very good team. I’m not going to say title contender. Let’s just say very good team, whatever that may be. I I think he’s a very good team. Third option. Yeah. And that’s look that that’s not a knock. That’s that’s not meant as a knock. I Yeah. I mean, the the guy who just the third option on the team that just won the championship is, you know, a max level dude who might win defensive player of the year. Like there’s a the like, you know, like I think if you’re talking about the highest levels, you need really, really, really good players. you need borderline all-stars or maybe just straight up all-stars to be your third best player. So, yeah, I I I think I don’t think I do not find that that to be an insulting level, but you know, there’s other folks out there. Do I mean, do you think he’s better than that? Like, is your index? No, I don’t. My confidence level, if you’re at like a four on him being the guy, I’m probably at a four and a half. I I I think the way he Yeah. Um he he You’re not going to out positive me, Mike. I’m done with this. Right. Listen, I don’t I I don’t I I don’t even I don’t even subscribe to it. Um no. Um yeah, I think the way he played at the end of the season was really really good. And after the All-Star break over the final 20 games, he was excellent. Excellent. Um I think that’s a little bit of silly season stuff. I think that’s a little bit of um just the nature of any any any sort of stretch of of games. I think he’s pretty damn good. I think he’s really useful. I wish that the Blazers had a slightly different approach to how they maximize how cheap he is. I wish they didn’t say like, “Let’s add some 35-year-olds who are expensive to the roster, but you know, whatever.” Um, it it is well like, okay, yeah, we we jokingly on my radio show, we jokingly say that every time we talk about him, we go, you know, it’s a deescalated contract, you know, like every time we make a note of it because I feel like I’ve heard it a bajillion time. You know, it is that way. But they’re not getting any savings from it. They’re not getting any savings from it. Yes. Until he’s a year out from free agency and they’re gonna have to what? That’s no longer going to happen anymore. So like it’s a fun thing to save for another year and then you’re a year away from having to do the thing where you’re like, “Oh, that’s right. They gave him a big extension.” And like there’s nothing wrong with extending Denny Obia, but I’m I’m with you. And and look, well, I mean, the way to the way to maximize Denny Abia being cheap would be to not pay Jeremy Grant and Drew Holiday probably more than they’re worth. Like it would be to say use that savings to add other high players who are straight up better than him, right? Like that would be how you maximize Danny Aia. Okay, he’s super cheap. Like the way that this is not the right comparison, but like Steph on an incredibly uh cheap deal allowed them to add Kevin Durant, right? That’s not kind of the level I’m talking about, but that type of thing. And what have they done with that savings? They’ve added Drew like 36y old Drew Holidayiday, 35-y old Drew Holidayiday. It’s just they haven’t the thing that Denny offers you, they haven’t been able to maximize that value. I’m with you 100% like full on and and I one thing that they didn’t do and I know like I don’t want to play, you know, revisionist GM here, but like I remember feeling this way in the moment, maximize value. You know, one way to maximize value, have good players around other good players. Like when Obie Topphen got had for two seconds by Indiana. I remember texting a buddy and I said, “We have 80 seconds. We couldn’t have gotten Obi Toppin.” Really? And then the finals come and you’re like, “Oh, Obie Toppin’s actually a nice little roll guy on a finals team. That’s kind of crazy.” And I’m like, “Yeah, no kidding. It’s weird, huh, how that happens.” I I just I ran the numbers because I I found it I found it odd, man. And I think if it was a different Western Conference team, Blazer fans would be doing the same thing, but it’s our team. And so it’s like people go, “Well, you know, they are building everything based on a 10 out of 11 stretch and the way the season ended in the back end.” And I ran those numbers, dude. And like if and buts, totally understand it. Go look at the teams they beat. They were they were like bottom 10 offenses, bottom 10 defenses, a non Jokic Nugget team. Like I I’m not saying it doesn’t mean anything to the players. I just like I don’t know if I base my entire build off season off of no no we took a step. And I’m like did you though? Like I Kevin Pelton’s a pretty smart dude. He knows the game and he’s like hey all these averages on defense they might swing the other way on you. And I’m like if that happens we’re going to look back and go we reacted to like a 24 game sample size. And I just, you know, I I I don’t know if that’s necessarily the best method, but it’s certainly the one they’ve chosen. Yeah. I mean, they are, it’s hard to read their su, like the moves they’ve made this summer as anything other than a reaction to how they played in the second half of the season. And they were good. They were good. The defense was really good. Defense was good for, you know, almost half a year basically. 30 35 plus games of being good. Um, if that is real, they’re probably a competitive team. I think they’ll be more fun to watch every night. But I think what I’m asking you with the guy stuff, and I want to ask you a couple more here in a second, is like to get from the level of being like, “Oh, yeah, pretty pretty good team,” which they’re going to be. They’re going to be watchable. They’re going to be fun. They’re going to be so much more fun to podcast about. Good gracious. Like, it’s just going to be more palatable all the way around. But to be like in the mix, you need to be a team that competes for homecourt advantage every year. And you need you need a person that can get you there. Denny’s probably their best bet currently, but there’s some youngsters that could get there. I want to ask you about Shaden Sharp and Scoot Henderson in the uh on on your on the guy confidence index. Join us in that third segment. We will do just that. [Music] Still a pass versus point guard. I’m still Mike Rich. Still chatting here with Brandon Sprag of 1051, the fan in Portland. um your confidence level that Shaden Sharp evolves into the guy. Well, you said something in the last segment that I’ve been thinking about too, like I’m I’m excited to see the defense. I’m a buyer in that the defense is going to be good. Yeah. You know, whether you think that’s five or top 10 or I don’t know where that’s at for people, right? Everybody might have different metrics on it, but I the the concern I have is when you say like they’re certainly going to be better to talk about like but what if they have games where they’re in the low 90s because I don’t know what the half court offense is. And I think that’s going to be where my biggest concern is going into the season. If this is the total roster, which I believe this is going to be it. I Shaden Sharp index like I gave him baby Kobe. I was having a lot of fun with it. I I gotta be honest, man. I’m somebody that like buys into dumb narrativebased things when you say the guy and I don’t see those elements of him, right? Like Kobe can airball against Utah, but Kobe’s going to come back and you’re going to see a pissed-off young player that had a bad moment. I I see a guy that certainly can give me what was his high output, 36 this year. I’m seeing a guy that like he can give you those nights. He can also give you nights where he’s one for eight from three and he scored eight points. And I’m like, did you care where like you played? Did you care? And I don’t I don’t like that. I don’t like to say that that’s where that’s at. So, he’s going into what, year four. This is kind of it, man. Like, it’s not that he can’t be a winning player at some point in his career for maybe a different franchise. Is that like if we’re defining the guy confidence index, I it’s not high. Like, I don’t have evidence to say it’s high. The only way you saying it’s high is if you’re just drinking Kool-Aid. Like, I think he could be an 18 to 22 point a game guy and there’s nothing wrong with that. is a good player, but like the guy, no, that index that index meter is not registering very highly. Are you below Denny? Are you a Are you a 3.8? Yeah, I’m I’m I’m below I’m like at if Denny’s a 46, I’m at like a 39. And I know that’s going to be devastating to some and sounds like I’m completely out. I’m giving room for him to be good. But like when you say the guy Richmond, every guy you think of, they they talk or they give you absolute evidence that they are not to be effed with. And I just I I don’t see either one. Like you could be a Duncan. I don’t need you to talk, but damn it, dude. Like I watch you ball and like that’s different. But I don’t see any of I don’t see the dog mentality. I don’t see it night to night. I just I I want him to do well and it’s frustrating, but the guy index not high. Yeah, I I I’m kind of on the same level. I think Shaden Sharp can be a very good basketball player, but the idea that he and to me I’m I I’ll go the other way. To me it is in some ways not as much about his overall mentality. Although I think like in terms of like franchise leader stuff that those intangibles do matter. They do. Um, even Nicolokic, who people love to for his how aloof he is, he’s incredibly competitive and he is a um has grown into someone who is a different type of leader and also he’s like one of the 20 best players of all time. Um, c can I ask you this? Yeah. Yeah. So, for any Blazer fan that hears me saying this, and I’m sure there’s some things I’ve already said that are too negative to them, like Spray, how dare you. Okay, answer me this right now. Who’s the better player? Aaron Nith or Shaden Sharp? Sharp. Maybe sharp. I’ll go sharp. Okay. With a maybe caveat, you wouldn’t say Aaron Nesmith is the guy index. No. And but I would just because of the scoring. Yeah. Just because of the scoring. But Nesmith is a great defender, right? High intensity, highlevel dude that’s like he wants the challenge. And so like there’s ele guy to to point out like if it’s close with that dude, I think that’s your answer on the index. Yeah, I I I think that’s a pretty good like and that’s what I was going to get to. It’s like for me I’m more worried about the basketball stuff. Uh the because he doesn’t do a lot of secondary things. He’s not a great he’s not a defensive playmaker and he has not been a good defender so far in his career. Um uh he doesn’t he’s not a great passer. Although he has some shown some moments that he can pass, but he’s also shown some tunnel vision stuff, but he’s not like this intuitive highle passer. You wouldn’t say that about his game now. He might develop it again, but but like I wouldn’t say you would say that about his game right now. And he’s he’s he can he has some nights where he rebounds well, but you wouldn’t call him this like highlevel elite sort of like, oh yeah, he’ll he’ll do crazy rebounder, but he he can do it. And I think it is really hard to be a highlevel impact player if the number one thing you if the only thing, excuse me, you do is score. It’s just really it’s just really hard. It’s really hard. Um, so for me, I think what would change for Shaden to like put him in the level of like, yeah, you this dude is like that type of guy and you can always win with him is the secondary stuff. is the passing, is the is the defensive playmaking. Um, everyone talks about the shooting and I think the shooting is incredibly important for his floor. I think his floor is impacted much more by his shooting than his ceiling. Um, because even if he becomes a 35% three-point shooter and averages 23 a game, he’s a very good player, but he’s not to to take the next step into being like, you know, buildaround type of thing. It just needs more more overall impact. And maybe he’ll do that this year and it’ll completely change it. But if I like if I’m guessing now in the first week of August, yeah, I think he falls short of my confidence level in him being the quote unquote guy. Good player. Good player develops into a good player, but nah. Uh Scoot Henderson, the guy confidence. Uh slightly higher than Shaden, but not Denny level. Okay. Why? Why higher than Shaden? Uh well, I I do think like I see a couple more things from him when he plays. Like I’m not saying he is necessarily a better basketball player. I think you’re right on the skill set of Shaden. And look, much like our other opinions, if Shaden’s good, I’ll be the first to be like, “Yo, heck yeah. Let’s go. I was wrong.” Scoot is he has these these flashes and moments where I’m like, “There there.” And then it’s like foul foul trouble or you know what I mean? or he has these games we’re just not hitting. I think the three is going to dictate everything. If his three percentage doesn’t jump a little more, I you know, I tend to think that that growth is only going to be so high. Now, look, you can be a distributor, but like, you know, what kind of player are you going to become if you’re not a highlevel shooter and you’re not an elite finisher at the rim, but you distribute? Like, who is that player in the NBA? I I I don’t know, I guess. But like who? Tyus Jones. And so like if if Taius Jones for those of you for those of you on audio, Brandon Sprag just made a very pained face. They had a very pained face at Tus Jones. I don’t think they wanted to draft Ty Jones as number three pick overall. They did. They did not. They did not. I can I can say that. And I’m not gonna kill Look, if Scoot doesn’t hit, I’m not going to kill the franchise, dude. Like everybody makes that pick 10 out of 10en times. I I just if Tus Jones is it, there’s your answer. There’s your confidence. So, he’s So, I would say Scoot’s I probably have him on the same plane as Sharp. Um I do think he has a more well-rounded game, but in terms of like someone who could be the guy, he’s bucket every time. Sharp is so much Sharp’s like peak skills are so much higher than Shaden’s or excuse me. Yeah, Sharp’s peak skills are so much higher than Scoot’s peak skills right now. Um I think like so I I I can’t go higher. I would put them about on the same plane. I think more varied, but he’s got to be able to score. Like that’s it for me. And I think this gets back to the whole problem with the whole with this whole enterprise. I think they’re pretty good. um like in terms of being fun, competitive, watchable basketball team, but I don’t think this off season got me offered me the sort of like, okay, it it didn’t offer the sort of clarity of of here’s exactly what here’s how we’re going to do it, right? we know we’re not going to be good, but we’re committed and we drafted a 20-year-old and we’re going to play him a little bit or like we like are all in a little bit more because like Drew Holiday puts you all in a little bit more, but he’s like the type he’s an over-the-top piece. He gives you a couple year window before he’s going to be 37 years old and making a bunch of money where it’s like it just seems like it felt like this season they had a chance to if nothing else give clarity of direction with the question marks. How good is Danny? How good is Shaden? How good is Scoot? Okay, you’ve got a chance to find that out. You still have a chance to find that out, but it’s not 100% clear that they’re committed to this group. And if they’re not, are they just is it another reset because they don’t have the guy? Like I I feel I feel very confused about sort of where they are in terms of direction. Well, I mean, I’m there with you. I I It’s really hard for me to see you trade a point guard you should have traded two years ago, but you traded him for the same position, but an older player making more money. That was like puzzle. That was so puzzling to process and like the immediate I get it. I’m like no you don’t. You haven’t thought about it yet. Like think about it. Is it logical? I think that’s the tough thing that I had with it. it. You can’t balance that with the then let’s trade out of the spot where we draft the most coveted thing in the league, which is switchable three and D wings that can maybe hit 40% from three for a 20-year-old project from China. Like, it’s hard to balance those two things as being like, oh, because if if the project hits, it hits, but it’s a it’s a project. He’s he’s going to take the chances that Young Hansen is like a really good player as a rookie are pretty low. He’s going to take time and that’s a fine thing to do if you’re committed to a certain timeline. If he’s if he’s hitting at 37y old Drew Holidayiday’s year and 37y old Dame, I think that puts you in a almost a weirder position. So, like I I’ve had a really hard time struggling with they’re saying win now, but some of their moves are suggesting build and then like if they don’t hit with Shay and Scoot, you say like do you hit a reset? I don’t think they hit a complete reset. I think what the move would be and this is assuming the regime’s the same even with the new ownership group. I think what they would do is they’d say well who are our good players and now we’re just going to slightly pivot. And I think I almost just wonder like is is the mo is the mo to win a title or is the mo to say it was nice to be a playoff team every year. Yeah, I will say like from uh 2015 that’s that’s the year after LaMarcus left uh to 2021 uh the last year that they were a competitive underdame. The six seasons they won three total playoff series. They finished fifth, eighth, 3rd, 3rd, eighth, and sixth. Some of those years, the year they finished in third and lost to the Pelgans, that was a good basketball team. They just choked as hard as you can choke. And in 2019, they were good. They won 51 games. It was a good basketball team and they got a good No, they were never in the inner circle. And for the most part, they were on the road in the playoffs. And it seems like what they’re they’re sort of trying to rekindle the glory years when they won three playoff series over six seasons. Do you believe we can get back to that level? That’s how I kind of view it. I mean, you know, I’m sure they would tell you like, “You guys are wrong. You know what you’re talking about. We want to win championship.” And we don’t know what we’re talking about to be clear. Yeah. Well, but like we also Yeah, we do. Sometimes we do. And so it’s like they’re not going to This isn’t a title roster, but like I’m not expecting you to be a title roster right now. I just No, I want to be able to watch the season, listen to people like you give thoughts on a daily basis and see, you know, the es and the flows of the season and the vibes and go, I feel like I understand the direction and I don’t know if I’m going to get that this year. I think I’m gonna have good moments and players will have good moments, but I don’t know if team-wise I’ll be able to be like, I see it. I might be like, “What?” I could be here a year from now doing this with you in a different shirt going, “Yeah, man. I don’t know. Last year we kind of said, “What are they doing?” And we’re sitting here going, “What are they doing?” Yeah. I I I do think it it could be one of those years where it’s like, “Hey, that was pretty fun.” And then you get to the year and be like, “I don’t get it.” And I and I I worry I worry about that is where it’s like not worry because I don’t really care. Um but like I my sort of concern for the overall direction of the team is like I do think they’re going to like I’ve said a bunch of times on this program, I think they’re going to be fun and watchable, but in like what what’s the ceiling and what is the appetite for chasing a ceiling? And I think that has been the confusing part of maybe over the last couple seasons. But you know, they did go 23 and 18 or whatever it was over the last 41 games. So, that’s a 46 win pace, Brandon. That’s 46 wins. Um, speaking of numbers, do you want to come back on uh next Monday’s program? And actually, how about this? You take the weekend off. Let’s reconvene on Sunday evening and we’ll record Monday’s show where we’ll do overunders. Uh, don’t change clothes, though. I like that shirt. I think it looks good on you. Leave that in the studio. Come back. Uh, yeah. Oh, nice. Um, yeah. Dear friends, dear listeners, all of you out there, come back for our next program. Brans is going to play a little game with us. Available wherever you got podcasts and also on YouTube. I appreciate you listening. I will talk to you soon.

Brandon Sprague of 105.1 The Fan in Portland joins the show to talk about the Trail Blazers push to be competitive and confidence levels about whether they already have a franchise cornerstone on the roster.

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