Portland Trail Blazers vs Toronto Raptors Recap | Highlights | Postgame
What’s going on everybody? Welcome in to the Blazers Uprise postgame show presented by Sleeper. Today your Portland Trailblazers lose another close game as they fall to the Toronto Raptors 121 to 118. The Blazers fell behind in the third quarter. Fought back. Almost brought it all the way back. Almost got a come from behind win against a good Eastern Conference opponent, but behind some questionable small ball and a questionable call. The Blazers lose another game. Denny Avia continues to play like a superstar even on nights where his shot isn’t falling. Tamonti Kamara for the second game in a row shoots the ball well and continues to break out of his shooting slump, which is nice to see. and Shaden Sharp has 23 off the bench as he comes back from injury, but it’s all in another loss. We’re going to break it down all for you guys. Tonight is a call-in night. Uh Eric’s actually going to be holding it down solo for about 30 minutes here. So, if you want to call in at the start of the stream, he’ll be running the call-ins and he’ll be able to take your calls and I won’t be here. So, uh definitely encouraged to to call in and I will rejoin the show uh in a bit. Eric, what’s going on, man? How you doing? I’m pretty good. um excited to talk about another Blazer loss. It’s starting to feel like previous years, but also it feels completely different from previous years. And I don’t know if that makes any sense, but it makes total sense to me. Does it? Yeah. I mean, we got this guy the last three games is averaging a 30point triple double and we’ve lost all three games. So, you know, it’s back to the we can’t win with Dame years, you know, but they they’ve never got trip, you know, averaged a triple double over three games. I don’t believe so. Denny Odia continues to play freaking amazing basketball and he’s getting to the line at a higher rate than anybody in the league, which is great for us. I know other fans might be a little bit annoyed by the the free throws, but I’m annoyed that this team can’t find a way to win close games. Um, you know, they fought from behind and they made it close, so it’s a little different than being a close game the entire fourth or losing a lead, but it’s they’re right there. They’re not losing games by 40 or 50 like we’ve seen in previous years. They’re competitive a lot of nights and they just can’t figure out ways to get wins and it’s and it’s pretty frustrating. So, yeah, I’m just watching this uh I’m re-watching the last couple minutes of the game and I’m to the point where they’re reviewing the Shaden Sharp uh foul. Yeah. Where he gets fouled. Um, yeah. Yep. Got to love NBA refs, man. I was initially uh listening to this on the radio and uh Travis Demer sounded like Brian Wheeler for a bit. He was very emotional. I love that, man. Sound like he was uh crying after the game a little bit. Hey, man. I I respect Nothing Nothing wrong with that. I’m just saying like it it felt like he was he was very emotional after this game. Yeah, it sucks getting these close losses and uh it it sucks when there’s questionable calls. I listened to a little bit of of it on the radio as well and it sounded like he wanted to go fight the refs over a call uh which which I have wanted to fight the refs probably 10 separate times this season. So anyway, um I’ve never seen him that or heard him that frustrated though. Like he was he even said, “I’m just frustrated. this team has been in a lot of close games and it’s starting to weigh on me and I was like, “Wow, he’s one of he’s one of us. He’s one of us.” Um, but yeah, we’ll we’ll break it all down. I’m going to get out of here. But, uh, I know our guy Mozy, he’s a Raptors fan, but he helps out the channel. He helped me out with the bottom ticker today. He made the intro that I can’t play because my computer sucks and we lose every game, so it’s whatever. But, um, yeah, I know he wants to hop on hop on the call in and and talk about this game. So, I’m going to get out of here. Eric, feel free to uh to run the call-ins. If you call in, just don’t curse. Um and try not to ramble for more than three minutes. That’s my job, okay? I’m the one who’s supposed to ramble for more than three minutes. All right. Um all jokes aside, appreciate you guys tuning in despite the loss on another postgame show. And I will be back. Good luck, Eric containing Lozy. Have fun. All right. All right. What’s up everyone? Um, welcome to the postgame show. Good to have you all here. Um, I don’t know if he if I can fix that on my Nope. He left a little bit of black on the top. Oh well. Nothing I can do about that. Um, excited to have you all here to break down this game. Um, to me there’s several talking points. Um, one, uh, this is just really frustrating for me when, uh, they end quarters, um, poorly. So, in the first half, second quarter, the Blazers tie the game at 58 behind a Denny three-point shot. And the Raptors have the ball. There’s under a minute left and somehow we’re down 65 to 59 at halftime and uh so it it’s just carelessness. Uh it’s just they lose focus for a while. Um, and it it just comes back to hurt them because uh the Blazers um I mean Tammani gets a an offensive foul drawn with like I don’t know why we’re driving with um like 11 seconds left on the clock. Um and so we just went too early. Um, and then we the possession before we blew the two for one by shooting it too early. Um, and Tammani gets called for an illegal screen and then he gets with like.1 seconds left, he he gets a foul to end the half. Um, so they get free throws out of it. But in a tie game, you shouldn’t be going down six points into the the locker room uh when there’s less than a minute left, especially when um you get the ball and have a chance to control the clock both in the two for one situation and um at the there would have been like a couple seconds left if they ran out the time properly on their last possession, but they of course did not do that. Um, but anyways, uh, so that that that is something that they desperately need to clean up because you just you can’t keep putting yourself into little holes like that by just a little bit of carelessness. And then um the the lack of transition defense in the third quarter in particular uh when the Raptors kind of came out and uh put this game uh into a a desperate situation for the Blazers where they found themselves down 15 to 16 points most of that quarter. Um it it’s just there were multiple plays where Sharp drives, turns the ball over, falls on his butt, is just sitting there complaining. Um Denny two out of the three plays in a row drives. Now maybe he gots fouled on those. He probably should have gone to the line more. Um but is on the ground complaining. Raptors push it the other way. Uh, we know that the Raptors are uh I think they’re first in the NBA in fast break points. If not, they’re they’re way up there. So, they’re a really good fast break team. And so, there was a stretch where it was like three possessions between Sharp and Denny where they fell into the ground, argued a call, just sat there for a minute or a few seconds, and by that time it’s too late to get back on defense. Raptors pass the ball around, find the open guy, and get an easy basket. And uh it’s really hard to make up uh for that kind of um lack of effort or that that kind of um carelessness um both with the turnovers um and then magnifying it by not hustling back on defense. So, uh, unfortunately, I think, uh, this comeback, you know, they had to use a lot of energy to come back in this one as well. They have to play Cleveland tomorrow night. So, uh, it’s just a tough situation to, to do that and then expect to always come back or whatever. Um, so, so that was another thing. I think the the effort in the third quarter uh they just came out a little flat from halftime and you can’t do that against a scrappy team like Toronto who plays kind of like how the style ultimately the Blazers want to play but haven’t really done it a ton um so far this year. So, um, it it those those two things, the the poor execution end of quarters in late game situations and things like that. Um, and then the the arguing with the refs or or not hustling back on defense against a good transition team. Uh, and then the third thing I want to mention is the rotations. Um first quarter and third quarter uh Splitter decides to sub out Denny and Tammani together. And uh we start the fourth quarter with a lineup that has Chris Murray, Ryan Rupair, and City Sissoko all out there together. And I’m I’m sorry, but Thiago needs to do this. As we’ve talked about this multiple times, you have to find a way to to stagger those guys. You cannot sub both of them out at the same time. Why are we subbing our two forwards out together and not not making it so two out of the three between Grant, um, Danny and Tammani are in the game at all times. You can do that. You can sub and still have them play the same amount of minutes. So him doing that both in the first half and the second half uh was really bugged me because um like I said it just I understand he’s kind of short-handed right now or really short-handed right now. You know, we have several rotation players out so you have to try and do something to uh get our starters a little bit of rest. But I I don’t think Thiago is doing the greatest job of of rotating them in a way where we don’t have several minute stretches where we have three like basically G-League players on the court at the same time. And uh and I think that’s a huge issue. Then, you know, even if Rob Williams, if if Rob or or Klingan is in the game with that lineup and you have Grant or someone out there, I mean, that basically because Rob, Will, and Clay right now are just like clean up around the hoop guys, um, screen setters and stuff like that. So, you’re basically letting the other team only have to guard one player, and that’s, um, that’s Jeremy Grant in those situations. if both Denny and Tammani are on the bench. So, I I just I feel like um he he’s getting a little too uh he’s getting a little too comfortable subbing too many good players out at the same time. You need to find a way to to change that a little bit. And then the decision to go small the last nine minutes of the fourth quarter uh I think really hurt us in this game as well. Um it’s just you know portal comes back in I think it was like three or four minutes left and uh you know he had a easy shot with some deep post position on a smaller guy um got to the foul line and stuff like that. So, um I think you know CD Soko uh it mean obviously like I said he’s got to play a little bit of time right now with how it is and he’s been in the starting lineup and all that kind of stuff. But to play him nine or ten minutes in the fourth quarter and to not play your bigs more than a couple minutes, I I just I felt like these kind of games we need to we need to win with size. And uh you know, I didn’t think Clayman played that bad. Uh he has some nice offensive rebounds and stuff. And uh the other huge issue playing this this Blazers team is rebounding. And so to go small I think just kind of exas aspirates that. So we’re we’re we’re in a situation where there’s all these things going against them each night and we’re still seeing these like really good performances. You know, Tammani uh finally comes alive from three at least in the first quarter. Uh sharp in the first half. I think he had 15 in the first half. Uh he was hitting his shots. had some looked explosive with some of his uh dunks and and uh rim opportunities. Um and so uh Denny, you know, he had a bad first half, but uh you know, has a ton of assists and uh ends up scoring what 25 or 26 I think he finished with. So um pretty good scoring output in the second half for him. ends up with 25 on, you know, six of 15 shooting. Um, so yeah, uh, the Blazers end up only losing the rebound battle by four. Uh, I feel like they they did do a better job on the defensive rebounding in the second half, but, uh, in the first half, I think Toronto had like nine offensive rebounds at halftime, uh, which isn’t good. Um, but the fast break points 25 to 10. So Blazers want to play fast and get dominated in a in an uptempo game. Um, so that’s um that’s going to come back to haunt you. And then lastly, I haven’t mentioned this yet. We talked a lot about individual free throws being an issue. Um, and like I said before, as long as you’re a decent free throw shooter overall, I’m not going to be too harsh if you miss a free throw in a t in like a clutch situation or something, because ultimately that’s not what loses you the game, that one free throw or whatever. But when you miss 11 free throws as a team, 21 of 32 and uh you lose by three points. I mean, that’s that’s glaring, right? Um you know, Denny misses five free throws. He was 10 of 15 from the line. So, he’s still getting to the line a ton, but misses them. Uh in the fourth quarter, Tammani missed both free throws on one of his opportunities. Um he couldn’t have shot well from the free throw line this game. Yeah, one of four. He split one in the first half. Um Jeremy, who’s usually pretty dependable, was two for four. Uh Klingman made all three of his. Sharp was five of six. Um it’s just, you know, you got to make your free throws, right? So unfortunately, uh for them just didn’t do it. And this also was a game that shows uh it shows exactly what the problems with the Blazers are. And that’s because they come out and they shoot crazy in the first quarter. Like they’re hitting everything, right? U so they’re they’re hitting shots. Uh it’s looking really good. Uh it’s looking like we we’re going to be right in this game and and possibly be in a position to win it. Um all our shots are going down. Tammani hits what? Four threes and is he by the time he subs out uh towards the end of the first quarter, he’s five of seven from the field and has 14 points in the first quarter. um and then finishes with what 21 I think. Uh so he didn’t do much outside of that quarter. Um and then uh Sharp like I mentioned had 15 in the first half, only finishes with 23. So um not as much scoring output in the second half for him either. Um kind of flip between those two and Denny. Denny didn’t do much in the first half scoring wise um but then scores a ton in the second half. Um but back to my point when you need crazy good shooting like that to do to like get ahead. Um it could also go the other way really quickly. So, the Blazers go ice cold in that second quarter. The Raptors go on a 14 to1 run, I think it was. It might even been worse than that. And all of a sudden, we’re we the lead we built is gone. And the Raptors are up like six to eight. And uh and it’s like, what the heck? Where did our lead go? Right. Um so um the Blazers shot 71% from uh from the field in the first quarter and ended up I believe losing after one, right? Um Oh, they were up they were up two. They’re up 3937. So, um, yeah, shooting 71%. You have like one of your best, uh, offensive outputs from, uh, Sharp comes in the game, scores a bunch. Like I said, Tammani was on fire. Uh, Chris hit a three, I think, in the first quarter. Um, and so things are going well, and you’re still only up two points. Uh, you kind of because your defense, um, couldn’t couldn’t get a rebound. uh gave up way too many offensive rebounds and then as Marv says the turnovers um I think they had actually she wrote this down. Let me see how many turnovers that had it was either 12 or 14 I think turnovers at halftime which is ridiculous. Um yeah 12 turnovers at halftime. So, 12 turnovers, you give up nine offensive rebounds. Uh, you give up 22 points off off those 12 turnovers. And so, they’re they’re probably lucky lucky to only be down six at halftime despite being tied with a minute left, like I said. But, uh, you know, all those things are, uh, just combination of what’s wrong. like all those things, rebounding, rotations are weird. Um, turnovers come back to haunt them again. Not getting back in transition defense, not creating enough transition opportunities themselves. Um, cuz we forced 10 turnovers in the first half, but only scored 11 points on them. So, that means we’re not we’re not turning those turnovers into a ton of opportunities. So, and then miss free throws. Um, yeah, that all that uh all that adds up to um why why the Blazers are are losing these games in my opinion. Um, does anyone have any anything to add to that? Um, yeah. Um says, “Am I the only one that to think the Blazers are better without Sharp?” Um I don’t I don’t think that’s true. I don’t think that’s true. I mean, tonight he is nine of 18 from the field. Um and uh you know, he got beat a few times on defense there in the fourth quarter, but so did everyone else. Um, you know, even Tammani, Denny, um, guys who should be Grant, all all everyone that was playing got beat at some point or fell asleep on a back door or got their guy went and got an offensive rebound or something during this game. So, um, I don’t know. I don’t I don’t think Sharp is a problem, especially when he plays like tonight. I mean, he was nine of 18 from the field. Um, you know, maybe he’s not getting to the foul line as much as other people, but he got the line six times tonight. Um, you know, he shoots three threes, misses all of them. His three-point shot is just completely gone away. So, maybe maybe that’s an issue. But, um, I think I think especially right now, the Blazers need him out there. And uh actually wonder if it’s if him coming off the bench and not playing with the starters is is maybe the problem. I don’t know. But I don’t I don’t think uh I I wouldn’t say he’s like I get what people are saying, but I mean did you see Denny’s numbers last game? Did you see his numbers this game? I mean, how is that’s what I’m seeing when when people make that that case that Sharp’s hurting the team is that it takes away touches from Denny, but um I don’t know. I just I look at what Denny’s doing in these games still and I don’t think Sharp’s affecting that at all in a negative way. So, I don’t know. And Denny had a couple really nice assists, too. I think they were on backto-back plays even uh where he hit sharp uh cutting for a layin and then had the lob on the transition to him. So um maybe they can explore that a little more. U Sharp can cut a little more when Denny’s u you know occupying all the attention of the other team’s defense. Um that might be something that they can exploit moving forward. But uh um yeah, I I I really I really don’t think Sharp is the issue. I mean, I think it’s more just they’re trying everything they can to to hold this team together with the the few good players they have right now. And uh I just I I think I think it’s more of a case of we just need more actual NBA players back on the on the healthy active roster. Um I I just I don’t I don’t see how sharp is the problem. Um but yeah, I’ I’ I’d be interested to hear why why maybe expand on that a little more why you think that way. Um and then uh yeah, I mean it’s still a case where you have nonmbba shooters shooting a lot of threes. Uh, I did see um a thing today where the Blazers uh it was like a Let me let me actually find it real quick. Let me see if anyone’s in Discord first. Um, no one once again if you want to come uh talk to me while Tori’s gone. Um, just join the Discord and ask to speak. Uh, there’s a section called Colin. Um, would love to hear from you if you want to come talk on the air with me. Um, I forgot what I was going to look up. D says, “The first quarter looks so good.” It did offensively, but we still gave up 37 points and only had a two-point lead. So, all that hard work to all those made shots to get that going and uh yeah, was four knots. Um yeah, you got Caleb Love two for six in this game. One of five from three. Made his only layin, but one for five from three. Uh only plays 12 minutes, gets six shots up. So, um it’s pretty typical. Chris hit that one in the first half, goes one for three overall. Um, City one for four. You know, Sharp’s not hitting his threes either, which is really hurting his overall numbers. Like, if he if he could either hit a three or just stop taking them all together, he would look more efficient, too. Um, and maybe that’s where he gets some more passes going. Um, manh. I feel like the the Blazers could have had this one. Um, oh yeah, this is one other thing that I uh wrote down that I wanted to bring up. Um, so the stupid zone. Can we just please eliminate the zone from any Just don’t do it at all. Just do not play zone. It’s ridiculous. chat. Make make this make sense for me. Okay, we go small, right? Last nine minutes of the game, we go small, right? Um, the whole point of going small is so you can switch picks and be versatile on defense to where you don’t have to worry about the big cuz that did happen a couple times in the game where they the Raptors ran pick and roll and either Rob Will or Cllingan was too far in prop and they got a good look off of it and then the next possession they play zone whatever. Um, but you go small to eliminate that, right? Like what am I missing here, chat? You go small so you can switch picks. You have all forwards in the game because you don’t have any any point guards right now. Any small people other than Caleb Love. So, everyone’s pretty much the same size, same height. Um, you know, different levels of defense, I guess. But like the whole point of going small should be so that you don’t have to play drop at all and you can just switch every pick and then they can’t create any advantages off of screens, right? Why the heck would they play zone at all when they’re small? I was just so frustrated watching them go like go into zone when um when they have the small lineup in. It’s like what are you doing? Like I get it. Sometimes every once in a while play a zone. I saw someone say Klingan can’t play in the zone. I I disagree. I think it just the whole point of that would be to make sure he is always able to guard low instead of having to come out for for screens. But I just I don’t get why. Like don’t play small if you’re going to play zone and don’t play zone if you’re playing small. Like that’s it’s so simple. Like I I just don’t get it. So when I see stuff like um sorry I forgot who said this, but when I see like what is what is Thiago supposed to do? He’s hasn’t had any practice time. Well, how about if you run a small ball lineup, you do not play zone and you do not get stuck in situations where the other team can use their size because and and you’re not creating any advantages by being able to pressure the ball or or switch or trap or anything like that. So, I I don’t get it. And that’s one thing. I mean, I know technically Borcran’s in charge of the defense or whatever, but ultimately it’s got to fall on the head coach. So, I I just I don’t understand uh that that’s really it’s just a scheme thing. It’s it’s a game plan thing. That’s not that’s not like a practice thing. I mean, you don’t have to practice playing man-to-man defense versus zone. Zone actually requires more practice time. So, if anything, if they’re not having enough practice time to run zone, they shouldn’t be running it as much. Um, and then, uh, um, like someone just said in chat, uh, the other thing that’s tough about running a, uh, a zone is we’re not a good rebounding team. And if we’re small, it they’re going to they’re going to start crashing the boards because we’re not finding a guy and boxing out. It it’s it’s really tough to uh find a way to to box out when you’re struggling to rebound out of the zone. So, um I just I don’t get it. The Blazers are way too talented even with all these injuries. Their personnel is designed to have multiple perimeter defenders. And so this freaking zone is really bugging me, man. It’s just it’s really bugging me. Um like why do you keep running it? Uh why, like a Nidler says, why can’t we just switch everything and be a normal defense with they’re it’s a huge red flag to me that they’re they’re doing gimmicky stuff. So you you start the season with this fullcourt press, picking players up way higher than any team has ever picked up higher since they started tracking that data. Like it wasn’t even close. And then um and then uh you know we run this zone. Both of those to me are are more like gimmicky things. And the Blazers are should be good enough to play just regular straight up defense, especially in the half court. Um, so Matt says, “I don’t see fullcourt press as a gimmick.” I Okay, so it’s not necessarily a gimmick if you don’t do it all the time, but like I feel like if you do it all the time, you you will I feel like it is is a gimmick if if if it is all the time or like that’s your identity when you have good perimeter defenders. To me, you have to do that stuff if you have kind of lesser individual defenders, but they don’t, you know, I mean, obviously not right now, but they were running that with Drew Holiday when we still had Blake Wesley. Um, Matise was still in the lineup. Uh, you know, you got Grant’s an okay defender. We got um you know, Denny’s an okay defender normally. Uh Tammani is supposed to be our best defender. Chris is supposed to be a good defender. Uh it wears on opposing stars, says Matt. Okay. Yeah, that worked out so well when like opposing stars were killing us uh every game. Um, I it just it it it got figured out and they’ve had to go to other stuff now and now it’s a zone. I just I don’t get why. Uh, yeah. As Kirk says, I love playing zone in City Lever for laziness. Exactly. It’s It’s what you do when you don’t want to work hard, basically. Yeah. I just I I do feel like the zone does promote laziness. I I do I do agree. Um the the fullcourt press doesn’t but I mean every time we try to pressure it seems like all it’s doing is making our best defenders trail the ball and get get blown by. Um, I just I feel like I feel like the Blazers have the roster, the personnel, even with these injuries to play at least average halfcourt defense in just a standard base regular defense. Um, and I just I don’t understand why why like they can’t figure that out. That’s that’s very troubling to me. Um yeah, the letter says our pro the problem is our good defenders are are playing good defense and that that’s that’s partially true. I I do think there’s been a lot of disappointment in terms of individual defense um this year. uh especially if you look at Tammani’s individual defense compared to last year. Um but uh the the issue is is it because they just regressed on defense or is it because the scheme they’re playing is putting them in a position where they can’t just straight up guard someone like they were last year. Um I I I don’t know. Maybe there’s a little bit of Maybe it’s both. Both. Yeah, they can both be right, I guess. Um, but to me, it just it feels like they’re always kind of a step behind no matter what they’re doing. And to me, that seems like then they’re not in the right positions. And then um this is this is also what I don’t get. So, we saw them run small ball a lot. They’ve run small ball a lot all year. Um, so when you’re doing that, like I said earlier, the the idea is to switch everything, right? So, you’re often going to be switching if the other team has a big in the game, you’re going to be switching to where maybe it’s a unfair matchup to to have um someone not or someone not as big guarding a big guy, right? Um so um my question is what are you worried about then with the drop? So if the bane is in the game, what’s the difference if you’re switching like Tammani onto a big man and having Klingan guard the guard? U isn’t that the same as playing small basically? Um, I just I wish they would at least try to switch even with clinging in the game and have um if that makes sense. Um, so have it to where he doesn’t drop all the time. Like sometimes he comes out and just switches and guards the guard because yes, he could get cooked by a guard, but how is that different than when we don’t have a center in the game and they’re still getting cooked? um on on defense. So, uh I just I don’t know. I don’t see enough traps. I don’t see enough and this this is uh it’s just baffling to me because we know their whole system was kind of predicated on creating turnovers. And I think jumping screens and and double teaming or trapping every once in a while, hedging a screen, showing show and recover. Uh there’s so many things you can do to throw the other team off or the ball handler off and and I just I’m not seeing enough of it for a team that’s supposedly trying to create all this havoc and and make the other teams uncomfortable. To me, this is always my problem with defense. Um when you have drop all the time, um it just the other team gets so comfortable. They they know exactly where Clayton’s going to be every time they come off the screen, right? And they know he’s going to be 10 feet away. So all they have to do is either pull up if they’re open or attack him and have the the big roll. Um, and so, uh, I just I I don’t get why you wouldn’t occasionally throw a different look just to try and keep them honest so they they can’t get comfortable. Um, and so I I just I feel like right now we’re just letting other teams do what they’re good at. and Toronto tonight. It’s get out in transition when you turn the ball over and we turn the ball over a lot and played right into that and um and so yeah, it’s been uh just another game of that. Bjork being in charge of the D is really the only only change from last year’s promising D. Uh yeah, because was Roy Rogers in charge of the defense last year. Yeah. Yep. All right. So, uh, yep. Killry says, “When when they do small ball, I don’t think I’ve seen them blitz a P&R once this season. Meanwhile, the Suns killed us with that in their in the game.” Yep. Yep. Last year we lost two games by 60 points. Yep, we did. We got at least uh what our worst loss this year was 24 to Houston. Have we lost worse than that? I think that’s our worst loss, right? Yep. That’s the other thing Gregory mentions is uh th those three pointers. Um we talked about this uh numerous times. Blazers are near the top in uh shot attempts. I think they were fifth last time I checked in uh shot attempts from three. Uh and they’re bottom five in shooting percentage on those. And uh we all know that shooting a lot of threes, especially when they’re bad shooters and they’re bricking uh the bricks are harder and uh the bowel bounces further a lot of times. And if they get the rebound, uh the other team gets the rebound and they can they can push and um yeah, they can push um in transition and that happened a lot again tonight once like when you’re making shots in the first quarter, it’s all good. You can get back and set your defense, but um they still scored 37 on it even with making all those shots. So, um yeah. Um yeah, now the Blazers have a probably an even tougher game tomorrow night even though Cleveland hasn’t been really great this year. But um yeah, and this is so everything we’ve kind of talked about in this conversation since Tori left. I feel like it’s all stuff that’s like correctable or like could get better, like they could fix it if they wanted to. So, that’s where I get confused and and kind of like down on this team because I don’t see them really changing any of this stuff too much, you know, like a little bit uh they had a good stretch of rebounding, I guess. Um maybe they were doing something there. Um but um like all this stuff seems like it’s it’s like easily tweakable to like kind of get them going again and winning some of these games instead of losing them. And it it honestly feels like we played better than eight and 13 at times this year. Um, I feel like we should have a better record than eight and 13 despite this. Um, yeah. So, um, but it’s like I don’t know. We get guys back and stuff, but a lot of these issues are are the style and and the scheme. I don’t think it’s necessarily on the personnel. I I think it says a lot that they’re in some of these games considering the personnel they have, for sure. And I do think some of it deserves to get a little bit of slack given a little bit of leniency on that um just based on having to play so many players that aren’t rotation players. But um I don’t know. I just I feel like they still have had some performances from Danny and and Klingan’s been playing well in the last um couple weeks. I I just I feel like they should have won more of these games even despite everything that’s against them right now. Um and that’s to me a lot of these things are solvable issues or at least areas that they can improve enough to win a in a game they lose by three instead of losing in that. So, um yeah. Um yeah, I mean, yeah, just imagine when we get players back in the Remix, get their lineup. That That was the other weird thing. So, the remix played tonight and they had a promo this afternoon with uh it was basically promoting CD uh Caleb and and Javvante Cook playing tonight for the remix. I was like, there’s no way Sissoko and Love at least aren’t going to be with the main team. So, uh yeah, I don’t know if they won tonight or not. I didn’t see the score. Um, oh, I remember what I was going to do. I was going to look up that. Um, try to find that stat for you guys if I can get it to load. Um, of course, I see a Bball breakdown analyzing that foul on Chris Murray against SGA last game. That’s the first thing I see. Um, maybe I’ll wait till Tori gets back to find this cuz No, I just it just came up on the feed I clicked on on the All right. try to find on my phone. Yeah, it was very interesting and then like immediately so I saw a stat like this and I’m just like it’s another thing I’m baffled about like how how do they not see the need for someone who can hit shots? Um, let me try to find it. Man, Tori’s been gone a while. Long shower. Anyways, uh I guess no one wants to talk on Discord. Oh, wait. There’s Alex and Bubsy. How do I invite to speak? What’s up, Eric? I’ll keep you some company, man, till uh Tori’s back. What’s up, man? It’s a pretty long shower. Yeah. Yeah. Just chilling. Can uh people hear you in chat? Let me just make sure people Yeah, let me let me know in the chat. Can you guys hear Mugsy or did Notorious set it up? You guys hear me? Yep. Okay. Okay, they can hear me. Congrats to your epic victory. Thank you, Eric. No, don’t don’t worry. I’ll be very calm this show. I’ll be very uh professional. I’ll be very uh I’ll be very calm. Just a couple things I I do want to talk about on the port Portland side of things that I saw. First of all, Tumani was not like knocking down crazy threes. Like at the start of the game, I’m like, we losing like we’re a thousand% going to lose this game. He just pulling up in our faces. We were like our game plan was to like you know play him back a little bit and there was so much space that they had to just like nail threes and then like a timeout was called and then uh our player Jamal Shetty’s like uh our game plan was like play them back a little bit more, right? And then like that was bad and then we like had to tighten up our def defense. So we tightened it up and then we started playing good defense and eventually got that win. Man, it was it was it was a great game though. It was it was an awesome game. I loved it. Do you live in Toronto? Yeah, I live I live right in Toronto. I go to school right next to the stadium. So, it’s like sometimes I try to go home quick so I like I don’t get like caught up in the traffic and and stuff. So, it’s like you go to any games? Yeah, that was that was me. Yeah, I’ve I’ve went to a game three years ago against the Pacers. I I just haven’t had the time to um haven’t had the time to go to a game to be honest. Yeah, but Denny was playing pretty bad at the at the start. Was he like one for six? Yeah, it was something like that. He wasn’t hidden. Everyone else was though. But man, yeah, everyone else, if you haven’t watched the Blazers enough, uh that wasn’t going to continue. Everyone who watches the Blazers knew that that was not sustainable. So Denny’s so good at playmaking, man. Like 14 assists is ridiculous. Like like that guy genuinely after last year’s all-star break, that guy turned it up a notch, man. Now he’s just like he’s just continuing this type of play like onto this new season, which which is sick. Yeah. Just happy for him. I can’t lie. He had he had some moves tonight where I was like, whoa. where like he Yeah. like the defender thought he was going one way and he like dribbled back the other way a couple times. He’s he doesn’t usually do that. He usually just like picks a way and goes, but or like occasionally he’ll go like he’ll be going one way and go behind his back, but he had a couple moves that were like he just like completely lost the defender in like one second and then was gone. And then uh unfortunately the first half he missed a couple of those. Um you know people were saying he’s a worse foul merchant than SGA when we played. That’s a skill. That’s a skill. Yeah. But uh I I did feel like uh today he was uh man he he should have probably got to the line a few more times in 15. Oh more. Do you know one thing? Like one thing I noticed about your guys like play style, it’s like something that you guys are probably missing. I I I may be wrong so you can correct me because I’m not I don’t watch you guys that much. But when I was watching you guys, I feel like if like Cllingan starts to become more of like a like a playmaker at the like like be like the hub of the off offense kind of to get these scores like in the right spots kind of like how Yaka Purle like runs our offense kind of sometimes when we don’t really have a primary playmaker on the floor like sometimes Brandon Ingram comes off like off ball screens screens wrap wraps around and Jakob’s at like the top of the three like finding guys to pass the ball to. And I think if like Donovan Klingan can do that, that would be sick. Like he could become more of like a hub. What’s up, Mves? He literally did it in college and the most complex college offense at Yukon and we just don’t utilize it. He did have that one. Uh so I think it was to Chris Murray for a dunk. Um someone went back door and he had that nice. Yeah, it was Chris Murray. It was a good pass. What drives me crazy though is like he made some advanced reads in Yukon’s offense and it’s never we never have him make any advanced reads. He our offense is simpler than Yukon’s, much simpler than Yukon’s. And we don’t put him in spots to like make reads when he proved that he could. And this could be something that we’re developing in him. And that would be a real asset to our offense with all these athletes and, you know, big wings that can score, finish strong around the rim. Especially somebody like Shaden could could thrive off this. And it’s like, it’s literally just, all right, if you see a back door cutter, make that pass. Otherwise, go hand off. Yeah, I feel like there were a lot of plays where Shaden was just like he he didn’t let like the play start. He would just grab the ball, sprint or like get too shot happy and stuff. He did have a good game, but it was still like he could get so many better looks if he just runs through someone else. Like I don’t know. That’s the That’s the problem though is is we get stagnant in the half court and we try and play fast. So So a lot of that is just like trying to play fast and we’re not good at playing fast. I mean, we had 10 fast break points today. Um, we’re not we’re not an effective fast break team, but we like to act like we are, and it’s it just doesn’t doesn’t translate. The team doesn’t look like as like their record isn’t as bad, but they don’t look as bad as their record, if you know what I mean. Like, well, you know, the Blazers are close in a lot of it just they’re they’re maybe the worst team in the league when Denny AI is off the floor. I don’t know what the exact numbers are. It’s probably not that bad, but there’s so many games like you look at tonight and let me put Eric in his in his own window here. Um, he was a plus 11 in 37 minutes, which means in the in the 11 minutes Denny Odia didn’t play, the Blazers got outscored by 14 points. Oh, just find a way to not get eviscerated in those minutes and you’re winning some of these basketball games because there’s so many close losses or single-digit losses where the Blazers outscored the other team when Denny Odia is on the floor because he’s playing like a superstar and some of it’s the injuries. So, they lose these other minutes and that’s kind of the frustrating thing right now is is they look pretty good when he’s on the floor and then they look horrible when he’s off the floor. And that just speaks to the end of the roster sucks. You got a bunch of defensive guys that don’t play defense and can’t shoot. I like Sissoko though. I don’t know. Do you look good? I don’t I don’t like Sissoko. I don’t I’m not decent. I mean, as fine as like a 15th guy, but not as your starting point guard or whatever he’s doing right now. Yeah, he’s fine as your 15th guy if you have enough shooting. um if you have enough shooting. But I do want to get into the defense. But Mozy, I’ll let you I’ll let you Yeah, I’m I’m in the car anyways. I have to go back home. Just have to join up. No, I was just going to say like I’m not I’m not kicking you off the street out then after after this. I do want to get into I just like broke down a lot of the defensive possessions in the second half and I got some thoughts. So, um but shout out to your Raptors. Shout out to your Raptors, man. They’re looking really really good. 15 Canada. Did you you were high on them and and I gave you crap before the season because I didn’t believe it. I I I don’t think I don’t think they’ll keep playing this Well. Has your Has your schedule been easy? Uh yeah. Yeah, it’s it’s been easy. I’ll give you that. I’m a biased guy, but I’m not that biased to the point where I think we’re we’re peing right now, but I think if we like I don’t know, there’s we can make some moves here and make this team better a little bit. A lot of players that are getting paid a lot and stuff like that. So, yeah, we’ll see what happens. All right, guys. Appreciate it, Moves. All right, guys. Have a have a great night, man. Hey, thanks for your help on the channel, by the way. Oh, all all good, man. See you, brother. Bye. My god, man. My god. Check out Msy Hoops on YouTube. Uh well, shout out for his channel. Um met him through through YouTube. But uh anyway, thank you for calling in. We got two people trying to call in. Let let me spend like 10 12 minutes talking about some stuff here because I do have a lot to say and I am now finally making my appearance on this postgame show. So, I I don’t I’m getting to the point where I don’t believe in Thiago Splitter tactically. I still feel like it’s too early to really judge him as a coach in terms of like the system that he’s running because that was put in place before he became head coach, but there is some in-game stuff that he clearly decides to do that is questionable. One is the rotations and not properly mixing and matching lineups. Um, today going small with City Sissoko. City Sissoko doesn’t space the floor anymore than Donovan Klingan. What does he provide that Donovan Klingan doesn’t? Well, especially if we’re going to run zone. Well, that’s another point on the Thiago thing is all the freaking zone that it does not does not perform well. I mean, we got to stop running so much zone. If we’re supposed to be a defensive minded team with defensive minded players, we got to start playing actual defense instead of running freaking zone in the NBA. I think that’s ridiculous. Um, and Toronto had some success against it. Did you listen to the stream at all while you’re in there? No. Okay. I I had a huge rant about that. Yeah. See, this is this is how you this is how you know me and Eric don’t script things to agree with each other. Um, you’re already one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the league. You’re already one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the league. And it’s harder to defensive rebound out of a zone. And why would you run a zone if you go small? You’re supposed to be more mobile. Like, it’s just stupidity. It’s just like I am really starting to question Thiago because there’s just some basic basketball stuff like that he just doesn’t doesn’t have. And one of them’s like city Silka doesn’t provide you with anything that Donovan Klingan doesn’t do just as well if not better other than like handle the ball. But you don’t need him to handle the ball. You got Shaden Sharp and Jeremy Grant Denny Aia. You don’t need his ball handling. Like it doesn’t it’s it’s not helping you win games like this. Um so that’s baffling. But the zone man, why do we keep going zone? Zone zone. Well, zone to me is like, we’re going to get creative and we’re going to switch it up without any more thought behind it because it’s not like it’s been effective and it’s we we’ll do it against really good shooting teams and we’ll do it when we can’t defensive rebound. We already suck at defensive rebounding. Zone’s hard to defensive rebound against and then we’ll take out our 7-2 center who can actually rebound, you know. Um, it just doesn’t really add up to me and there’s a lot of stuff with Thiago that’s starting to really not add up to me. Um, so yeah, I I support the rant that you gave about the freaking zone. Um, you know, it wasn’t a Let me look at the team stats here. They had 10 offensive rebounds, so it wasn’t as big of a problem tonight, but Well, they had nine in the first half. Yeah, but I the the biggest issue with the defense is they foul too much and they give up too many defensive boards. That’s the two biggest things with the defense. But the other thing I want to talk about is I think it’s time to start being harder on a few guys for their defense. And I’m not saying Tammani Kamar I’ve already been like a little critical of him. Um but like we kind of know what the deal is with him. Shaden Sharp has to start spacing the floor if he’s not going to be a good defensive player. I feel like we set the bar so low for him coming into the year because he already was a pretty bad defender and there was a lot of plays where his effort was questionable and then finally at the start of the year he didn’t have many questionable effort plays and we’re plotting it saying like oh he’s giving good effort now that’s all we need from Sharp like he’s not giving up on plays looking back at that that is such a low freaking bar that’s too low of a bar like oh he tried he’s he’s trying on 80% of position. It’s not like he’s a higher effort. He’s above average effort player or anything like that defensively, but we’re sitting there because he’s not having plays where like a guy drives and then he just puts his hands down and watches the guy score. And we’re sitting there applauding that at the start of the season. I mean, I think, and it’s funny me saying this, but I think maybe we should be a little harder on him for his defense because he’s scoring the ball and he scored the ball in this He’s 9 for 18 from the field, but he’s 0 for three from three. He’s not a floor spacer. He doesn’t make it easier on anybody on this team offensively. He scores, but he doesn’t set up other players at a high rate. He did have three assists today. That’s above average for him. And he takes a ton of shots, right? So, he’s not really somebody that play makes for others and and makes the game easier for others, makes others better. And he’s not somebody that makes it easier for others by spacing the floor. Um, he scores when he has the ball, but it’s like, okay, outside of the dribble drive stuff, what are you providing the defense? Uh, there I mean, he got blown by twice in the fourth quarter in this game just on like one was just a basic crossover that he got completely shook on. It resulted in a lob in the paint. Um, and then one was Jamal Shed turning downhill. And this whole team gives up way too much dribble penetration, but like Shane Sharp, I know he’s not he’s supposed to maybe be the worst defender in the lineup, but it’s like I want to see him help his team outside of just scoring the ball inside the ark. Um, I don’t know how you feel about that, but yeah. Well, I mean, I feel like that’s not just a shade problem. I feel like everyone’s getting beat up people. And then uh I’m going to get this. This is also what happens when you don’t have any sort of rim protection in the game in the fourth quarter either. And um so the one guy who was actually saving this team from well actually two because Rob did a nice job protecting the rim tonight too. Um the the two guys who are actually saving this team from looking completely terrible on defense, uh neither of them were in for that stretch run where they could have maybe deterred one of those drives. And so I Yeah, I’m there are other players I’m ready to criticize. Okay. So, Sharp is just one of the players. I feel like we shouldn’t deflect it to to other players because he’s not he he needs to do he needs to do a little bit more. He either needs to space the floor or playmaker for others at a little higher rate or play better defense. like those three things are just not impressive to me with his game at all and hasn’t developed like I’ve wanted it to. Um he’s great scoring inside the arc, athletic, like 23 points today, nine for 18. So he had a good game inside the arc. He was nine for 15 inside the ark. Got to the line six times, made five of those free throws. That stuff’s great. I would I just want to see another facet to his game. One of those three like just give me one of those three things. One of those three things. Um because yeah, it’s it’s I just want to see more out of him. Um but moving on, I’m getting close to the point where I want to say Chris Murray’s not a good defensive player. I’m really getting to that point. He gets blown by a little bit too much. He’s not a great point of attack defender. He does some decent team defense things sometimes, but like he’s an okay defensive player. I I just who does who does he contain off the dribble at a at a good rate? Like I feel like he doesn’t contain dribble penetration well enough. And this is a problem across the team, but it’s like when we start looking at okay, we have a bunch of good defensive players right now and we’re not playing good defense. I think at some point you have to wonder, okay, maybe these guys aren’t as good defensively as as they’re hyped up to be. And I’m kind of getting there with Chris Murray a little bit. Um, the play where Ingram dunked on Klingan was a perfect example of like Chris Murray just looked like he was in quicksand and got blown by easily off the dribble and then we’re asking Donovan Klingan to save our defense. That’s a perfect example of like a lot of our defensive problems is we give up too much dribble penetration and then we ask for Donovan Klingan to save things at the rim. Yeah, I don’t know if I haven’t noticed Murray as much. I mean, obviously he got blown by a couple times tonight, but I haven’t noticed it as much as some of the other people. Yeah, but that Yeah. Well, I think that’s kind of my point is like he doesn’t make a ton of really bad mistakes to notice it, but is he actually a good defensive player? or is he just like okay and doesn’t make a ton of mistakes and gets beat off the dribble once in a while and makes a good play once in a while, but on average he’s just an okay defensive player. I think I’ve at times this season I’ve I actually have been impressed with him staying in front of someone that should be much faster than him but is is not is not great. But there’s a comment from Thomas Sansky, I think, talking about Sharp saying he’s a few months older in the scoop. Missed his most his second year. Let him improve. Bro, it’s year four. He’s declined every season from behind the three-point line. Like the defense, the only thing that’s really improved is like, oh, he doesn’t give completely inconsistent effort now. And the playmaking stuff might have been better in year two than it is in year four. So, it’s like, has he improved at those things between year two and year four? He’s improved with his dribble drive game, finishing at the rim, mid-range percentage, and that’s why he’s a more a more effective scorer than he was, you know, year one, year two. I’ve seen the improvement that I need to see out of those areas. But the playmaking, the defense, the three-point shot, it’s year four. Like, we can sit here and say he’s 22 years old. All right, he should be improving from 20 to 22. Instead, his three point percentage is taken a step down each season. Then this year it’s taken three steps down. Um so I don’t really understand that. And then Chris, I mean it’s a third straight year where he’s shooting mid20s from three. Like is he much different than he was his rookie year? Not shooting. Yeah. I I but I I just I don’t know like if if a guy’s gonna shoot that poorly and not be much of a playmaker, Eric, I want him to be a noticeably good defender where he can slow down guys on the perimeter more than Chris Murray does. So, um did you see this Bball Index post earlier? Bball Index. Yeah, it was like from this morning. No, I don’t really pay attention to Bball Index. Okay. So they had this chart that um so uh the graph had going um up and down was half court shot making and going left to right was half court shot quality. The Blazers are uh what? Sixth best in half court shot quality. Okay. So So my question is it a quality shot if a bad shooter shoots an open three? I it it doesn’t this doesn’t take into account who’s shooting. It’s just the quality of shots they’re generating. Okay. They are the sixth best in the NBA in generating good shots. Do you know what they are in half court shot making? Probably bottom five. They are uh 28th. Yeah. Yeah. So, but we need Blake Wesley, Eric. So, we need Blake Wesley will help with that, right? There’s there’s two things I think of when I see this. The first is maybe this offense is better than we thought. Um but there’s no way to show that because we don’t have any shooter on this team. So like what how are they going to prove that? Yeah. Um but that leads me to my next point. How did Joe Cronin go a whole off season? like every single person knew this could be a problem and it just was not addressed outside of for the 2026 2027 season when when Dame comes back maybe. Um, but like this to me is like just screaming, okay, we are awesome. Basically, Denny is awesome at creating shots for people, right? Get him someone who can actually make those shots and we could be pretty freaking good, I think. Right. Yeah. I mean, shoot, if he improves a little bit after this season and gets some shooting around him, could he be a 25 10 and 10 guy? Like, could he average a triple double? That’s maybe being a little optimistic, but you know, we’ve seen some high rebounding games. And look at tonight, they make some threes and he has 14 assists. The last three games, he’s averaging a 30-point triple double. So, I mean, I’m being a little hyperbolic. I don’t think he could average a 25point triple double, but he creates great three-point shots all the time, and it’s from guys that can’t make them. Here, here’s the thing, though. So, um, so Elizabeth Allen says, “Generating good shots can’t be determined like that.” That’s like saying one of us is on the team and we take all the shots because the defense lets us. They’re good shots. That’s why the shots are great and open because the defense chooses not to defend the the shooters. Okay. So, yes, that can be correct. Okay. So, let me ask you this, Tori. How packed is the paint when Denny drives? Oh, man. Because of that, man, it’s pretty packed, right? Yeah, it’s very packed. Okay. So, you’re telling me if we have better shooters, they’re going to be out on those shooters, so they won’t get open shots. Okay, great. Then we have Denny driving into less coverage and he’s going to score 45 points a game. Y like, okay, you you have to pick your poison. So, yes. Okay, great. Then Denny’s going to get more layups and more opportunities, more he’s going to get way more easier shots. and Scoot hopefully when he comes back too. So, uh, like, okay, great. Good. Like, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. So, the shot quality might go down in terms of not getting these open threes, but they’re not going to be able to guard Denny the same way if we have shooters. So, either he’s going to have an easier time driving or or they’re going to get uh these open shots still and it’s going to be better shooters. And uh so I I don’t see how that’s negative. Also, it’ll give more space for Klingan to play in the dunker spot. If his guy helps those dump off passes, it’s going to be harder for defense to make that second rotation and collapse down on him because they’re worried about shooters at the three-point arc. I think Denny’s getting slowly getting better at at throwing lobs. He had a couple one to Robwell tonight. He had one to Shay on a transition. He is I I think that’s something that can be um pursued a little bit more too. Yeah. Yeah. So 10,00%. 1000%. I mean, it’s it’s crazy that like the one guy at the end of our roster that’s like the scoreer that Joe Kernan went out and got that people tried to tell me he’s better than Scoo because of summer league and highlights is maybe the most inefficient shot chucker in the league and he’s shooting 25% from three, Eric, like and 30% from the field. I know he’s a two-way guy, but dude, oh, I forgot you were you were on this page. Let me open up a different tab. Um, you got his six shots up in 12 minutes tonight. Do you want to hop in collab cam so I could like use my other buditor without messing up the camera? Sure. All right. And then I can make fun of you for getting collab cam, which is my favorite thing. Favorite thing to do. I’d rather have Sharp with the ball and Denny is a shooter. What? All right, here we go. Okay. Um, where were we? If I take too long on the stream for Alex Wolf to call in, I promise Alex, I’ll let you call in on just a random show. All right. That’s my promise to you. I just I gotta get through some of this stuff. Um, where where were we? I don’t know. We’re talking about Oh, just the shooting. I mean, I don’t want to sit here and talk in circles about the shooting like I did last stream for 30 minutes. It’s just so It’s just so ridiculous. It’s so ridiculous. Like, you you have a guy that’s a walking paint touch and generates all these shots on the three-point line for guys that can’t shoot. And it’s it’s something that we knew was going to be a problem. And Joe Cern didn’t address it even though they were trying to be competitive this year. It’s a failure on his part. And I know the cronies won’t like to hear that because they want to worship everything he does or does not do and want to worship the ground that he walks upon. But he failed this off seasonason to address maybe the biggest need when there was a coaching staff coming in running an offense that needs shooting to work properly in his acquisitions. I mean, they had Sydney Sissoko at the end of last year, but like City Sissoko, Caleb Love, we’re talking about 25% three-point shooters. Young Hansen, a guy who’s 27% last year, not ready to play. Drew Holiday, but you traded your best shooter for him. Like, he’s not a shooting upgrade over Anthony Simons, Joe, at this point. Like, I don’t think he knows how to fill out the end of a roster. Well, he knows how to fill them out with defensive guys that can’t play defense apparently. Yeah. I mean, that’s the biggest thing for me is like City Soko, Chris Murray, Brian Repair, they’re not good enough defensively to justify how bad they are offensively. Like, they are literally not NBA players to me. City Soko struggles to get through through screens. Big strong body. It’s tough for him to get through screens, but he’s played at a guard spot. So, he’s guarding guys that handle the ball and run, pick and roll, but he’s too small to really defend bigs. And he does not make a high enough percentage of threes. He was one for four again today. He’s a 25 center. Um, and yeah, we’re talking about guys on two ways, but dude, you can find shooters on two ways. You know, this is an issue. You know, your entire roster can’t shoot. You bring in Blake Wesley who can’t shoot. You have shooting holes in your top 15 guys. Then you have these couple of two-ways. Like, why don’t you just go out and get a couple guys that can knock down threes even if they can’t do anything else? That’s better than what we have with some of these guys. Like the the refusal to even address it with two-way signings. You went out and got Javvante. Javvante Cook on a two-way as well. Like, yeah, just go find somebody that can shoot. There’s always guys that can shoot. It’s not hard to find a shooter. So, it’s just the refusal across the board in the bottom half of the lineup and the two ways to address the shooting need at all to the point where you have all this defense, but your last signing of the off season is a 6-3 guard that can’t shoot. He’s like Steph Curry. if Steph Curry was trying to hit the front of the rim every time he shot the ball. So, it’s it’s it’s a legitimate issue and it’s a failure on Joe Cronin’s part. It’s a legitimate failure on his part because if this team had better shooting, I think they’d have a couple more wins right now even with the injuries because you have a dude that’s playing like a superstar and you’re not doing enough to help him. So, pisses me off because it’s such a simple thing to to freaking address. I forgot what team this was with. Um, but Tyler Smith just signed a 2-way with somebody yesterday or today. I mean, he’s been a free agent this whole year. Um, could have it’s very small sample size, but he was known as a big man who could shoot threes in um coming to that draft. And I mean, it’s like I said, a small sample size, but he shot 43.3% last year. How many g how many games? How many attempts was that? I mean, it was it was a very small amount of attempts, but I mean, he was okay. Yeah, he’s just been a 29.7% three-point shooter his G-League career on 145 attempts. So, it hasn’t been particularly pretty in the G-League. And I feel like that’s why they he got cut, why Milwaukee cut him because the shooting wasn’t really there. Let me look up G-League. Three point percentage leaders. Was a 30 attempts last year. Yeah, 13 to 30. Let’s see if I can look at uh three point percentage leaders in the G- League. It’s not sortable. All right. I love that. All right. So, I see a lot of people talking about like, “Oh, maybe Cronin is tanking this year or we we signed Dame thinking a year from now, not this year.” Bull crap. Bull crap. The They Yes, signing Dame was for next year, and that’s a luxury to have. Um, but this team thought they were going to be better this year. Now, there’s still a lot of time to improve. There’s still a lot of things that can happen, but they they had this whole off season about this is even before they signed Dame about how they’re a playing team and they’re going to they’re going to do that kind of stuff. So, yeah. I I don’t buy that for a second. I think that’s just trying to give Croin a way out. You’re telling me they traded a 26-year-old Anthony Simons for a 35-year-old Drew Holiday when they didn’t want to win? When they wanted to take this season, so they traded for a 35-year-old Drew Holiday. I mean, come on. They they kept it rolling as much as they could last season until it was obvious they weren’t going to make the play. They didn’t start taking in March at the out March 1st like they did in previous seasons. They did start taking eventually, but once it was clear they weren’t in the plan. Like we got to stop trying to give Cronin this way out. Also, if that’s the plan to tank this year, I mean, he failed at that too then cuz we’re in the playing mix still. Like you have Denny Odia playing like a superstar. So, you’re basically telling me had an off seasonason to try and make sure they stayed in the middle and they’ve had tough injury luck. They’re still what 10th seed or 11 seed or whatever they are right now. Um, I think they’re still the 10th seed. So, stop. Don’t give them that easy way out. They weren’t trying to tank this year. Tristan says Kronin did get wreath splitter plays repair instead. Okay, let’s look at DWOP wreath’s um career stats. Dwap before the season had a three-point percentage of about 35%. So an average shooter who sucks defensively as a big man, who’s horrible defensively as a big man. It’s and he says six foot n center. like it’s gotten to the point if he doesn’t make like a three-pointer a minute, he’s unplayable cuz he’s so bad everywhere else. He doesn’t help their rebounding. He doesn’t help their defense. And yes, he’s had a couple games where he’s come in, hit a couple threes, like the first OKC game where we won. Um, but outside of him doing something like that when he comes into the game, uh, he’s unplayable. And then we have uh Yon Hansen who’s also unplayable. So well my point is I don’t blame Thiago for that. My point is if you’re going to get a three-point specialist that becomes unplayable if they’re not shooting the three ball really well because of all these other deficiencies, get a three-point specialist that’s better than a 35% three-point shooter. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like you can go find somebody that can shoot 40% from three. They’re like littered across the G-League. And yeah, they have other issues, but like if anything’s decently translatable, it’s the ability to shoot the freaking ball. Maybe their whole plan was assigned Beasley and then he got busted and yeah, yeah, I’m sure. Um, yeah. And then their coach got busted. Gambling is just ruining the Portland Trailblazers. Yep. Um, exactly. Let me go back to the box score. But like Chris Murray, I I’m he’s not good enough defensively for his other deficiencies. If he could shoot a decent three ball and was just like solid and everything, okay, great. But what’s he shooting on the season? He made a He made a three today. He was one for three from three today. 33%. Let’s go. Like the bar has just been raised so low instead in terms of percentage. He was 28.9% before today. Could he be above 30%. I don’t know. I don’t know. Um yeah, it’s it’s the Caleb loves stuff is ridiculous. Everybody wanted to victory lap me when he had 26 points, which I was super excited for. I was at that game, but he’s exactly what I told people he was. But people wanted to call me a hater because I didn’t think he was better than Scoot because of summer league and highlights. Guess what? His highlight tape this season already goes pretty damn hard. And if that’s not a lesson, like for some of you that try to gas him up, then I don’t know what will be. He’s he’s uh every game he’s good for like two for six and one for five from three. In 12 minutes he was a minus 14. Nobody else was worse than a minus 9. Ryan repair in six minutes was a minus n. I guess that’s worse because it’s half the minutes. But like get somebody that can just space the floor, knock down a couple threes that doesn’t come in and shoot one shot every two minutes at 30% from the field and 25% from three. Like what’s the point? I’d rather have Thiago splitter out there himself at times than Caleb Love. I mean, what are we doing? What’s Alec Burks doing right now? That’s a good question. Yeah, like we should have Alec Burks instead of Ry repair. That’s a good name. There you go. That’s a guy that can shoot. I was looking at a list of like free current free agents. Yeah, he moves like he’s old as hell, but he can shoot and it’s better than Ryan Rivera who moves like a like a deer. Shot over 42% last year on over four attempts a game. Good vet, but no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We don’t have enough defense. We don’t have enough defensive guys that can’t shoot. Eric Blake Wesley. Oh, he played six games and played super hard and played super fast. Now he’s a fan favorite. Now he gets hurt. Oh man, our issues would just be they’d be solved if we didn’t have Blake Wesley get hurt. Anyway, um I’m being very sarcastic and and snarky in this stream, but I’m I’m some of the the narratives are I’m just tired of at least the narratives that we had going into the season and the excuse and that sort of stuff. Uh, Ryan repair six minutes, no points, no boards, no assists, no steals, no blocks. He did shoot a three, though. Guess what? He missed it. And he was a minus nine. Oh, and he got a foul. He fouled somebody. Was that a better game than Caleb Love? Although Caleb Love had an above average game. He shot 33% from the field. Oh, and then Chris Murray in his 26 minutes, five points, didn’t get a board, didn’t get an assist. He did make a three. One for three from three, 33% throw parade. Um, and got a couple steals in a block. So, five points. He got a couple steals in a block at 26 minutes while not spacing the floor. having bad defensive moments as well at times. Let Klingan get put on a poster because he just let Brandon Ingram drive right by him. Doesn’t matter. We’re about to get Yiannis because he unfollowed all the Bucks on Instagram. Let’s go, man. Like, if we’re gonna have a player that can’t shoot threes, it should be Giannis. I agree. Um, and people worried about like his fit with Denny. They would like I’m not I’m not worried about his fit with Denny. Denny can actually shoot and play off Giannis and attack closeouts and and then if you have enough shooting out there, Giannis can play in the dunker spot off Denny. Hopefully Clayton can shoot so Clayton can step out. You know what I mean? Or I mean even if Clay is in the dunker spot, our offense with the cutting off the ball when Denny drives. Imagine if that’s Giannis cuz Giannis has somebody next to him to take the take the pressure off of him and Dame because in the past it was only Dame and a bunch of crap around him. I’m cool with that. You would just get shooters around Giannis and Denny and Dame in that world. If it cost you Denny, do you not trade for Giannis? No. Yeah. Okay. You rather Denny? should not cost us any. I’m just saying if it did, if you had to choose between Denny and Okay, I say no because it shouldn’t cost us any. I know, but okay. They have another trade lined up to another team. They call you and say, “We’re making this trade with the Knicks uh to where Giannis wants to go unless you give us Denny.” Yes or no? Are you saying Denny’s straight up for him? Well, obviously they’d have to match salary because he makes crapload of money. And they would they not going to trade Yiannis to us without wanting their picks back. So again, the hypothetical of him or Denny like obviously he’s a better player. Obviously I take him, but in any realistic scenario like there’s no trade that makes sense. Yeah. Um and Shen, you’re trading for Giannis. like you have enough young players, you have their picks, you have future upside, and you want to be as good as possible. So, it doesn’t make sense to really, it doesn’t make sense to trade for Giannis and trade Denny, if that makes sense. That’s why I said no at first because you’re basically then put in a position where you’re kind of just rerunning what the Bucks did, but Dame’s older and off into Key’s terror. Jonas is shooting 43% from three this year. Yeah, he is. 1.4 attempts per game. It’s amazing. I mean, he fits our archetype. The last four years, he shot between 22 and 29% from three. Mhm. Might as well get all the nonshooters. Yeah. Yeah. Might as well get Anthony Davis, too. Would they have the ammo to keep Denny and trade for Giannis and Anthony Davis? I don’t know. Do you see what Dallas is asking for? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, um the Kevin Durant package at minimum. Yeah, right. I mean, that package wasn’t even that great anyways, but No, I just although Dylan Brooks turned into an all-star or something. I don’t know what’s going on there. But um here’s the thing though that’s going to happen is like do you expect Joe Cronin to effectively address the shooting need at the trade deadline if this team’s in play in territory? They want to go for it. No, that’s the problem. I would expect him to stand pat and sit there and say, “Oh, Blake Wesley just came back. He’s our trade deadline acquisition.” Stephen knows it’s a problem. I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense, man. It does not make sense to me. Does not make sense to me. I’m tired of this archetype, Eric. I’m just flat out sick and tired of this archetype um of guy They certainly have a type and the type sucks. Ryan repair experiment is over. Okay. He has not improved at all in three years. Chris Murray like should not be playing rotation minutes for an NBA team. I get it. the injuries, but I on a good night, he’s just like chewing up minutes without screwing anything up, which I guess is fine to have at the end of your roster, but when you can’t shoot as a team, having that guy be also a guy that can’t shoot is kind of dumb. Um, but going to the bigger point of our defense, one thing I feel like we haven’t talked about, our transition defense is pretty damn bad. I talked about that, too. Yeah. Um, we’re just not disciplined. There’s there’s there’s so many defensive possessions where it’s just like, what the the ball gets swung and Chris Murray was kind of like wasn’t fully ready off ball. Oh, this is one of the plays that annoyed me where it’s like, dude, um ball gets swung to his guy one pass away and he was already pretty close to like get a good contest on the three and the guy like just throws in a lazy punt fake and he jumps off his feet past him and gives him a free lane to the rim and it’s just like come on man. You’re supposed to be the smart defender that’s just solid and fundamental. You’re not supposed to be one pass away. You’re already close to your guy. The ball is swung to him. right there and then he just throws a pump fake and you’re jumping out of your shoes at that. He’s the last guy that’s supposed to be doing that. He’s supposed to be just the solid fundamental mental guy. Um but no, he’s jumping at that. There was a play where Robert Williams was running with Sandro Mamu Kelli in transition and then was kind of staring at the ball and completely lost track of him and that was the dunk that Mamu got in uh transition. just not disciplined. You’re just staring at the ball and not staying with the guy you’re running with in transition, which is your actual matchup. It wasn’t even a cross match. Um, you know, you have Shaden Sharp getting crossed, not being able to contain dribble penetration. I mean, that’s more of like a that’s not really a like boneheaded thing. That’s just like a lack of a defensive ability thing that he needs. He just needs to find a way to improve. Shout out to YaKob who gifted a Blazers Uprize membership which went to Bri the Kid. Congratulations to Bri. Thank you, YaKob. Appreciate you, brother. Um, he also had a donation, too. Oh, I’ll take the dono, too. And then I’ll get back to my tag. Shout out to Yakob with a 100 Norwegian crony donation. Thank you, Yakob, for the Norway money. I appreciate it. Says, “Hi guys, another tough one. Can’t believe Thiago didn’t sub and cling to Rob at the end when Yakob came on. Got out coached. Good to see some form from two again at least, I guess.” Yeah, it’s nice that Tummani, you can tell he’s shooting the ball confidently now and the last two games has been phenomenal. So, he’s breaking out of his slump. Um, which is great. Great. Really, really good to see. Um, but he’s already a 30enter, you know. He shouldn’t get that three-point percentage too high. Just kidding. Uh, good to see him break out. Good to see him shoot confidently. Thank you for the donation. Um, there was also a member message that we missed. Shout out to Tristan’s member message. Yeah, I read it. Oh, you did? Yeah. Corner did get wreath splits repair. That’s when we started talking about Yeah. Um, all good. All good. Definitely want to make sure we catch everything. Uh but there’s just so many undisiplined mistakes in transition where we’re just losing track of guys or not communicating, not picking up ball fast enough. You number one, you stop ball. Number two, you I mean this kind of goes hand in hand, but you don’t let anybody cut wide open to the rim. There’s the play where Denny fell down and they were coming in transition and nobody picked up the Aqua Purle running right to the rim. Like you go with him and leave a shooter open, right? um because you’re not able to rotate to him. If nobody guards him, he’s getting a dug, which is what happened, right? If you guard him and leave somebody open on the perimeter, then maybe you can rotate and Denny Trail in the play can take the guy up top. Worst case scenario, you give up a wideopen three. I’d rather give give up an open three than a wideopen dunk from their big man. So, that was kind of a ridiculous defensive transition possession. Um, they don’t particularly get through screens well, but their scheme is not to help on screens, so that’s going to be what it’s going to be. Just too much biting at pump fakes, too much biting on crossovers, too much overplaying. Um, this team needs to be better fundamentally and better in transition. Their transition defense is declining. Their transition defense has has been an issue. But other teams, you see, they’ll get the board and they’ll have somebody leaking up the sideline and they’ll hit a hit ahead pass and get an easy bucket. Portland doesn’t do that. Even though they want to play fast, Portland doesn’t leak out like that. And even though they don’t leak out like that, Eric, they still can’t defensive rebound. Anyway, it’s frustrating because like a lot of the issues are just kind of silly to me and this team’s still competitive because they have somebody playing like a superstar. Like, so I know people will sit there and be like, “You guys are so mad they played a really good Toronto team that’s 15 and seven on the road and they’re injured and they only lost by three.” That’s for the box score watchers. I see this dude playing like a superstar. Danny playing like a superstar. Toi breaking out of his slump. You have some good pieces and you have a bunch of dead weight at the end of the roster that can’t shoot. And you make some silly defensive mistakes and then down the stretch you don’t play your center. You play City Sissoko who doesn’t do anything better than your center really. and uh you give up some buckets on the interior and then you play crappy zone. Like there’s just so much stuff to get cleaned up and they’d be winning games. They’d be winning games. So, I wonder how our defense will look with Roy Rogers still here. I don’t know, man. I’m starting to wonder how our defense would look if Chanty was still here. Scoot Dame Drew Blake Tease will help getting back. I mean, do I mean Drew is the only guy that will help with the shooting and the defense. Tease will probably help the defense and if he can shoot a hot three ball might be another guy that can help in both areas, but he only shoots stand wide open threes and defenses don’t really respect him as a shooter. And if we’re talking about being more fundamental defensively, like he’s kind of the opposite. He’s just pure chaos. It works out sometimes, but sometimes it bites him in the ass. Maybe you’re forgetting what Trevan said last stream. What Trevan said last stream? I ignore a lot. He’s 100% on running on three-pointers on the off the dribble or something. That’s why I ignore what Trevan says. One three-pointer. Anyway, I’m tired of losing basketball games, bro. Like, I’m tired of losing I’m tired of the end of this roster. I’m tired of watching a bunch of guys on this team play basketball. Like, get frustrated. It’s getting to me. It’s getting to me. Anyway, let’s do tank. Um, why does why does the bottom ticker say Toronto lost to New York tonight? Oh, I didn’t update it. You just now caught it. Nice. I just saw it. Yeah. Damn. Mosie made these for me before the stream, too. I literally downloaded them and forgot to put them in. I was in a rush. There you go. Here’s the proper bottom ticker. There we go. One day this will be coded and show games while they’re live. Say that for like three years. Well, when it’s hard to when it’s hard to get in contact with your coder. Eric Wilson’s gonna help me code now. So, shout out to Eric. Shout out to the other Eric. Oh, that is who man I freaking hate. A nidler is Eric Olsen. I just Yeah, I hate the um Can can you You’ve been Eric Olsen this whole time. Yeah, I keep I keep forgetting. I’m googling. Is there a way to fix this? The recent change to handles is part of YouTube’s efforts to combat impersonators. Nice. Well, there are extensions available that can visibly remove the handles. They do not restore the original usernames. Just give us the option. Like, we don’t have a problem with impersonators. Give us the anymore anymore. We weeded them all out. What was all that effort for? Weeding out all the impersonators. Like, let us just give us a toggle where we can change it on a whim. It’s not hard. You’re Google. You’re ran by Google. Every person who watches the show just needs to change their email address to their previous username, their handle. Yeah. No, I just got to learn the learn the handles. I guess it’s dumb. Um, all right. Tankon time. Let’s do this thing. Can the Clippers please win a freaking game, man? I’m really scared. Wait, I need to take a Google Meet tab. Hello. I don’t even have that tab open. Okay, hold on. I hate streamlapse sometimes. This is ridiculous. Let me freaking do a window capture. All right, we’re just gonna have to do a display capture. because I’m not going to miss out on my Pon after another loss. Is that good enough? All right, Portland is in sole possession of 10th place. They are only half a game away from the Utah Jazz and only one and a half games away from the Dallas Mavericks. Okay. So, you’re currently sitting at 59 and 14. Yeah, this is really gross. Clippers need to start winning some games, especially if we’re going to tank. And here’s your guys, Sim. 14 is OKC, 13 is Chicago, 12 is Memphis, 11 is Milwaukee, and 10 is the OKC Thunder. Your Portland Trailblazers have moved up into the top four. Yeah, we moved OKC down one. Yeah. Yeah, we’re so back. They only get 10 and 14 and five now. 10, 14, and one. You mean? No, because we’re getting one. I bet you if either of these teams get one, it’s them. Charlotte is at nine. I don’t know who moved up. Sacramento’s at eight and OKC via the via the Clippers is number seven. Shout out to my Jinx. Nice. Screw them. Seven, 10, and 14. Yeah, that’s sad that that’s the best case scenario, man. Oh man. Six is Brooklyn. Five is Washington. All right. Top four time. Can we not be four? Four is your Portland Trailblazers. Would you trade four for seven, 10, and 14? Um, I don’t know. Oh, I do that in a freaking heartbeat because OKC roster spots like Yeah, you know, I trade four for seven. Yeah, probably in this draft. Three is Dallas, two is Atlanta via New Orleans, and one is Indiana. Then I would trade like 14 just to get our pick back so we don’t have to worry about that anymore. I don’t know if I would not do that. I would not do that, bro. Like give me Kareem Lopez. Give me a 10. Well, maybe we can take Kareem Lopez at 10. So, like a seven take. I mean, we like guys that shoot in the 20s. So, take you Safu. Who would you take a seven? Cuz none of these three guys are shooting. If the top six went that way, Chris Junior, he’s a he’s more of a center to me though. What’s uh Fleming shooting? Oh, we don’t need a guard. Flemings. He’s shooting well. 52%. There you go. Almost as good as half our roster. He’s a guard. I mean, we have three If we have three picks, I’m taking I’m taking him right now at seven. Yeah, why not? Wait, we’ll still get good players. You still get your boy at 10 or 14? I’d rather take off Dallas at seven. What if you get him at 10? Then we get him at 10. I I would want a combination of Kareem Lopez off Dallas and and maybe off Dallas is a 14. I don’t know. But Kareem Lopez off Dallas and then like best player available because Kareem Lopez and Odales are both guys that can handle the ball a little bit, can pass and have size to play the four but could also theoretically play multiple positions but also they can shoot off being down 20s of crime. Eric got collab cams. Shout out to you if you remember off this being my guy last year. My deep sleeper that was a projected undrafted player and I was like he pretty damn good. Now he’s a should be a lottery pick. Um, Yel can shoot too and guard multiple positions and pass can’t handle the bar shot create the same way. Andy’s 23. He’s good though. He’s good. Um, feel like Aales has star upside and like solid role player floor. Um, I like his upside though. Uh, same thing with Lopez. Those are my those are uh two guys I really like. And I do like Hal, although he’s not shooting the three ball well, but he’s gonna be a really good role player. I don’t know if I like him in the lottery, but like Tal for a while. It’s fun having like what’s what’s Isaiah Evans shooting this year? Uh Isaiah Stz has played Austin too. Yeah, Isaiah Evans 35% 90% for the free throw line. Yeah, I haven’t I haven’t watched enough dude yet other than Camboozer highlights. I if we made a splash trade where we like thinned the back court, Bennett Sts would be perfect for us. Yeah, like that dude’s a sniper and can handle the ball. Um I don’t know like his shot creation at the next level just because he’s not particularly explosive and Well, he’s it he’s one of the best pick and roll. ball handlers like scorers um creators, but he does need to pick usually. Yeah. But I mean, seeing what Kong Canipple is doing right now, Coniple is just bigger. Yeah. But like he’s not a particularly explosive player, but he plays off his shot and can drive because of it. So, but I mean with the backourt situation the way it is, it’s just we need shooters at a at a forward position. Um, it’s why I like Lopez. That’s why I like uh Odales. Dame Dame Sar shooting 36%. We could have two guys named Dame. We need to get SAR to El. Yeah. Finally get a SAR. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know. I mean, this will change a ton. It’s still very early, but I would definitely trade. Although, if if I trusted Caleb Wilson as a three-point shooter, I would love him on this team. I mean, I love him on this team regardless. It’s just four or trading down for seven, 10, and 14. interesting debate, but um because you probably wouldn’t be playing all three of those guys next year. But I do like three shots in three shots in the lottery is insane, Eric, in this draft. Like I feel like you’re almost guaranteed to end up with at least a fringe star if you know what you’re doing. Yeah. Um and you could just take chances on you could take a chance on us yusefu who is very boomer bust to me. Who’s a an immobile drop big that they will fall in love with that they’ll take for the third straight year? Um, let me let me look up uh NBA draft room because that has a second uh you know who I just thought about um Graham EK. Okay, he won’t get drafted. They’re not that crazy. They’re not that crazy. Um, let’s let’s look at it here. So, NBA draft room. Um, oh god, Henry Vasar is definitely their type. Yeah, he does everything. He can even step out and knock down a three. Wait, we like worst worst uh brothers too, right? Oh, wait. No, a day. There we go. Has to be at least 7 foot2. Has to have uh theoretical shooting ability, but not actual shooting ability. And oh, look right here. My struggle to guard at the NBA level and isn’t a switchable big. There you go. Yeah, that’s portless type right there. That’s the guy. Would it shock you if the Blazers Well, I mean, doing it three years in a row would just be completely insane, but like the Blazers trade down from 12 to like 17 and then take a day. Mara, I’d freak out. And then people would watch his highlights and see like the passing highlights from before he went to college when he was playing overseas. I mean, he’s been better this year than he’s been better, but people would definitely convince themselves that he is the next Jokic or the next Embiid because we already have the next Jokic, man. Miss Michigan’s tough. God, dude. Yeah, they’re going to win it all. They’re gonna win it all. Like, Gonzaga was destroying everybody, including Al, you know, they beat Alabama pretty handily and then they lose by 40 to Michigan. I mean I mean Gonzaga played their risk of the year. Michigan played really well, but just their front court’s insane. My guy, man, he’s so Mario’s so fun. Um yeah, the day Mara Mara, get ready for him in a blazer uniform. It’s funny because I joked about like Caleb Love last year and then it happened. So maybe I should be careful. You got your guy down there. Yeah. Yeah. He’s uh How’s he How’s he doing this year? Has he been playing? I haven’t watched San Diego. He’s still he didn’t transfer, right? No, he’s still he’s still there with Miles Bird. He’s playing in four games. He’s shooting 60% from three. He shot 55% from three last year. For his career, he’s 55.8% from three in 30 games, shooting 4 point Oh, no. I’m looking at two point percentage. Damn. Okay, this makes more sense. He’s shooting 67% from three this year. For his career, he’s shooting uh 41% from three in 30 games on 1.7 attempts per game. is like a mobile sevenfooter that also can play some defense. Needs to get stronger for his career in 24 minutes averaging 2.5 blocks per game maybe and mobile and switchable. I don’t know, man. I don’t understand why he’s like at the bottom of second round boards. I don’t get it. a mobile sevenfooter that can knock down threes and protect the rim and like switch out on the perimeter. He’s just like the type of guy I mean the the strength could be a legitimate issue, but if you can bulk him up, he’s a center that can play in any defensive scheme and knock down threes and like maybe put the ball on the floor a little bit, but that’s just a bonus. I don’t know. I’d take that chance in a second round easily. Um if not, he could maybe be a four a seven foot power for that can knock down threes and like mobile and weak side rim protector. So sounds like dwarf. No, dup breath is not seven feet tall and dupre does not play defense and do wreath does not shoot 40% from three. Tory, you do need to watch your mouth. Although, you also mentioned Chris before we drafted him. I mean, that was like the most obvious pick of Yong Hansen. When Eric said, “Oh, this pick got spoiled. This pick is out of left field.” Yong Hansen was my second guess. I forget who my first guess was, but that was knowing it was left field. Yeah, but I mean, I could have chose any second round pick. Yeah. Who was my first guess? I forget. don’t remember. Yeah, but right now if we’re at 10, I’m taking Kareem Lopez or A Dallas. I’m not thinking twice about that. Whichever one’s on the board. I’m getting so confident in my scouting. I kind of want to sit here and just be like Nicole Nokales is gonna be an NBA star. I won’t remember saying this in five years and neither will you, but yeah. I I also that archetype man like seeing Jaor so far this season like he just seems like he’s going to be a pretty damn good NBA player. I feel like when you’re six foot eight, six foot nine with passing field, able to handle the ball a little bit and have like three level scoring potential, that’s a pretty good bet to to take. That’s the archetype they need to draft. Like good shooter though. I mean, you know, I’m gonna go make a freaking shot. Yeah. You know who fit that archetype, but like the shot was questionable was Jaylen Johnson. Moved well, 6’9, could handle the ball. Some passing feel, athletic. Um, questionable shot, which is why he fell. But like, okay, you can turn him into a shooter. Bet on those traits instead of 6’7. doesn’t move well. Questionable shooter. Old guys know who I’m talking about. Anyway, um all right, Alex, I’ll let you call in if you’re still watching. I’ll let you call in on a future show. We got Jesse in chat. What’s up, Jesse? I recognize that handle. I just remember going crazy for Coward and then coming back down to Earth after. You know, I ranted about it last stream and had people in the Discord saying they need to stop talking so much about Coward. I wish uh we could talk a lot about Coward on our basketball team. Tundu is Davos’s son. What do you mean they’re similar or? No, I think it’s like his actual son. Really? I don’t think so. Yeah. No. No. if he’s anybody’s son. He reminds me of Anthony Edwards with like the the like accessories and the way he moves and the way he drives and I think he wears Yeah, he wears number five. Is a Baylor prospect just a good bet at this point? Keonte George playing great this year. VJ Edgecom looks really good. I mean’s been struggling to shoot pretty bad. His percentages, his splits look pretty bad now, but I mean still still promising. Yeah. Yeah. It’s like rookie. But uh he struggles. I mean he’s 41% from the field and 36% from three. Jacobe Walter. um okay tonight, but he’s he’s been he’s been solid. He’s shooting 42% from three. He’s just not playing a ton. Um he’s shooting 42% from three right now. Tori, did you see Tyson’s career night? Oh, did I? Oh, did I? Yeah. Um, what was the stat line? Like 27, 111, and four? No. What’s Jaylen Tyson averaging? Jaylen Tyson in 17 games shooting five threes a game. Do you know what he’s shooting in terms of his three-point percentage, Eric? 87%. Close. 48%. 48% good. Yeah, that’s that’s uh I know you’re used to numbers, you know, in the 20s, but 48 is actually kind of like where you want to be. Double our shooters. Yeah. Yeah. 12 points, five boards in 26 minutes a game. The passing isn’t really there, but per 36, he’s averaging uh 2.7 stocks, 1.7 steals a block. Like his defense isn’t the greatest, but yeah, he’s already a good role player. Already a good role player. Good pick at 20. Every time I watch Shyman play, he’s taking the dumbest shots possible. That was a guy that Eric hated and I didn’t understand it. And he has been bad. He has been pretty damn bad. So, you nailed that one. Our scouting is is good, man. Our scouting is really good. It’s getting to the point where I feel like I can just go off vibes. Maybe I’m getting a little too overconfident. Maybe this is the year I come back down to earth, but If you guys have been paying attention talking Yeah. But I mean, if you guys have been paying attention to our scouting the last two, three years. I mean, you guys know like we’ve had a pretty good little run here. Pretty good little run here. James Cousin Blevens is live on Twitch. Maybe go into chat and ask if he wants to join a Blazers Uprise stream. Yeah, just don’t have him watch the Kellogg Blevens player review from like three years ago. Maybe he wouldn’t think that’s sarcastic. If you guys don’t know, I I did a player review series like three years ago and Blevens. I basically just trolled the whole video talking about how great he was. Did Ando of Bucks request a trade just saw a social media post, but I don’t know if it’s true. the social media post from the blonde girl that makes up reports. What’s her name? That was fake. I don’t I don’t fake as hell. He did unfollow and delete a bunch of buck stuff on his Instagram. But what would be your best offer for Yiannis right now? I mean, best offer or what would I offer? Is that not the same? Well, like I said earlier, I think if we gave up Denny, we could get him easily, but um I would not give up Denny with the assets it would take to to get him. Like, what’s your best like I wouldn’t offer Denny in a trade to him, you know what I mean? I mean, it’s Grants. Um, I mean, Grant has to be in there for I I tried to make it work with um like all our middle salary. Yeah. Here, I’m putting the trade machine up on the um what what’s what’s the what number do I have to get to here? I’m I’m pulling up the uh I mean, I I think you give the Bucks their two swaps and their first back or the best of those three, I guess. Yeah. Um, and probably the 2028 Orlando pick and then my thing not freeze. Hello. Okay. I don’t know if you can find a a third team to take Grant or not, but we’re not we’re not trading Drew back to the Bucks. If we’re trading for Giannis, we’d definitely be keeping Drew in my opinion. Yeah. Um, so would you give up both Scoot and Sharp? I mean, would I? Yeah, probably. Scoot. Scoot. Sharp. And this scoot sharp and grant get there. Do you have to include cy too making 54? Scoot’s making 11. Oh, so you sharp and sharp scoot in wait incoming 62 million. That’s not 62 mil. That’s 50 mil. Where’s the other incoming salary? What? Or is that a trade kicker or something? Who has a trade kicker? Jeremy’s 32. Scoots should be make it like 43. Okay. And then Sharp. Oh, it’s poison pill. That’s right. Okay. Oh, yeah. Sharp. So, we’d be putting the text. So, yeah, we need to include viable. There he is. And then they would need to include um Derry Bird too. Agree. Yeah. Where’s his contract? Recently signed. It’s not poison pill. Not a big fan of his contract. And also it’s like doesn’t really work for this. Like I think we’d have to take back uh Kevin Porter Jr. which I just want to cut his ass because this doesn’t put them into the tax, right? This calculating tax base. Yeah. Okay. Um Oh, wait. Yeah. Okay. So, they’re not in the tax. We’re not in the tax. This should work. Okay. Kevin Porter Jr. can’t be traded until December 15th. This is the only reason it says this doesn’t work. I think from a player package, this is kind of what I’d expect. Maybe maybe they are interested in Yong Lansson. Um, the picks. Bye. Yeah. Uh, since so many other teams were supposedly interested in him. Uh, the picks 2028. Um, Milwaukee. Dude, we need a shooter. Just do it. Take KPJ off, include Yong, and get AJ Green. Yeah, but it doesn’t match for them. Yeah, it doesn’t match for them. I mean, you could like throw in like Gary, like Torian Prince probably. Let’s see. Tory Prince, AJ Green. Let’s throw in like The Nosis. Oh, we have to take back Theosis. That’s right. Um, only way this works. Yong’s making 4.4 mil. So, I guess throw us like Gary Harris and we’re still not in the tax and uh none of these guys can be AJ Green can’t be traded because six months have not passed since he was signed to Extension. He’ll be eligible to be traded after April 17th, 2026. So, never mind. That’s the reason Joe Cronin can’t get a shooter. He’s waiting for you like get this done with Gary Trent Jr. for the vibes. Yeah. Okay. After December 15th. All right. Like this is this is probably the player package. Giannis Anos and Gary Trent Jr. for Jeremy Scoot, Shaden, and Thyel. And then give a 2028 pick, which is the best of Portland, and Milwaukee. Um, I think I already have that going to them. The 2029 best of Portland, Boston, and or Milwaukee isn’t on here. I think I already traded that to them. We have the worst. So, we have a pick that year. We’ll trade them 2030. and a flip of the Orlando 2028. We’d have a pick in 2027 and 2029. So, we’re not violating the Steppian rule. So, they just don’t have the picks, right? That’s why it says it doesn’t work there. It would actually work. Um, so Jeremy Thyel Scoot Sharp 2028 Orlando first 2028 best to Portland and Milwaukee. So they’re pick back 2029 best of Portland, Boston Milwaukee. So their pick back 2030 best of Portland and Milwaukee. So their pick goes back three years in a row. We get Yianis juniors in 20 and 30. It just the swaps go back to them. So we just lose swap rights. We don’t actually lose a pick those years. Well, we can we can format it as that well there’s two ways to format it because they have the worst between our picks. So we can either give them the best so they have the best and the worst basically have both of our picks or we can revoke the swap rights where we still have our pick but they have theirs. I feel like they would just want the picks like straight up where they have both of our picks because they’re going to want multiple picks, right? So, let’s just say, you know, we’re trading the 2020 Orlando first, the 2029 best of Portland, Milwaukee, Boston, 2028 and 2030. Um, you know, like they keep their pick and get our pick, right? Would you do this trade chat? I’ll do a chat poll. Would you do this straight, Eric? Yeah, I think he has to. Do you think there’s a chance that Milwaukee would do this trade? Uh, yeah. I think it’s a pretty good package. I think it’s a pretty damn good package. Um, I do think I do think we would get to have fun if y’all just like actually there’s trade rumors. I actually think it’d be a realistic enough possibility for us to discuss it, which we’ve never been in that position discussing a star like that before. It always feels like a pipe dream where this like given that we have the own picks and we’re positioned for a trade like this. Yeah, I um I agree. Trash, bro. We end up with Denny Cling and Drew, Giannis, and Chris. I mean, you could We have Gary Trent Jr. I’d play him over Chris. It would be Drew Trent sucks this year. Yeah. I mean, over Chris, but yeah. Um, not a contender, dude. You can fill out the rest. Make other moves. Yeah, you can still make other moves, bro. Not a contender. Hell no. I don’t want yis because um um we don’t have a sixthman shooter. Come on, bro. Be for real. Um sign Malik Beasley. Yeah, he’s played with Yiannis. There you go. Hope he gets his investigation ended. Sign your shooter. Um, but you can make other moves. You still have Robert Williams off the bench behind Klingan, right? With what? You have Robert Williams salary. You’re not trading for another high salary player there. And the thing is like the biggest thing they need is just a couple of shooters. Those are cheap. Like go get Keon Ellis and trade one of the picks you have left over for him off the bench because you traded two guards. Right there you go. Dame when he comes back. Drew Keon Ellis is your three guards. But you’d start Kon Ellis in that lineup and he fits in. Good shooter, good defender, right? If you’re good enough, maybe you’re in the market for buyouts. But it’s mostly with an eye on next season. You still have your pick this year if you don’t make the playoffs. I mean, I assume we make the playoffs at that point, but then you have your pick in 2027. Yeah. Like, you should not be nitpicking, worrying about the sixth and seventh man on the roster when you’re trading for a top three player in the world. You can figure out the rest later. You’d literally be sitting there with a one of the best big threes in the league next year. You’d have Giannis, Dame, and Denny. And you’d have Klingan to protect the rim. You’d have Gary Tren Jr. off the bench, Robo off the bench. Yeah, the bench would need a little bit of work, but come on. fan favorite, right? Uh Blake Wesley off the bench. Yeah, give me that. I mean, we haven’t even had Scoot, Sharp, struggles to stay healthy, can’t shoot the three ball. Like, you can replace some of this easily. I absolutely do this trade in a heartbeat. Abs freakingutely because next season you have a starting five of Dame Drew Holiday, Denny Odia, Jonas Kmpo, and Donovan Klingan. Like that’s a contender. It’s pretty good. Plus whatever other moves he made. Swap Tenny for Scoot and Shay. Yeah. What? What? That’s ridiculous. Why wouldn’t you Why wouldn’t you want to be a contender? You’re worried about this trade where the Blazers are not contenders, but then you’d want to trade a guy who’s playing like a top 20 player in the world for two go two young guards to struggle to stay healthy and have some question marks about him. Doesn’t make sense. Doesn’t make sense. You figure out a way to fill out the depth. You can find decent cheap backup centers so you can use Rob Williams salary. Like you got to be trolling. Oh, we still have Tumani. We still have Tumi. What are we doing? Yeah, we literally You made me forget that we still have Tumati after this trade. What do you mean we’d have Chris? Your starting lineup for the rest of the season would literally be Drew Holidayiday, Tomiati Kamar, Denny, Aia, Don, uh, Jiannis and Tetakmpo, and Donovan Klingan, and then next year you’d have Tumani off the bench. He says, “Oh, oh crap. Yeah, we still have Tumati, bro.” Like, I was going to say it feels like that’s a little lighter. Um, you’d have next year you’d have Tomani off the bench. You’d have Robert Williams off the bench. You’d have whatever free minimum contract guys you could talk into coming in here. Yeah. Like you would probably have room for a full mid-level exception, I think. So, go sign a full mid-level exception guy to be your six-man. Maybe make a trade for a Keon Ellis type. I don’t know. Yeah, that bench is fine. That bench is absolutely fine. Yeah, like if Giannis becomes available, Portland needs to be at the front ready to trade for him. Yeah, maybe he wants to go to a true contender, but I think we would be a contender with them. And you have Drew, you have Dame, guys he’s played with. He loved playing with Drew Holiday. Shoot. I know he’s super washed, but you need a ninth man when Chris Middleton gets bought out this year. There you go. Another Giannis teammate. He’s 6’7 and still shooting 35% from three. Still averaging 10 points, four boards, three and a half assists. Like good little bench piece. Find ways. So that’s like with Tom Dundan coming in, that’s Joe Cronin’s opportunity to be like, I’m that guy. I made the best player acquisition in Blazers history. We already play OKC pretty decently this year. like you’re gonna have to really go for it to be OKC. And I feel like you’re gonna have to get physical big downhill drivers. I feel like that’s a good archetype to have against their defense because they do play kind of small. And then you want somebody to take the top off the defense. You got D coming back. It’s so easier to make moves off Scoot and Shay and trade Denny in my opinion. Save a pick. Yeah, but they’re worse. So the moves you’re making with Scoot and Shay is just to try and get to the point where you’re as good as if they just kept Denny. Denny and Dame both creators with Giannis and Drew. Denny can shoot. Dame can shoot. We’re running an offense. The thing is with that lineup, Eric, this offense becomes very interesting all of a sudden. Drive, kick, have a bunch of guys that can drive and you have Dame, Drew, Denny that can all shoot off of Yiannis. Yep. Yeah. But like that’s the thing is is this team is eight and 13. This team is playing all these worthless NBA players. Like I’d rather be sitting here like trying to round out the edges like, “Okay, we have a top three player in the world. We have our greatest player in franchise history coming back. We have Drew freaking Holiday. We have Danny Odia who’s playing like a superstar. How do we make the synergy work?” By the way, Eric, you’re frozen. I don’t know why. I’m going to disconnect and then reconnect you. You’re gonna have to join through the link again. Try to unfreeze you. Um yeah, like figuring out the synergy between those guys, I think is a much better issue like to be worried about. To make moves, you need assets, bro. They’d still have multiple picks of their own. Why are you so worried? They would literally have a a top three starting lineup. You’d have next year you’d have Tummani off the bench and Robert Williams. That’s really good sixth and seventh man. If they made the playoffs, too, their pick would um go to Chicago, which would free up some of our future picks. Yeah. But like if we trade both 2028 first in the trade that I suggested, like we’d still have our 2032 But I mean, you’re worrying about you’re worrying about how do we have moves after getting Yiannis to to make sure we have a good eighth and ninth man. Dude, sign Chris Middleton off of Bile. Sign who? Like, sign guys off a bile. You’re talking about eighth, ninth, man. Go trade a couple seconds for somebody that’s an okay ninth man. Trust me, that is that is not something to worry about. Yeah, I don’t like clinging with that lineup. Why don’t you like cleaning with that lineup? You got all these creators and you don’t want a 7 foot2 big that sets good screens for them, rolls hard. and is a good option in the dunker spot and also maybe someday might be able to shoot threes. According to rumors, he almost wants to go to the Knicks badly. Well, guess what? There’s a lot of players that want to go to a lot of teams and they don’t always get traded to those teams and it still works out. I mean, he might be able to force his way somewhere, but because he could just say he’s not going to resign with whatever team if he doesn’t want to. But he has three years left on his contract. I’m taking the chance. I’m taking the chance. And we have Drew and we have Dame. It’s also why I like the idea of signing Chris Middleton on a bout in that scenario, assuming he gets spot out by the Wizards because that’s another one of his former teammates he really liked. Yeah. And we have their picks. Like New York doesn’t have any picks. What’s New York going to trade? They’re going to trade cat. Maro says clinging clogs the paint for Giannis brother. Having a big in the dunker spot does not clog the paint. You don’t need a shooting big for that big to not clog the paint. When Yiannis drives, if he beats his defender and Klingan’s guy comes across the paint, Yiannis is a good enough passer. Just dump off pass to Clling and he’s 72. That’s a dunk. You’re putting that You’re putting that defender in a position to pick their poison. So anyway, real quick, shout out to Sleeper. Use code uprise. You’ll get a 100% deposit match up to $100 and a free $20 deposit. I need to get back to making pics. Sleeper pics. So, uh, getting kind of back on track here. You’re looking down for so long. I thought you were frozen. Uh, still getting back on track here. Coming back off the vacation and all that good stuff. But uh yeah, make sure to check out Sleeper, support the channel, place a little parlay, free $20, no deposit required parlay. Literally no downside. I don’t know why you wouldn’t take advantage of that. Shout out to Sleeper for sponsoring the channel. Bringing Brooke up as Anyway, I don’t think Klingan would hold back that lineup from being a top five offense. I think Klingan would give that lineup a chance to be a top five defense. Maybe it’d be tough with Dame and then I don’t know. Some people think Giannis is overrated defensively, but top five offense hopefully a top 10 defense as a contender. That’s a recipe. It’s a recipe. Go get Giannis. Like stop overthinking it. If he’s available, the the Blazers should be very aggressive in trying to trade for him. I would not feel this way if they didn’t get back Dame. And maybe you can make the argument, “Oh, well, you just went through a rebuild just to get back on Dame’s timeline.” No, you’d be on Giannis’s timeline. Giannis and Denny timeline. How old is Giannis? 31. He’s 30. Tori, how was the Sacramento arena? I liked it better than Chase Center. I really liked their arena. I like that the concourse was completely open to the stadium. It was pretty cool, actually. And like the neon signs and all that. Um, if Portland gets a new stadium, I want I like the idea of like an open concourse. I think that’s kind of a cool concept. David Chavez, I did I uh It’s kind of wild. Um, Blazers basketball’s developing players to be good enough to trade been that way for years. I mean, the Blazers have never traded for a player of Yiannis’ caliber. Who’s the best player the Portland Trailblazers have ever traded for, Eric? And probably Scotty Pippen, but he was a little older at that time. Yeah. Was he still a all-star Calgary player at that time? Um, yeah, I think so. His last year in Houston, well, I mean, he was a great defender, so the stats don’t do it justice, but he was 14 points, six boards, six assists. So, yeah, he taken a little step back. I think he was in his mid30s by that point, but yeah, he was uh 34. Yeah, we’re talking about a guy trading for a guy um who’s averaging 31 points per game, 11 rebounds, and six assists. Like, boom. He would instantly be in conversations for greatest Blazer, great like most talented player to ever put on a Blazer uniform. And we’re sitting here like, oh, but the synergy with clinging and then the eighth and ninth, but what are we doing? What are we doing, man? Do you know how freaking hyped that that stream would be? I’m getting goosebumps thinking about it. It would just be weird. Yeah. So, I mean, I I don’t know how New York trades for him unless they trade like a cat male package where those guys go to other teams, but really, how good is that package going to be? They don’t have future picks. So, yeah, he might want to go to New York, but didn’t Donovan Mitchell want to go to New York? And he went to freaking Cleveland and that stuck. Could absolutely make Portland work. He has three years left on his contract. So, there’s really no excuse not to be super aggressive and try to get him. You have their picks. If Dame brought you the picks to then help bring Giannis to Portland and New Orleans coming full circle. New Orleans might have been able to match us with two more recent picks, but they ended up trading the best of their two. So, they can’t even trade like Milwaukee their pick back so they can tank this year. Yeah. But they could have they could have had a intriguing package around Zion and their picks back. But you also know what’s though is this season um Milwaukee can tank you want to know why? Why? New Orleans is the worst team in the league. They have the number one pick right now. Milwaukee gets the worst between their pick and New Orleans pick. So Milwaukee could theoretically tank all the way up to two. Although it’s same lottery odds. So yeah, but I mean like yeah, one of those picks probably falls out of the top four, but they still get the fifth pick. Like Milwaukee could purposefully lose and end up with a pick as high as two, which would be very improbable. But I mean, shoot, I’ll simulate Tankathon until we get Milwaukee moving up and the New Orleans pick to Atlanta moving up just to uh just to illustrate it here if Tankathon would cor cooperate with me. Yeah, here you go. Here you go. Um, in this sim, Milwaukee got the fourth pick and OKC got the first pick. This is an absurd lottery. But like with how big with how bad New Orleans pick is, they could take if New Orleans pick. If New Orleans was like the best team in the league, it make no sense for Milwaukee to tank because they’re just they get the worst pick. But since New Orleans pick is already bad. So that’s kind of the the interesting part about that. Um just a swap between them and New Orleans. New Orleans sucks. their swaps with us. We shouldn’t suck in 2028. They should want those picks back. 2027 thing is rough, but you’re looking at a five-year rebuild anyway. At least you have Scoot and Sharp, two young guards. You hope one of them can continue to blossom. Um, and then you have picks down the line. So, yeah. Um, you make a play for Giannis if he’s available. Like, there’s literally no debate. Literally no debate about it. Um, now, who knows if he’ll become available, but if he does, I’m I’ve never sat here and like been like pounded the drum like, go get this guy, figure out a way, be super aggressive. I’ve I don’t know if there’s ever been a player that I’ve pounded the drum like that for, but I started pounding this drum last start of last offseason. So, I started pounding the drum. Oh, is there a way you can get Dame and Yiannis back? No, I was thinking trading for Dame, but we got Dame back. So somehow, so that’s crazy. We got Drew, who’s uh his maybe his favorite teammate ever. And we got their picks. And we got a log jam of guards now and two good young guards. It’s just it just feels like everything aligns for it. So that should be the plan. And I hope that Tom Dunnin coming in, Cronin feels pressure to really make a splash like that. Now that could backfire if it’s like, oh, I need to make a splash. Here’s Lari Markin for an insane package because Danny H wants to fleece people. But anyway, maybe that should be my next video. Poor Trailblazers need to trade for Yiannis and Koopa. Anyway, fun stream. Anything else, IK? No. Thanks everyone for watching. Hope to see you all tomorrow night after the Blazers beat the Cavs. Oh, yeah. The second night of a back four o’clock game. Gross. Gross. I don’t like the uh the four o’clock games. Does it feel like we’re getting a lot of our Eastern Conference road games out of the way pretty early? We are for sure. Yeah. I guess that’s a good thing. So upcoming schedule for your Portland fail blazers, Cleveland on Wednesday, yeah, tomorrow 400 pm Pacific. Friday is Detroit, 4:30 p.m. Pacific, and then Sunday is Memphis, 3 p.m. Pacific. And then four days after that, on Thursday, December 11th, they play New Orleans at 5:00 p.m. Pacific. It’s going to be forever until we get a 700 pm game again. Luckily, a lot of home games second half of December, so looking forward to that easier schedule. But yeah, your Blazers have lost uh eight out of 10. They’ve lost uh 10 out of 13. They’re three and 10 their last 13 games. It’s not a good team. It’s not a good team. Yeah, you have some injuries, but man, you’ve lost a lot of games you probably should have won. I mean, you lost to Dallas. You lost Phoenix at home by 17. You lost to Chicago off awful buzzer beater. You lost to San Antonio missing. They played pretty well without a Wii. But you lose by three to Toronto. You just lose lose lose lose lose. So even if they’re a losing team and becomes available, they should make a play for him. Maybe they include their pick this year. probably would have to be unprotected. That’s a different conversation that we’re not going to have right now because that gets a little iffy because this draft is loaded. But anyway, appreciate you guys hanging out. We’ll see you again tomorrow night after the Blazers take on the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Blazers lose to the Raptors 12118. They fall again 8 and 13 on the season, but still clinging on to that 10th and final playing spot. Half game up ahead of the Utah Jazz. It would have be funny if the Jazz made the plan before us. Anyway, we’re out of here. We’ll talk to you next time. Until then, as always, peace out.
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11 comments
I don't think Tiago is earning an HC job rn. Maybe in 5-6 yrs or more NBA assistant coaching experience and eventually Splitter will get the opportunity. POR is still missing an identity so this team is hard to watch most nights due to the poor defense, sloppy turnovers and very inconsistent perimeter shooting. I'm not sure who will be the HC but hopefully the new owner makes the changes needed in Mar-Apr. 🤞🏼🤞🏼
expectation check: how did Cronin's Josh Hart replacement do tonight?
Kris Murray had 5 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists… Josh Hart would have been SHREDDED by Blazer media if he played like that in Portland. While it's totally OK if Cronin's "rebuilding like OKC" draft pick looks completely lost.
1:33 start
How do you see the fit where Deni Giannis and Clingan plays together?
Because Only Deni there can space the floor, Is a smaller package for JJJ or Lauri, where you can keep one of Scoot or Sharpe I believe, don't make more sense? to get a defensive 36-37% from 3 guy like JJJ or a shooter like Lauri where both of them can play as 4 or small ball 5.
Shaedon Sharpe seems healthy enough to reclaim his minutes. He flying out the gym and doesn't seem to get tired. Cissoko should not start much less play over him in the 4th quarter.
I knew Dani was a fraud, and that they were hyping him up. All he does is look for fouls. We seen his ass on the Wizards, propaganda does not make someone a better player. All he does is complain more to get a foul shot. A free throw merchant, not a talented scorer.
Regarding playing small ball at the end of the game last night in Toronto:
The coaches needed to consider that the team is playing on back-to-back nights. As a result, Robert Williams will not be available tonight due to a physical limitation. Additionally, Donovan Clingan, who is recovering from an illness, cannot be expected to play 30 minutes each night.
They need to hire someone who can help sharp with his 3 ball. He has a good stroke. I believe a lot of it is mental. Also his 3 point shot selection needs to improve. His first year in the league he was at a 42% shooter from behind. We know he is capable
When everyone is healthy I want to see how we play against good teams. We also need a few more shooters
Oh my… Is there any Blazer who scored this game without at least one assist from Deni? I hope we start making more of these shots at some point if we want to win games…
2 years ago, Coach Steve Clifford's Hornets ranked #2 in 3pt attempts. Regardless that the team was near the bottom in 3pt percentage. How did Charlotte finish their seasons ?? Another Lottery pick for Buzz City.