Trail Blazers Bench Boosts Portland Past Cleveland | Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade Rumors

Trail Blazers Bench Boosts Portland Past Cleveland | Giannis Antetokounmpo Trade Rumors

In today’s show, the Blazers go into Cleveland and up and the Cavs thanks to a big boost from the bench. 46 points from the reserves. Hello Caleb Love. Hello Shaden Sharp. Welcome to Locked On Blazers. Let’s get into it. You are Locked On Trailblazers, your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast, part of the Locked on Podcast Network. your team every day. What’s up world? It’s your past first point guard and trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond. You’re listening to another episode of Locked on Blazers, part of the Locked On podcast network, available wherever you get podcasts and also on YouTube. Thanks for making this show your first listen. Coming at you each and every weekday, Monday through Friday. So make it a part of your daily routine. Make it your first listen. Tell your friends to do the same. Lockdown Blazers, your team every day. In today’s program, we’re talking about a just a straight up good win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Blazers win 122 110 in Cleveland on the second night of a back-to-back international travel be damned. Injuries be damned. The Blazers just go in there, get a great night from their bench and beat the Cavs. A solid, if not spectacular, Cavs team of the last couple seasons where they’ve been spectacular during the regular season. The Blazers handle them. It was never they never truly threatened in the fourth quarter. We’ll get into all of that. Uh, big games from Shaden Sharp and Caleb Love off the bench. Shaden Sharp’s pretty clearly the Blazers sixman right now. And um, and if Caleb Love does what he did tonight, the Blazers are going to be very, very, very good. In fact, I’ll just say I’ll I’ll spoil a take for later in the show. If Caleb Love does what he did tonight, I don’t think the Blazers will ever will ever lose. We’ll talk about that and then yes, I will I will I’ll feed the piggies. Um, we’ll talk a little bit about Giannis Antmpo reportedly trying to figure out where he’ll play next cuz it doesn’t sound like his Bucks future is particularly long. Um, although it could be I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s an entire season. We’ll get into the Giannis stuff. Uh, feed the piggies to close the show. Let’s let’s get into this game though. Blazers win 122 110. Second night of a backto-back uh injury reports looking a little rough. It’s it’s the guys, you know, who have been out for a while, but also there’s some names you don’t want to see on there. Denny Obi is questionable with an ankle. Uh Donovan Klingan is is is questionable. Uh Chris Murray’s Chris Murray was questionable with a hip contusion. Uh Murray did not play, but Denny Aia played and is back in the starting lineup. Donovan Klingan played and is in the starting lineup, so they’re not as short-handed, but it looked like it was going to be a little bit dicey. um you know, international travel overnights from you know, you you play a late game. It wasn’t that. It was I guess it was uh 7:30 Toronto time. So like you you know, you get out late from Toronto, you fly to Cleveland. It’s just it’s um yeah, it’s the NBA, right? It’s just you’re you’re going to get into a city at 3:00 in the morning, you’re going to sleep until you got to be at the arena at 3:00, 4:00 in the afternoon and go to work. I guess some guys don’t even show up probably till about 4:30, but uh you know you know the deal. Um like it is what it is. It’s these are these are tough ones and um the Blazers came out and they immediately showed what was going to be a hallmark of this game was balanced scoring. They lead 3633 after one in the first quarter. Six dudes scored at least five points. Six players scored at least five points. All of them except for Denny Avi had made at least two shots. The Blazers had balance right away and that was going to be the reason why they won this game is not because like you know Denny was very good but it wasn’t like he didn’t have 40 um you know they didn’t need they didn’t need these monster games they just got balance up and down the roster in ways that they just like have not um and when they when they play at when they get enough offense like this from enough places um yeah they’re they’re hard to deal with as as any team right if you get um this many guys scoring the way they did but right away six guys with at least five points in the first quarter. Okay, you’ve got the balance. Uh, also for Cleveland, Darius Garland, three fouls in the first seven minutes. He ended up getting attack later on, picking up his fourth foul and complaining from the bench after getting his fourth foul. He just kind of got neutralized. Um, you know, he came back in and played with those three fouls in the second quarter. So, it wasn’t like he he got benched, but it’s just like he um that he he did not that was not Darius Garland’s night and it was not his night immediately. Three fouls in the first seven minutes. Um, Blazers take a 10-point lead in the halftime. Caleb Love comes off the bench. He scores 10 in the first half. Shane Sharp has 12 in the first half. Getting to his mid-range stuff, doing what he does. Um, you know, I thought I, you know, just sort of uh, broadly speaking, I I thought that um that Sharp was aggressive um to uh, like he was very like demonstrative in the way he played. Um, I don’t think he he he had this like hyperefficient first half. Um, but I like I liked the process. He was like, “Yeah, I’m going to get to my spots.” you know, he took 10 twos in the first half. Uh, like he I thought he played with like I I need to be aggressive and I need to be aggressive in ways that are my strengths. And I thought I thought he played like um I I liked his process in ways that I have not always liked his process even when he’s had more efficient games uh than this. I like I like the way he played in the first half. And the Blazers blew the game open the third quarter. They hit six threes. Jeremy Grant hits two, Tumani Kamar hits two, Denny Avia hits two. Uh, and they push a 10-point lead to 14 heading into the third quarter, but also like they just never let the Cavs threaten. They just they just they led by as many as 18. They put, you know, it’s like um they were in complete control in the third quarter in a way that quite frankly they have not been in a while. They have not had a game where they were just like straight up in control of the game the entire second half. And this game they were. They they never relinquished the lead. They just they um they kept their foot on the gas and they kept making shots. Like that was the key to this game was was really just like shot making. Um in fact I feel like the key for the Cavs though was was um was not not making shots, shot missing. Um I thought the Cavs process was pretty good. Um they just they missed shots. They made a charge though like this this game ended up being relatively close. They got as close as five. But to me the big sequence or maybe the most telling one of sort of the whole Cavs experience was uh you know Blaz Cleveland gets the ball down eight. Uh they’re pushing in sort of semi-transition off a miss shot and Dean Wade gets the ball on the left wing and Dean Wade’s a good shooter. He’s a good shooter in transition. He’s certainly a really good catch and shoot uh player and he just misses a very open makeable look from the left wing. Just missed it. Um would have cut the lead to five. Blazers come down and kind of like run some offense, but Denny Aia gets into the paint and dunks and pushes it to 10. And um it would have been a five-point game with six minutes left. Instead, it’s a 10-point game with five and a half minutes left. It’s kind of the story of the night for Cleveland. But Cavs kept pushing. They got as close as five. Um Evan Moley hit a top of the key three. Um but Denny scored a little a little little uh bucket in the paint. Uh and then the Cavs did force a miss. uh and uh uh got a turnover or after after the bucket get a get look like they’re going to get get a turnover in the um in the back court, but Donovan Mitchell kind of gets a steal from Tumani Kamar and tries to save it, but he saves it back into the Blazers who cycle the ball back around and Denny Aavian ends up getting fouled. Um and so, you know, it looks like it’s going to be this this quick bad turnover in the back court for the Blazers. It turns into a bucket. Um and that from a five-point game to a nine-point game after Denny’s free throws with a minute 40 left. And that’s pretty much your ball game. Blazers can uh you know hold on from there even with uh even with you know just under two minutes to go. Uh Blazers win 122 110. That’s your fastest recap in the West. Abdia 27 points lived at the free throw line. 16 of 17 from the free throw line. Um for for a big chunk of the early part of this game he had more free throws than the Cavs. Um Denny is good at drawing fouls. Um, he understands the dark arts. Like he he will get into your body, play physical, and just wait for you to reach or wait for you to, you know, try to go get the ball with those low pickups where he dribbles the ball low and just swipes it through James Harden style. Um, he, you know, he he invites contact and he does some dark arts wizardry foul foul drawing stuff that that, um, I think if he played for another team, many of you would send me emails whining about and I’d say, “Sh, stop whining about the refs.” Uh, and I feel the same way about Denny. It’s a skill. He’s good at it. Sh. Stop whining about the refs. Literally never email me about it. Um, like I think I I I think uh he has really mastered um some of the sort of unsavory parts of being of of finding points and he’s he’s become very very very good at it. And that plus the how physical he plays. He’s just he’s become very hard to guard. Um you know 20 27 eight boards, seven assists. Ho hoham. Another just monster Denny game. Uh Don Mcllingan I don’t think played particularly well but his presence was was felt with um you know 13 boards I thought I thought he was active albeit a little bit um inefficient on the glass. He was two of eight from the floor and a lot of his rebounds he was just kind of looking to kick out or getting caught some places. Uh Tumani Kamara he remembered how to shoot. He’s now made 14 threes in his last three games. He had 17. The story of this game though Shaden Sharp 20 off the bench. Caleb Love 20 off the bench. That’s it. That’s where the Blazers won this game. You know, they took 15 more free throws. That was important for them. And there wasn’t a bunch of intentional fouling at the end that drove that up. It was they they had they had an advantage there. Um, you know, they’re only in in shooting possessions when you go with with field goals and free throw attempts. Blazers only plus six in shooting possessions. The reason they won this game is because the Cavs shot 13 of 52 from three, that’s 25%. And the Blazers shot 14 of 34, that’s 41%. The Blazers shot very well, made threes, the Cavs did not do that. Um, but the guys leading that charge and and the difference really in in in in success for the Blazers was 20 from Sharp, 20 from Love. Let’s talk about those two dudes and a a guarantee, maybe a stupid one, about Caleb Love’s performance. Uh, I will share with you in the second segment. Join me there, won’t you? First though, I want to tell you about Robin Hood. What if sports were traded like markets? 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Visit ymcacw.org/pod. That’s ymcacw.org/pod. Or follow them on YouTube and Instagram at ymcw. [Music] All right. So, the Blazers win this game in large part because they’re getting buckets off the bench. Shaden Sharp has 20. Uh he he also added uh nine rebounds and five assists. A complete game. Uh it turns out when your team shoots 41% from three, there’s a lot of assists to be had. Uh Tummani had four assists. Jeremy Grant had four assists. Danny Aia had seven assists. Shaden Sharp had five. um when you’re making 14 threes and you’re and you’re driving and kicking and and like getting real shots um and and like making shots, there are there are um your assist numbers are going to go up because those shots go in. It’s not literally just like every time down the floor like Denny get an advantage, get into the paint and kick out and it’s like wow, how how Denny have 16 assists is because like well um no one else could was creating shots and no one else was making shots. But I thought the Blazers even just like once the ball started to go in I thought they played the right like they played the right way. they they they trusted the pass and I think it’s easier it’s just so much easier to trust the pass when the ball goes in, right? Um you it is it is even if you want to always trust it, it is human nature that when you see your teammates make shots, you’re just going to be so much just going to be so much easier to just like quickly make the right read. You’re not going to look someone off and take a decent three. You’re going to go good to great. And I thought the Blazers did a good job, particularly in those middle two quarters, the second and third quarters of prioritizing good to great. Um I I thought Danny kind of brought them home at the end of the game when he needed to. And that’s like kind of what you want, right? You want your um when the game’s on the line, you kind of just want your star players to take over and then and that’s what they got from Denny. But they won this game because Shaden Sharp was balling and Caleb Love was balling. Real quick on Sharp, um he played 32 minutes tonight. Uh the official box score has him at 32 minutes and 10 seconds. That is not a minutes restriction. I mentioned after the last game against Toronto that he was um you know pushing up towards 29 minutes or played 28 and some change 29 minutes. It’s like that’s not a minutes restriction either. That’s just minutes, right? Like if you see a guy play, you know, a guy who’s going to be a regular player play 22 24 minutes. Yeah. Then then that’s like because the Blazers are so Thiago Splitter has sort of declined to um explain that stuff. I don’t believe there are independent reporters on the road right now with this team. So you’re not you’re not getting that um those types of sort of inquiries or reporting or whatever. Um it’s just like it isn’t the job of the team to be like how many minutes is like team reporters like it’s not Casey Holdall’s job to be like how many minutes exactly is Shaden Sharp allowed to play. It’s it just um it’s a different dynamic. Um no one’s fault. This is a different dynamic. Um it is so like and and Splitter is weird about that regardless. He’s kind of just he’s just not forthcoming with the media. Um uh it’s it is what it is. Uh he that’s not that is not his his preference and so be it. But uh I think importantly uh like going to use your logic here. Sharp playing 28 minutes and then 32 minutes on backto-back games. That is not someone on a men’s restriction anymore. He is cleared to play. They are letting him go. You play 32 minutes on the second night of a backto-back, they are not nursing you back from an injury, which that means is they’re they’re comfortable with Shaden Sharp in the six-man role. That’s where they want him to be. Now, when Drew Holiday gets back and they mix and match and some other things, I think that’ll be telling. But I would not be surprised if Shaden Sharp stays in this six-man role and plays, you know, somewhere between 29 and 32 minutes every night, which is about what he’d play normally except off the bench. he’s playing at the end of games and they’re leaning into him as in part of the closing lineup and it’s less tricky now with with how sort of short they are um in terms of like bench options but um yeah he’s like clearly they have you know usually you don’t use your lose your starting spot due to injury but clearly when Shaden Sharp got injured and missed four games they kind of rearranged some things and I think part of it is CD Sissoko in that starting group typically with NBA coaches is like players that are somewhat limited it’s easier to play those players with better players is sort of the the Allen Crab Victor Cle special from Blazers teams of Yore where it’s like Novonlay it’s like the best place to hide players that are maybe not as good is to play them with your best players and then their ask is much smaller so you might be able to get the best out of them and I think the Blazers have gotten the best out of Sidi in terms of you know some of his limitations show up pretty obviously but he can pass he made a pass today off the dribble crosscourt to Jeremy Grant that was pretty a pretty nifty pass off the dribble he defends with interest and he’s big. Um, like he he it’s it’s just easier to sort of duck him in there as opposed to playing a bench group that’s like Sidi and Caleb Love and uh and uh Chris Murray and it’s like oh this group this group is a mess. It allows um it allows kind of a way to hide a a bench player with the starters and it also splits up Denny and Shane Sharp’s minutes a little bit so they’re not um completely overlapping. Although at the end of the game they have to play together. In the future they have to play together. It’s just the it’s it’s the nature of the of the biz that at some point like those two dudes like figuring out how to maximize the way they interact with one another which has not been particularly pretty this season uh will eventually get there. They’ll have to get there if they’re going to be successful. But Sharp is in a six-man role hooping. Um you know it fits him right because he can be when he comes in off the bench. Um it’s like you’re in there to do the thing, right? Score. Go score. Be aggressive. get shots up. That’s what he’s wants to do anyways. I think there was like this pervasive myth that has gone away a little bit was around last year about how Sharp was like not aggressive on offense. That was really not his problem. Um it was more like he didn’t play with a motor in all of the other like hustle categories. Um which still shows up from time to time, but like he shot a lot last year, y’all. Um and he shot a lot this year too, even more. Um but like when he plays at this level and like this is a great game off the bench, 20 points, nine boards, five assists is a great game off the bench. They’re really special. They’re really spe that gives them balance. Which brings me to Caleb Love. Caleb Love hit four three-pointers tonight. He finished with 20 points, four rebounds, excuse me, five rebounds on seven of 15 shooting, included four of seven from three. Balanced game, 10 in the first half, 10 in the second half. Made shots. Um didn’t maybe had one that was like a real Caleb Love. Like, that’s a shot. But like for the most part played within the offense, understood the job. They had him off the ball so much. They very they got him off the ball so much. Even when he was playing with like no other guards, sometimes they would have Tummani bring the ball up to initiate. Just like Caleb, you are in you are a combo guard. You stay in score mode, young man, cuz that’s what you do. Um and he played really well. And here’s my hot take. Here’s my hot take. Like if you’re a long time listener podcast, you you know how I feel about Kale Bluff. Um, I just do not think he’s consistent enough to be a reliable NBA player. Um, he he’s he’s hot when he’s hot, he’s cold when he’s cold, and there’s more stretches when he’s cold when he’s cold. He kind of plays the same way regardless of hot or cold. Um, like he’s just consistency has been his thing and he’s he’s not been he’s been a high volume inefficient player for his entire collegiate career. He’s been so thus far in in the NBA. But the two nights that he hasn’t been that when he hits six threes against the Warriors and when he hits four threes against the Cavs, the Blazers can just beat anyone because all of a sudden they have a dude off the bench who aces threes. And here’s my bold prediction for Caleb Love. The Blazers will never lose a game in which Caleb Love makes four three-pointers off the bench. There’s a chance he starts some random games and makes four threes and like they’re just they don’t win. But I I this is my this is my stone cold, extremely stupid guarantee that I’m sure to regret saying out loud on uh Thursday, December 4th’s podcast, but whatever. Let’s go. Uh the Blazers will never lose a game in which Caleb Love comes off the bench and makes four three-pointers. They’ll never lose a game when he does that. They’re 2 and 0 lifetime. They’re going to be whatever and0 on to infinity cuz they will never lose a game when Kale Love comes off the bench and makes shots cuz he’s that is a game changer for him, right? their their offense has kind of been fine. Their problem is defense right now for the most part on the season. Tonight, their offense carried them. They were just so good that the the Cavs couldn’t get close enough to matter. And I thought the Cavs got a ton of good looks and missed them. The Cavs got a ton of good looks and missed them. Uh you know, DeAndre Hunter over three from three. Uh Don Mitchell goes three of 13. Darius Scarland one of eight from three. Lonzo Ball comes in and goes one of eight from three. Um the big guys, Thomas Bryant and Nevin Mobley made threes, but like nobody else did. They shoot 25% from three. And again, I thought they got really good looks and they had a handful that were like, “The guy you want, the shot you want, cuts the lead to single digits, puts a little pressure on the Blazers, and they just missed him.” Jaylen Tyson missed one in in the early in the fourth quarter. Uh Dean Wade missed the one that I highlighted in the middle of the fourth quarter. Like, whatever. Don’t give them back. They missed them. Blazers made them. You win the game. Um Sharp settling into the six-man role. Caleb Love showing up when they need him to get this rock solid win. This is just straight up good win. Straight up good win on the road. Second night of a back- to-back against a good playoff level teams. Good win. Um I would say one of the Blazers best wins of the year all things considered. Hey, keep it moving back to Detroit on Friday. Let’s uh head head back um as they slowly make their way um to Detroit and Memphis and then back home for a little bit and then to New Orleans for the neverending five-game road trip. That’s actually four games and then they’re going to come back for a little bit and then go back on the road again. Um, fine. I’ll talk about Jana Tkmpo. Fine. Fine. Join me in the third segment. We’ll talk about Janasan Tumbo. You know, he’s going to get traded or whatever. Um, dream your dreams and we’ll talk about it in the third segment. Before I squash those dreams, let me tell you about game time. If you want to see Jiannis Dumbo play in the Moda Center, well, you’re going to need to get yourself tickets using Game Time. The Game Time app is clutch. It gives fans an advantage when it comes to snagging seats to the games you want to go to. That includes not just Yiannis Takoupo’s Portland debut coming here in a few months, but also the World Cup coming back to North America for the first time since 199 1994. 48 teams and Game Time is going to make it easier for you to get World Cup tickets. A realistic chance instead of impossible. Um, you can pull up the app. The layout makes it so simple. Scroll through the matchups, compare seat views, see all of the venues that you want to go to. What you see is what you get pricing. So when you’re scrolling, you know exactly what you’re going to pay. Um, pick a game, tap a section, and have your tickets locked in within minutes. No confusion, no hunting for fine print. Just you buying the tickets to the games you want to go to to a world class footy. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets, including to the World Cup every match, concert, or event with Game Time. Uh, download the Game Time app, create an account, use the code locked on NBA. You get $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, download the app, make an account, use the code locked on NBA for $20 off. Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Game time. Still a pass versus point guard. I’m still Mike Richmond. You’re still listening to Locked on Blazers. Giannis onto Dmpo will be a poor. I’m just kidding. I’m just kidding. Here’s the news of the day. Um, listen, I’m not against uh trade rumors. I think they’re fun. I think the Janna stuff is fun. I think everyone else on the network is probably leading with Jiannis on Tumbo because trades, right? Um, just kidding. Was that an impression of all my colleagues at the locked on podcast network? I apologize colleagues. That’s not what you sound like. You sound like this. No. Um, Yazison Takumbo was reported today first by Shamster Sterani of ESPN is going to speak with his agent and the Milwaukee Bucks about potentially finding a what his future might be with the Bucks and if there can be and and and like the fine print there. and Trania is like really terrible at actually explaining what he what he’s ever meant in anything he’s ever reported. But like the fine print there is that Giannis Dumpo is going to eventually be traded from the Bucks and they’re going to start looking into it now. Seems clear. The more clearheaded reporting on this came from Trirania’s colleague at ESPN, Brian Winhor, who who who spoke today on NBA Today. He’s also said this earlier on ESPN radio affiliate in Cleveland a couple days ago or maybe excuse me a couple weeks ago, but he reiterated uh some reporting and added a little more context on NBA Today uh on Wednesday’s program. That’s ESPN’s like afternoon NBA show. what Winhorse explained um in a much clearer non-copy and pasted from the sources who want you to say it a certain way type of reporting and I’m being a little bit critical here but you all I feel how I feel about the state of breaking news reporting in the NBA but uh Winhorse reported just sort of in more planer language is that the Bucks will work with Giannis to find a trade that to a destination he prefers but once they sort of talk with him about what he prefers and that’s will be the conversations with his agent is then they’ll find uh a trade package with um that team. And what Whit said was that this summer while it was reported that like Giannis Antmpo was like the Knicks and and the Bucks were kind of having having conversations is that Giannis was like trade me to the Knicks. He had already requested a trade specifically to the Knicks. They spent, you know, three three to four days discussing trying to figure out a deal with with New York that would work. It didn’t work. Giannis said, “Cool. I’ll report to camp. Let’s go. Let’s play.” but he already requested a trade once. They just couldn’t find it. Um it’s more about seems like it’s from from Winhor’s reporting seems like it’s it’s about destination. Giannis is going to get traded where he wants to go. But the Bucks are doing the right thing the way that it happens when you trade an All-Star. Say like, “Hey, we’ll accommodate you. We’re not going to send you to hell, but we want like we need to get a return that makes sense for our team.” That’s where the Trailblazers come in. What makes sense for the Milwaukee Bucks? Well, the Bucks because they have mortgaged their future a cajillion times in order to chase glory with Yon Takoupo. And quite frankly, I applaud the Bucks for how consistently aggressive they’ve been. They basically traded everything they had for Drew Holiday and won a championship. Then they when that sort of iteration of the Bucks needed to be refreshed, they traded everything they had and Drew Holiday again to acquire Damen Lillard. And then after that, they even waved Damen Lillard, took on a bunch of future dead cat money and and like signed Miles Turner because they needed uh another spacey big man to work with Giannis. Uh but that means that the Bucks do not control any of their future picks moving forward. Um and those picks are controlled by teams that they have previously traded with and then where those picks have been dealt since. the B the Blazers control the Bucks picks um or excuse me have right to swap picks with the Bucks in 2028 and 2030 which means not that the Blazers outright have the Bucks pick. It just means that if the Bucks pick is say 11 and the Blazers are picking 17, Portland can exercise that right to swap. Hey, we get 11, y’all get 17. Same in 28, same in 30. Um the Blazers have some modicum of control of the Bucks 2029 pick that they once owned outright. Um, but they have since sent to Washington as part of the Denny Aavia trade. Pretty good trade as it turns out. Not loved here on this podcast, but in hindsight, boy was I wrong. A Denny Aavia a star. But uh because the Blazers have three picks in 2029, they’ve promised the middle of those three picks um to uh to Washington. So that conceivably could be the Bucks pick. So they don’t have outright control of it, but they have some control over that pick. But the problem is that 2028 is two drafts away. There’s still picks in 2026 and 2027. So, if the Bucks were to trade Giannis and want to bottom out, they don’t have much incentive to trade with the Blazers to get back their picks into the future necessarily. Their sort of immediate incentive would be to to get back those picks in 26 and 27, which are mostly controlled by the Atlanta Hawks. Although the Pelicans have some say in the 2027 pick, uh they have a swap situation going. Uh it it’s Milwaukeekey’s pick, but New Orleans and and Atlanta have a a swap agreement with it. The NBA is very confusing. So the Blazers I don’t think are are I don’t think realistically our destination for for for Giannis. It just like based on the Winhorse reporting um Giannis is going to choose his destination. Is Giannis going to say, “Hi, I would like to try it again with Damen Lillard, only this time he’ll be older and coming off an Achilles injury.” Like they were a fine pairing together, but they were not championship level good. I don’t think they ever seemed like they were homies and I don’t think it ever fit smoothly in the games I watched. Were they both good? Yes. Was the offense good? Yes. Um, were they injured in the playoffs and that was kind of the the the never really got a test of it? Absolutely. But they also just like they they weren’t dominant as a duo. Um, I can’t imagine Giannis signs up for it. I can’t imagine that he signs up to play on like a decent rising team in the West as opposed to like a team that seems much closer to championship contention should he ask out. Um, I can’t imagine that he moves west further away from uh further away from his uh home in Greece. Although he certainly could because you’re in America for a long time during the NBA season and it ain’t that hard to fly home if you’re on a private jet. Uh it’s just a little bit, you know, add add five hours to the trip uh if you start in Portland as opposed to Milwaukee. So like I I just and and moreover, I don’t think the Blazers can put together a trade that would allow them to both acquire Giannis and not sort of gut their depth and their chance to be competitive. Like if you’re the Bucks, you ask for Denny, right? And if you’re the Blazers, you say absolutely not. How about some combination of Shaden Sharp and Scoot Henderson and Jeremy Grant’s contracts, if not all three. Um, but even trading all of those like, yeah, you’re a fun team, but like championship level good plus, you know, you kind of it just doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense. So, how the Blazers were to if they were to get involved is as a facilitator. Like I said, Atlanta has the um sort of like, you know, has some stuff that they could do to tra get to acquire Giannis if he so chooses to be a Buck. I would immediately ask for Jaylen Johnson. That’d be my number one ask if I’m if I’m a Walke. I will take I will take the guy who’s sort of similar to Giannis and a bunch of draft picks. Um but if you know, but they have Trey Young’s contract if that interests the Bucks. But I it’d be surprising if that was part of it. Maybe it’ be part of it, but there’d be more to it. But Atlanta has the swap rights with um it’s it’s they get the better of either the Pelicans or the Bucks picks in 2026. So, if the Bucks are to make a deal, getting Atlanta involved and getting back control of their 2026 pick and then outright tanking so they can have full control over their destiny in the me in in terms of uh lottery odds. Obviously, the lottery does not let you have much control of your destiny because it’s literally a lottery, but that would be the path for them, right? Um the Bucks would want to trade with Atlanta in 2027. New Orleans and uh Atlanta have a swap that is the Bucks pick. Um, New Orleans gets the better of either their own pick, that’s the New Orleans would keep their own pick, or the Bucks pick. Um, and whichever pick the is is worse that the Pelgans don’t keep, that one goes to Atlanta. So, in some ways, Atlanta has control of of of Milwaukeee’s next two drafts. They’re much more likely to be involved in an immediate trade than the Blazers, but the Blazers could be a facilitator if the Bucks want to get back their future picks in 28 and 30. Um certainly like in a larger deal, could the Blazers send out picks and money to make it work to absorb the I don’t know male Bridges or something like that from the Knicks? Yeah, I think there’s a world in which that happens. Absolutely. But that’s the way they’re going to be involved. They’re not going to get Giannis. They’re going to be a facilitator. And I think because this happened a little bit earlier than would be ideal for the Blazers, their picks are actually somehow in terms of the Bucks immediate needs less valuable because the Bucks getting control of 26 and 27 if they trade Giannis is more important than 28 and 30. But certainly having control of your future picks period if you’re going to be bad matters. Albeit 30 is far enough down the line that you might say, you know what, maybe we’ll be back. May maybe we’ll be back. Um that’s your Giannis slop. Um, I think it’s like, um, the part of basketball I like is basketball. I’m much more excited about Caleb Love making shots and Shaden Sharp settling into a six-man role than I am about Giannis trade. And that is a me problem. So, I love y’all. Thanks for rocking with me in the Giannis trades section. Um, I I find the uh I find the mechanisms of making these trades interesting. What would motivate the Bucks? What would motivate Atlanta, etc., etc., um more so than like the um the actual like cook me up a fake trade nonsense. But I like the mechanisms of how to build a team and the decisions you make and the like really poor decisions um New Orleans made when they would they would have all of this leverage over Milwaukee if they just not um traded for Derek Queen who looks like a good player, but if they had just not traded that unprotected pick um like a double unprotected pick then with a swap with Bucks like they would be in the driver’s seat for um you know the biggest trade part that’s going to hit the market this year. Um, and that is more interesting to me than the trays themselves. Um, that’s going to do it for today’s show. Tomorrow’s show, come back. Uh, Joe Freeman of the Oregonian is going to join the program. Your boy, Handsome Joe. Uh, so do not miss that one. And then come back for five shows next week is what we do. Five days a week, wherever you get podcast, also on YouTube. Tell your friends about the show. I appreciate you listening. I’ll talk to you soon.

Caleb Love and Shaedon Sharpe led the Trail Blazers reserves with 20 points each as Portland earned an impressive road win in Cleveland. Plus, we briefly wade into the Giannis Antetokounmpo trade waters.

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