Portland Trail Blazers 2026/27 NBA Season Preview: Too Many Guards & Too Much Usage

Is there more confusing team in the NBA currently than the Portland Trailblazers in their rotation? Let's try to get to the bottom of it. We're talking Portland Trailblazers, and we're listening to Marko Bolton. Thanks Josh. It's Michael Bolton here, and it's time for another episode of the Lockdown Fantasy Basketball Podcast. Let's get to it. Let's get to it. Indeed. You are Lockdown Fantasy, your daily NBA fantasy podcast. Part of the Lockdown pod podcast network, your team every day. Hello and welcome to the Lockdown Fantasy Basketball Podcast brought to you by Basketball Monster. My name is Josh Lloyd, and I'm taking on a side gig. I'm going to be working PR for Tom Dundin. Wish me luck. Today's episode is brought to you by Fangil. Join all of the action at fangil.com to play daily dingers and make your free pick on who's hitting a homer this MLB season. We're talking Blazers. They've got a million guards. They've got a lot of uncertainty regarding so many things. In fact, I don't even know how much we're going to talk about the whole dundinness of that team and all of the negativity that he is bringing across the franchise. Because there's just more basketball stuff to actually talk about. And we're going to talk about it with the host of Lockdown Blazers. Michael G. Richmond. Maybe I'll find out what the G stands for. So he's here. It's Mike G. Richmond, the Portland Pickle himself. Mike, what does, as the screen freeze, what does the G stand for? I've been told a stands for Greg Odin. It does. It stands for Greg Odin and also Greg Anthony shout out to the early 2000s, Treblezers. Greg Anthony, Cole Anthony is playing down in Australia this season for Melbourne United. So maybe I'll see Cole play down here in person, which he should destroy the league. It's a little bit crazy to me that he's not in the NBA, but whatever. He is down here playing in the NBA for this upcoming season. Mike, I said this before you came on and you battle all your internet demons up there to get on to this show. I said that this might be a team that I've got almost the most questions about because the roster is, I feel like we say this every year. There's like eight starters, but is there anyone who's like elite elite? Maybe there is. I don't know, but there's just a million guys who go, well, he should play this many minutes when he should do this and he should do this, but they can't because this is too many guys around. So it is initially, I've got so many questions. I don't think we have time to talk about the dundinness of everything that's going on because the roster is still confusing. Yeah, I can't wait for the days when I can only complain about the Treblezers real weird roster. That's what I'm really looking forward to. I'm going to get back to my core competencies and talk about how weird the roster is and not all the other mess surrounding the franchise. There is a lot of mess that is happening. So let's just talk about not only that stuff alone for now, let's talk about what actually has changed with the way that this roster looks currently in terms of who has arrived because of with all the movement in the offseason, I think honestly, I honestly think people forgot the drum rant now plays for Paul and I honestly legitimately forget, I think the people forget that trade happened. So he's there. They bring in Michael Potter, who's pretty decent, who adds to their 17 centers they've got, Jeremy Sohan, John Tonji, Brandon Carlson, another stretch big man that they bring in. They lose Jeremy Grant, Matisse Thibal, Chris Murray, Caleb Love and Blake Wesley. So on a team that was already lacking in Fords, Mike, they decide that they'll bring in another point card and trade out a Ford and also bring in multiple centers when they've got, they had three guys in that rotation last season. So what's going on? I don't know. Jeremy Grant was a playable forward. He would help them. Chris Murray is not very good, but certainly he used a forward. I think even Matisse Thibal, who they chose to let walk probably would be playable on the wing for them on most nights if not night one. So they really they really let some guys go. They're going to be point card heavy. I think Drew Holiday is exclusively a small forward on this team as it stands right now. I think he's I think he's I don't think he'll get any minutes on the floor or at least very rarely, not next to two other guards. So I guess that's one solution is now the small forward and maybe a little backup power forward Drew Holiday. Yeah, well, let's let's just start with Drill. Okay, now he's not a part of the arrivals, but this is a good opportunity to talk about Drew Holiday because he came in last season after obviously the failed Drew Holiday part on a file that when he came in they'll flipped him earlier. He returned back to the team and he was really key when they had a lot of injuries early in the season. Then he himself got hurt and I thought he played really well and reestablished or showed that he could move back into position of hey, if I need to do more and ramp up usage and play on ball, I can. But I would imagine that this season you're going to see more of Drew Holiday numbers from when he played in Boston where he was a second fiddle. He didn't play point guard. He's usage was well down. He just was like a primitive defender. Is that like how you're envisaging that? Yeah, it's hard to imagine that he gets the type of usage he had last year just because there were some late clock possessions where just like, okay, Drew, go ahead and do it. And he would and they needed him to score. That was like a typical part of their like the experience for the sort of middle 40 games of the season. And that won't be the case. Not with John Miranda back in the fold, not with you assume a bunch of Damien Lillard. I think Danny, I've you took a step forward enough that you expect him to have soak up some of the sort of extra non point guard usage. And at some point, you have to figure in the two other guards. So yeah, I think Drew Holiday is going to get back to his Boston core competencies of parking in the corner and hanging out. I would expect that that is true. So let's talk about Marant who comes in again. The cost was Jeremy Grant and Chris Marin not really a huge cost. They look like they've been trying to trade Jeremy Grant for the last couple of seasons. But again, like bringing Marant in, I just, is it just like, I, how do I have best even phrases? It's just like, let's just see what happens. Like, let's take a bit on talent here, I guess, and see if you can read. Can you look, obviously, you needed to get out of Memphis? Yeah, I mean, I think in a lot of ways, I felt the same way about the every Simon straight last year for Drew Holiday. It's like, why are they trading for a 36 year old who's owed so much money or at the time, I guess 35 year olds don't so much money. But it's like, I guess that's the best player you could possibly trade and free Simon's for if you're just looking for like best single basketball player, maybe not best plan. But like, and I feel kind of the same. What's who's the best basketball player? You could trade Jeremy grants $35 million for? I think John Marant's got to be high on the list of like best single, you know, no draft picks, a little bit of Chris Murray to make the money work. But like, I think they just bet on talent. He seems to both mute some of Damien Lodz gifts. And even if you're not worried about that because Damien Lodz is 36, he certainly seems to mute some of Danny obvious gifts. So he seems like a weird fit. But you know, he's he once was very good. And maybe he gets back to being very good and they reap some benefits either on the court or in the trade market from that. But yeah, it's I think the price was so low that they felt like, well, let's just do it. But I know it's it's August, but I don't get it. Maybe I'll get it in November, but I don't I don't get it in August. Yeah, I don't get it either. And like I don't think that there's like some master because when it happens, everyone's like, oh, no, don't worry. They're trading this. They're trading that's like, okay, well, they're not though at the moment. Like nothing's happened. And I don't really think that the they've got this master deal where they trade out three of their other guards and bring in the staff. I don't think any of that's happening. And you're right about the dinner. I do think what you're going to talk a bit about a little bit later. It's just going to be hard to make all this stuff fit. Now I want to talk about with you, your projected starting group on this team. Cause again, it's one of those ones where there are many directions that people could go in this starting group. And I actually think I think you actually bang on with this grouping of Lillard, Marant, Camara, Abdia and Klingon. I don't really think there's another again. Drillity was so good last season, you can make an argument. He starts someone. I know that we won person in these comments or someone who'd be like, man, shade and sharp. He scored 20 points a game. He's going to start out zero shot to me that he starts. There's almost no chance that that's going to be a thing that happens. But yeah, I really don't see it for as confusing as the roster is. And you're going to have drew you know, scrued, you know, sharp all coming off the bench. I think this pretty much has to be the grouping like. Yeah, I don't like, I think you could make a strong case that starting true holiday next to either Marant or Lillard is a better basketball fit. Absolutely. Like I think you could just say like, Hey, if you want to win, if you want to be better at the beginning of games, this is a better lineup. But I think this is what they're going to do. I don't I have a hard time seeing them trade for John Marant and big. Alright, buddy, here's the bench. You're going to watch these two 36 year old gentlemen. They're 10 years older than you and they're going to go out and play some basketball and then you'll come in for one of them or to Dame. Welcome back local legend. You return to the franchise and you are going to watch drew holiday, start the games and for like, you think night one, they're going to be like doing the starting lineups at the motor center or whatever it gets, you know, naming the right soul to something heinous because that's the situation we're in. I think that I'm after when a Tom Dunn and children is what I hit the DAX center here. Welcome to the Caden Dome. And yeah, so there will be, you know, the now certainly the PA guy will go on the over the intercom at the Caden Dome will be like, and starting at point guard, drew holiday and I was like, what? And Dame just like waves from the bench and that's it. Like, come on. Those two dudes are going to start. They might not start the whole year, but I'll be I think that's how the season starts. And I think it's a pretty ugly pairing, but hey, you know, at some point you, if you make your bed, you got to sleep in it. We are going to talk more about that ugly pairing and that grouping in a second we'll get back to the that very, very quickly today's episode though. It is brought to you by Fandall, baseball fans. If you think that you know who is hitting a home at today, Fandall is giving you a free chance to call your shot with daily dinghers. 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I've got no other picks for you. I think I'm exhausting my pick ability on these picks, but maybe you have someone that you think is going to go deep today and bang one out with a big dong, ding-a, some like that, one of those words that they want to use over on Fandall for the daily dingers. So if you're ready to play your game today, join all of the action at fandall.com. That is fandall.com to play daily dingers and make your free pick on who is hitting a home run. Play ball and swing for the Fandall. An official partner of MLB. And don't forget to gamble responsibly. (upbeat music) Mike Richmond is here with us talking about the Portland Trailblazers and their plethora of guards. So the first big question about the Blazers Mike is, are we really going to expect a back court of Lillard Amaran to be viable in the big 26? Is this like, how much can one to money Kamara do to guard all the perimeter blowbys on a 36 year old Dame coming off in Achilles and a Jarmaran, who let's be fair, is terrible. On defense. So I know that you have to for all the reasons you mentioned, but how do they, I guess, maybe the question is, how do they mitigate this concern? Like these guys are going to miss games. So Drew Holiday will slide in and be like, oh my God, someone who's real at playing defense. But, or maybe he doesn't, maybe they put a scoot in there. I don't know. But how do they mitigate this very glaring problem? - I think you try to stagger them as much as possible. You try to get them down to playing like, 16 minutes a night. I think the challenge though is, even if they don't end up starting together and they might not, I think they will. But they're going to close games. Like there is no math that suggests that you like, that you get to the four minute mark and you look at freaking local legend, Damien Lillard and you say, okay, watch, watch scoot go in here and play. It's just like, come on. So they're going to close games. I don't, I think in the regular season, you can kind of get away with multiple ball handlers, terrible defense. I'm actually more worried about the Blazers as a transition defensive team than a half court defensive team because I think half court, they can hold up with like, a little bit of, you know, Don Van Klingen protects the paints and they hope that they can kind of run around and prevent, you know, not giving up wide open threes, right? They might funnel everyone in and just hope like, you know, smoking mirrors that they end up like the, I don't know, the 20 second defense and not the 28th, right? And then they're pretty good on offense. I think there's a, there's a way there that you win 45 games with something like that. But I just, I just can't imagine them being any good in transition defense. Like I just, it's John Morant, suddenly going to be a guy who hustles back and like breaks up three on, three on twos. Is Don Van Klingen going to get, you know, a turbo jet pack that he gets to wear during games. Damien Lillard wasn't a good transition defender. He's not 36 years old coming off in a kill. He's injury like, I just think if teams run on them, they're going to be in trouble. And the way that you prevent teams from running in the modern NBA is offensive rebounding. And I think they got worse off and it's a rebounding with this group. So I, like, what are we doing? I don't know. I, I, I think I think you can hold up. I think that duo can hold up if they don't play very much together. But is that a solution? Does that, does that sound like a good solution for two starting guards? Like, make them not play very much. Yeah, and then only play them in the most critical times. Only play them together in the most critical times. That's, that's the key part to that. Well, where are we out with Damien, he's healthy. We obviously know that he participated at all style weekend on the three point contests. He's going to be more than 16 months removed from Achilles surgery. What are we expecting? Well, obviously, one of those guys was playing 35, 36 minutes a night back in his prime last time he was in Paul. And what are we expecting in terms of minutes load? Back-to-backs management plan. Like, what's the expectation here? I don't expect him to be straight up managed out of back-to-backs. Like, I don't think that they will-- I think the reason that they asked him to sit and like, we're really like, hey, you're going to take the whole year and no matter what, was because they wanted him to come back and play like close to normal minutes. But I don't think normal minutes is 34 night. I think it's 30-ish, right? I think he's going to be like a-- effectively like a sort of a low-minute starter guy who plays in that 30-31 range. I think that also helps mitigate some of the jomerant pairings, both of them play 30 a little bit. But I do expect him to play a typical-- I don't expect him to get the Rob Williams treatment. I think they'll try to play him a normal amount. And if that doesn't work out, then they'll go somewhere else. But from everything I hear, he feels like he's really close to being Damien Lillard. But also, he is Damien Lillard. And he always feels like he's really close to doing something magical. And often, he has delivered. So maybe he's right more often than we give him credit for. Well, after Sima again, he is 36 years of age coming off a devastating injury and we'll see how the impact of that is felt throughout the season. But it's not like they don't have other guards who can pick up the slack if he does need to ease things off. And just take it a little bit easier. The Portland Trailblazers had an all-star last season. Many people thought he should have been in the All-MBA discussion. That is, of course, Denny Abdia. With Denny, the question for me-- and as soon as these trades went down, I was like, ooh, I would think that we're going to see a bit of a change here in Denny's numbers. Not only is Jamarant joining the team in place of German grant marrant, a high usage player who handles the ball a ton of high on ball player. But Damien Lillard returns. And Denny had his success by being an on-ball player with a really high usage. So how do they manage this? He was again, he was there all-star. He was their best player. And he is-- no matter what you're thinking, no matter how good you think Denny Abdia is, there is zero chance to me that he can maintain the exact same role as last season. So how does that-- He has a good manage. No way, yeah. How does he-- No way, he has the level of usage. I don't know. I thought his pairing with Damien Lillard would have made more sense, because at least Damien, when he's off the ball, is a very good shooter. When he's standing on the wing watching-- Yes. --because he's not someone who runs around off the ball. When Jamarant standing on the wing watching, because he's not someone who runs off the ball either, he's a terrible shooter. So that seems like not ideal as a pairing. You know, one of the reasons I don't love-- or I have been negative on the Jamarant trade is in part because-- not because I don't think Denny can become an off-ball guy who's effective, but because you're just muting his strengths. The best version of him was this just relentless downhill guy. As a passer, I think he led the league in passes per drive. That's how they got going. He probably was asked to do too much. So scaling him back a little bit made sense. But he might take a big step back. I don't know how they-- I don't have an answer to this. One of my biggest questions for this team is how do they still have Denny become an all-star, or an all-star level player, even who doesn't make the team. But one of the very good players in the league, because it seems like the players that they've added take away from some of what made him so special. Perhaps he's better on defense, because he won't have his big ask on offense. But that's still going to limit his production. And limiting your production usually means less glory in the award season. Yeah, I'd say that's true. I think that he is-- maybe he shoots better, because he's shooting was under 32% from 3. And it dipped down over the last 20 games. He was shooting like 24%. From 3, there was a back injury involved in that as well. But maybe we get that back to. He was at 36 and 37, the two previous seasons. Maybe the reduction in usage brings him back. Like to go back to his first season in Portland, he played 30 minutes night, average 17 points. This last season, he averaged 24, 7, and 7. To me, I think the expected output for him should be somewhere in the middle of that. I don't think he's hitting 24 points with 30 usage. I think we're seeing 24 usage. We're seeing 20 points a game. Maybe we see the assist. I don't think they're sitting at 7 either when you've got a million other point guards on this team. I think we're seeing all that stuff drop off. But maybe there is an offset in efficiency numbers. Because again, it's just-- when people talk about the Sixers trading for LeBron, and when I sign in LeBron trading for Jalen, they go, there's only so many balls. And this is the highest group of usage players all to put in. And when I'm projecting them out, I've got to bring all these numbers back. Paulins was the same. When I tried to put all the expected usage is based on past seasons together, like it came out that the team was running with a pace, like 130 positions a game. But it didn't start bringing all the usage numbers down. Because it's on the same level of trying to regress all this stuff back. So it is going to be, I think, a challenge for a one-year head coach, Mike and Nori to come in and see exactly what he can do to fiddle these guys and the emotion, the history of Lillid, the bounce back of Marant, and the all-star of the A. It's a big challenge, Mike. Yeah, I mean, the prominent interim head coach has a real-- he's got to really figure it out for-- because in some ways, like the way the contract is set up, He's got to prove it every guys. He's got to prove that he can figure that he has. Prove he can figure out. the mess, right? Like that's the whole thing that proving to figure out the mess. So, um, I don't envy that because I don't I don't understand how the offense works easily in the half court. I that that part is is upuzzles me and Dame's never been a really high-paced guy. So maybe there's a maybe there's a give and take where it's at some point you play in the half court with Dame and he operates and when he's off the court you just try to fly and play fast with John, Shaden and Denny and Tumani and whatever and it might be a potter or whatever and that's how it works and maybe they have a really they have in-game they have a very different identities that that kind of scale but you don't you don't see teams play that differently that often. Not really. That brings me to the thing of fighting differently. The third big question about this Paul and team. It I think it's been maybe forgotten by some people at this point. Mike, but don't even clinging this playoffs was a little weird. It was a little um not good say to speak and I don't know like I had took some big strides last season he started taking a lot of threes but Rob Williams was awesome. They resigned him and the fact that they just bring in a million centers they got like five centers. Young Hunts Center's the fifth one of those guys now. Shout out to whatever that draft pick was but it bring in a very clear archetype in Brandon Carlson and Michael Potter and Klingon was taking all these three. So what do we make of the way that he played the three point shot diet and the fact that like they prioritized bringing in centers like where is Klingon sitting is he still just is he going to be like a 30 minute guys at 27 minute guy they're leaning more into the threes like where are we at after that again it was against victory. But he did not play well in the playoffs and it was some confusing things going on. Yeah he was really bad in the playoffs. I know no doubt about it. I do think he was good enough during the regular season that he just kind of seems like a guy who can who's good for the 82 game part of the of the program and not the 16 part. You know clearly they want bigs that can stay out of the paint. Rob Williams notably shattered his career high in three point attempts. I don't think he got up to 30 but I think he I think he was a 300% increase in career three point attempts last year. So like you know clearly they want guys out of the paint. They want to be able to move their centers out of the lane and let you know Danny obviously get downhill and now John Meran get downhill like they want that they want that paint open. They don't want you to post up which is good because down the clean and can't post up. You know he's one of the best rebounders in the league. His rookie year he was better on defense than he was a year ago. Perhaps that's just the level of you know just the minutes right he just said the bigger bigger workload couldn't be as good of a defender because he played longer stretches. But I expect him a relatively similar role because I don't think they're going to stretch Rob out more than 17 or 18 minutes a night like they're not going to push it. I think Brennan Carlson is more the guy who plays when Rob Williams is out for the back to back that he does not play on 16 times of season. And I guess for the blazer open that it's 13 times I hope the schedule makers really hook them up with that that nice Rob Williams schedule. But and I think and I think they'll try to play Mike a potter at the four. Whether they can get away with that is we'll see but they don't have forwards famously Josh they that's not a position that they acquired. I guess shout out to Jeremy Sohan but he's bad. And so like I think they'll I think they'll try to play potter next to Rob Williams in some bench lineups. And but I don't think I don't think DC takes a hit because I think in terms of role I think he's back in that 28ish minutes a night and they'll try to they'll they'll get funky for the rest of it. I think that's seems pretty pretty reasonable again. I think it's more like there'll be people who look at him here hitting into year three and go well okay so now it's another step forward it's 31 it's 32 minutes of the guard I think it's probably gonna hover you know where it is and then we'll see what that means in well it's gonna be hard to get extra usage I don't really know he's got the ability to do that but go. The question for you about the ceiling of this team because you know they are again we've talked about a million times that are weird roster. The player that you said to me is the ceiling razor on this team is a guy that again I think had a interesting season last season he shot really poorly until the final six weeks of the season where he shot about 45 percent from three but Tomani Kamara is a guy that it just seems like this blazers team they love him every time we talk about lineups it's like not Tomani has to start okay cool like you got all these guys who are all stars all star adjacent all these sort of players but no Tomani Kamara has to start he plays these big minutes he holds this role when you say that he is the guy that impacts the ceiling of this team what what do you mean is it mean consistent shooting is it taking a ball handling responsibility what is he what is he gonna do to change that because he has to be on the court because of their defensive struggles without him I can maybe drew steps in but Drew doesn't guard the point of attack like Tomani does they don't have anyone else in the roster who guards at the point of attack so if they're going to be good they probably do need a 34 minutes a night of Tomani Kamara guarding someone who can dribble downhill because like scooters and as an interesting defender but that's not it the other guards are bad on defense Shay DC jaw Danny Avia has probably been capable of being a good defender early in his career but was not last year was a bad pretty bad defensive player no one else you really want having big minutes in that role so it's it's it's like Drew Hallday 36 year old who's not good at guarding the point of attack cities to soko or two money and I just think that every every I mean again I guess shout out to Jeremy so hand who's bad but technically an option so like every answer to how does this work has to be to money Kamara they just he's the guy who has to be on the court he played all eight two games last year he weaponized falling down better than anyone in the history of the league I imagine he'll continue to do that's like he'll that that's the path for them is that it has to be to money is that unfair is that unreasonable sure yes to both of those things but I just don't think you they can be a good basketball team if to money tomorrow isn't a big minute a night guy he probably needs to be able to shoot a little bit more consistently the numbers at the end of the season look good but they're real peaks and valleys and he probably could stand to learn how to dribble um but you know if he were to just check one of those boxes say more consistent shooting they'll be okay and he's the guy who keeps them in in the mix he's more of a don't let this the floor completely fall out that a ceiling razor but I think to reach the ceiling to money has to be in the in the equation uh I think that's pretty accurate in the game when I'm projecting this out like he just has to lock in at 30 plus minutes like it just has to happen I think and that means that other things need to fall away in other areas now the next question I'm gonna ask you Mike is about the pressure in this franchise but it's such a weird question yeah that who feels the pressure the most like is it dependent interim head coach is it Joe Cronon in the front office it's not gonna be Tom Dundin I'm gonna look at the feeling he doesn't care is it the city of Portland about where this team ends up like is it charm around like who is feeling the pressure the most on this team because again there is just everything is buzzing around this team and it is weird the the ownership the arena the roster the the return of dame the integration of all these pieces like who do you think singularities under the most pressure uh it's probably nori because his situation is so tenuous but like also a part of me feels like are they really gonna fire him and try to do the same can they really pull off the same trick again are they gonna be able to they could hire someone at his price point who's as it experiences him I doubt it if he gets fired right away so you know nori's probably number one for me because of the challenges so serious for him like it's just really hard to see how this all works not that like I think the blazers are gonna win 40 somewhere between 40 and 45 games like I like I think they're gonna be competitive but if they need if they're supposed to take a step forward significantly um a lot falls on nori to figure stuff out so I'll put him there but I'd like a quiet number two just like to keep it real it's like um the sort of I would say like young millennial blazers fan um not so young that you kind of miss brand and Roy but if you're old enough to appreciate brand and Roy but you haven't celebrated so you're like 45th birthday yet it's that sort of range of fan I'm talking about is like 31 and it's like they're taking they're gonna take this away from me that person is feeling the most pressure for uh trailblazers this season yeah because it's uh it's it's messy and we don't have the time to get into all that like I don't even have the time to talk about like we're just shading shop in all this like we're gonna talk about it now but like where's he fit he did average 20 points of game last season but like like playing 18 minutes a night or something weird like that off the bench okay okay so people will look at his numbers last season go well you average 20 but I would say that he still did like did he actually grow anywhere like did he improve his defense he's shooting good now with this was the points anything that wasn't empty like I don't have the answer any of those things yeah just the high volume really high volume role and I don't he's not gonna get such as a low volume role how good can he be in a low volume role and if he can't be good how does he earn a high volume role it's it's uh he's in a it there are so many things like that um they've never committed to scoot handers in the high draft pick of the joke thrown an era they gave him 10 games at the beginning of his career he was horrendous they have since always blocked his path and given him basically no way to to get anywhere first am free simons then drew holiday then drew uh damion lower then jomeran just always just got to get someone in front like they just it's it is it's just kind of been their mo and yet there's something like a 43 win team so here we go uh I I mentioned accomplished well that that brings us to your season the win prediction and you did tell me that you had them predicted for 44 wins so close enough to that range which I think is fair because again this is a ton of talent in this team now right a lot of things we're talking about is how does it make sense how do you elevate the level what does it mean for the future because you can ride damion lily and drew holiday and get 44 wins but again scoot handersen and the number three overall pick has never had a chance to do anything and he showed some flashes last season. It was pretty good at times in the playoffs. He was okay, but now he's probably as a 20 minute, a night player, and when does he get opportunities to do anything? 'Cause he's gonna be sharing the court on the bench with Drew Holiday and Shade and Sharp. So we talk about 44 is good, it's fine, it's impressive. They'll probably make the play in at the very least, but where do you go next? Like what's the next step? And that's I think where the concerns are. It's like, you can cobble together as wins, but you can just keep cobbling 42 wins every single season and doesn't lead you anything that's, you know, super successful unless you're just treading water and hoping for the breaks to go your way. - Yeah, I mean, I recall the first decade of the Demi and Lillard era and welcome back. - Yep, that's, yeah, that's, it is, it is very, very similar to that. Just let's just see how it goes. And let's just hope that we're good enough to be good without being great and you're making that, I think I made the one conference finals at one point and got smacked in that one and then I never really got back. So like it's, it's so weird to sit and criticize a team that has all this talent and has improved because that's important and that's impressive, but it's still like, none of it makes sense. Like I still can't figure out. And it is, without any question, one of the most intriguing teams to me just to watch how they play this are teams going to be firing off as a Joe Kronin to get shade and sharp, to get Scoot Henderson, to get Drew Holloway. Is that because they're gonna be sitting there playing 21 minutes a game? Maybe, will anything happen with this? I don't know, I can, maybe you probably don't know either, but that's why we're all here. - I have, I have very few answers right now. I do think they're talented enough to not be bad. Like I feel strongly about that. I think they're talented enough to not be a bad basketball team. I think the roster is too wonky for them to be a really good one. And I think to get, to be a team that can be confident in your chance to compete for a conference finals, you probably need to win somewhere in the range of 51 games and you need to have home court advantage. And I just don't see it, I see a pretty easy path for them to finish something like sixth, right? If some stuff breaks it away, like I don't, I think that was, that's, you don't even have to squint that hard. It's like, oh yeah, Walker Kessler got hurt in the Lakers suck. That's pretty, seems easy enough, right? But like I don't, I see a path for them being a playoff team, fairly, fairly clearly, but beyond that, I don't. And like that feels very familiar in the 12 seasons that I've done this pretty regularly. It's like, oh yeah, a competitive, pretty intriguing playoff team that I don't think can win a playoff series. It's good to be home. - Welcome back to Portland Child Blazers. Mike, you'll have all of that covered for us over on the Blazers, Lockdown Blazers podcast in case they somehow decide they are gonna do a trade and they're gonna consolidate, or maybe there's city council stories, you've got to cover, who knows? You'll cover it all for us over on Lockdown Blazers. Thank you again for coming on. I locked on Fantasy Basketball to talk about this Portland team and trying to like find some sense in what is a roster full of witness. - It's always a treat, thanks Josh. (upbeat music) - Hope we got some sort of info from that. It is hard to know. And I agree with Mike that you're gonna see a big drop in Denny's role. And you're gonna see Druhorde and Scoot Henderson and Shadenshire mainly as bench players outside of when Morant is out and when little it is out. I think you're gonna see weirdness in the way that all these players fit together and I don't expect a big leap from Donovan Clean 'cause it's just hard to see how it all happens on this team. Maybe they do make a trade, I really doubt it. And I think we're just gonna have a lot of, well this guy's playing 30 now and 20 of the next game and little stretches of increased usage and decreased usage which is gonna make it very frustrating. So I guess the overall take Fantasy Wise and we'll do more of this obviously in September is like we can't over index on these guys for a liability because there's gonna be a lot of ups and downs I would say. Thumb up the video, double bang it, leave your comments. Guys, we are done here. Thank you so much for listening everyone. See ya. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)