Top Off-Season Storylines for the Portland Trail Blazers

Top Off-Season Storylines for the Portland Trail Blazers

as the Blazers enter their first official offseason in rebuild mode this offseason has a ton of story lines and a ton of intrigue here are five offseason story lines for your Portland Trailblazers before we jump into things we drop merch and you can buy it right below this video it’s a great way to support the channel now offseason storyline number one for your Portland Trailblazers is their financial situation the Blazers are projected to be approximately $6 million over the luxury tax for the lottery it was approximately $9 million but the Blazers moving down three spots saved them some money supposedly the franchise is almost relieved to have saved that money and obviously they are going to duck the tax and if it sounds ridiculous that they’re in the tax considering they’re in a rebuild I 100% agree having a payroll this high in a rebuild is a bit unheard of and considering the Blazer duck the luxury tax when they were trying to win they’ll certainly do it again this year and while they could wait until the trade deadline to do so the last time that happened Joe Cronin got out leveraged in the Norman pal trade due to being in the tax and it’ll be harder deduct the tax at the trade deadline considering there will be more teams with pure cap space that can absorb salaries during the off season but who knows if these teams with cap space will want to blow their money on guys like Malcolm Brogden or matis thel and if they do will the financial savings take precedence over maximizing assets we’ve seen that movie before and that’s the conundrum that Joe Cronin has put himself in this offseason he may end up with a perfect opportunity to save money and get back worthwhile assets at the same time for one of the high salary veterans but assuming that opportunity will come along is a bit naive and we’re just going to have to wait and see and this feeds into storyline number two and that is the Malcolm Brogden injury and his trade prospects I wanted the Blazers to flip Malcolm Brogden before the season last year they went into the season with him even though he was a fourth guard with scoot Henderson infy Simons and shanen sharp Blazer’s injuries made it a little bit easier to handle that Log Jam for chony Bops but now as they head into the off season it makes a ton of sense to trade Malcolm Brogden but I brought up that injury word and of course injuries play a factor here as Malcolm Brogden did not play after the trade deadline for the Blazers and he was dealing with an elbow injury and there is some speculation out there that his Medicals aren’t looking too good and are going to hurt the Blazer’s ability to trade him I don’t know how substantial that is or if that speculation is true or not but you do have to wonder if what SAT Malcolm brogen out for multiple months at the end of the season could be something that hurts his trade value on the open market a potential Malcolm Brogden deal might not net as much back as Blazer fans are hoping for especially those that thought that the offers at last year’s trade deadline weren’t good enough maybe the Blazers can ultimately get back a future first round pick for Malcolm Brogden but I think that’s where the bar is or maybe they just outright keep him which I would honestly hate I think the Blazers need to trade Malcolm brog this offseason I just don’t know if they can get back much and that is is going to be one of the biggest story lines to watch this summer now before we get into number three I want to tell you a little bit about Manta sleep mask you guys know them they’ve been sponsoring the channel for a while now and they make a phenomenal sleep mask to help you get a good night’s rest but the thing is they’re so much more than just a sleep mask right now where I’m at in the Pacific Northwest it’s very very hot and what I love to do when this time of year rolls around is use my Manta cooling eye cups to beat the heat Manta sleep masks have all sorts of attachments these cooling eye cups being one of them they’re velcro you can literally just stick them on the mask and it is super relaxing to put these on during a hot day and just lay down for 10 15 minutes and just relax I have a manta sound mask which has Bluetooth speakers so I’ll relax meditate enjoy the cooling eye cups and it literally makes my entire day and you at home you probably deserve something like this you deserve the ability to relax the ability to reset yourself take care of your mental health sleep well all that good stuff and you should be treating yourself right so if you want to do that use the link in the description box below to visit Manas sleep.com and then use promo code uprise on your first purchase and it’ll save you 10% it also helps out the channel so it’s a great way to support me while you’re also taking care of yourself that’s called a win-win Mana sleep has you covered shout out to them for sponsoring the video storyline number three is the Blazers overall direction are they going to push for a play appearance next year or are they going to fully embrace the rebuild and have some patience and go the young route if the Blazers are pushing to be comp competitive next year I would fully expect them to keep Jeremy Grant maybe even Malcolm Brogden maybe matis thel as well as make moves to add talent to the team add players and maybe those are more veteran Laden guys if they’re going the rebuild route and want to make a play for the future then that would probably include trading Malcolm Brogden that could include trading Jeremy Grant and obviously that route would have more of a focus on Youth and development I think the Blazers need to have some patience I don’t think the Blazers need to try and be good next year next year is a loaded draft which the Blazers could get their next franchise great in so I’m all for patience but I don’t know if the Blazers are going to be all that patient there is that report in the middle of the Season that the Blazers wanted to be like last year’s Houston Rockets which competitive a 500 team and pushed for a playing spot albe it missed it by five games or so and with fan interest down I do have some worry that the Blazers are going to Short Circuit the rebuild a little bit to try and push for a playing spot a ninth or a 10th seed hoping that that would bring back some of that fan engagement hoping that they could then sell more tickets and TV viewership would go back up but I don’t think that’s the best thing for winning a championship in the next decade so we really have to pay attention to the overall direction that this ownership group and GM Joe Cronin decides to go in this off season and this feeds into storyline number four what do the Blazers do with the 14th pick of course that pick is the Golden State Warriors draft pick that they owe Portland there has already been Rumblings that they are very very likely to trade it I think that’s a bit of a mistake I think you can get a pretty decent player in that range while this draft is panned by many as being a weak draft the weakest draft in years I think there’s certain types of prospects that you can find Value in at points in this year’s draft and I think that 14th pick is one of them I actually think the Blazers are in a pretty good spot to draft a high caliber role player that could be an integral part of a winning team down the line but if the Blazers have already made up their minds that they want to trade that 14th pick then that makes me worry about the direction that they’ve already chosen for this off season if they’re being patient and going the rebuild route that would include using that draft pick maybe taking a swing on a tajon salon or drafting a Do-it all Wing a guy I like is Jaylen Tyson of course the Blazers should field offers for that pick you always want to do your due diligence and seeing what all the opportunities are for each and every one of your assets but have the Blazers already decided to trade that pick and will they ultimately trade that pick that is going to be one of the biggest things to watch this offseason the fifth and final story line is what do the Blazers do with their seventh overall pick and I think this is very interesting because of some of the players that the Blazers have at every position what the Blazers do with this pick is going to change the outlook for somebody that’s already on this roster the Blazers are set in terms of young guards with Anthony Simon Shaden sharp and Scoot Henderson they’re also pretty set at the center spot right now with DeAndre Aon Robert Williams the third who can’t stay healthy but then you got daper who looked good last year is the third Stringer who could step in if Rob will gets hurt again so that really only leaves the forward spots but you got tamani Kamar who was really really solid for the Blazers last year at the small forward spot and then you got Jeremy Grant taking up that power forward spot and no matter who the Blazers draft they’re probably going to have to move off somebody to clear minutes so it’s going to be really interesting to see what type of player the Blazers draft with their own draft pick and then ultimately how they handle his role going into the season and how they clear up some minutes for that player to be a part of the rotation because there’s no way the blaz should draft somebody and not include him in the rotation to start the year and then I got a Bonus storyline I guess I don’t think this is as crucial as the other five but the story line is how do the Blazers handle their three guards in scoot Simons and shark there’s people out there that think the Blazers might trade Anthony simus this off season I don’t think that’s going to be the case which is why I didn’t originally have this as a storyline I think the Blazers just go into next year with all three on the roster and maybe bring one of them off the bench I don’t think that’s going to be Anthony Simons but even if they do keep all three it’ll be interesting to hear the messaging regarding those three players and how they plan on handling those minutes do they plan on starting all three of them together do they want to do that three guard rotation I’m not too sure ultimately if things get really chaotic maybe you see infy Simons in a different uniform next year I have no idea what the Blazers could get back for him on the open market but if the Blazers do elect to move off of him then all of a sudden that catapults into maybe the top storyline of the entire off season but I do think all three will be back next year but that of course is another thing to watch anyway let me know what you think of these story lines down in the comment section below I’m really looking forward to this offseason because of all these story lines it’s going to be interesting to see how all these things play out and of course we’re going to cover everything here at Blazer’s uprise and we will talk at length about how every single move the Blazers do fits into the bigger picture or maybe it doesn’t fit in maybe there’s moves that we think are a mistake we’ll tell you our honest opinions as always and I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes of this offseason and with that being said we’re out of here we’ll catch you next time until then as always peace out gold Blazers [Music]

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