Portland Trail Blazers vs Minnesota Timberwolves Recap | Blazers Uprise Postgame Show

Portland Trail Blazers vs Minnesota Timberwolves Recap | Blazers Uprise Postgame Show

For for got e what’s going on everybody welcome into the Blazers supress postgame show hopefully we’re live because last time I tried to go live we complet completely lagged out but hopefully we are here I don’t know how the internet’s going to be unfortunately dealt with internet

Issues the past few days but uh we’re going to try and recap this game so the Blazers after a two-day layoff take on the number one team in the Western Conference in the first of back-to-back games against the Minnesota Timberwolves and they look pretty dang good for three

Quarters they were in this game until the fourth and then the fourth was uh it was Anthony Edwards and nil Alexander Walker of people Eric going off against the Blazers Anthony Edwards had a 40-point game nil Alexander Walker 5 for six from three he went off and the

Blazers end up falling late falling behind by almost 20 points uh which didn’t really do this game Justice because I thought for the most part this was a pretty wellplayed game on the Blazer side of things going up against the best team in the west and thank you

Guys for tuning in for the Blazers uprise postgame show presented by bet us Eric what’s going on man it’s been uh you know a couple of days a couple of miserable days unfortunately for us Niner fans but uh how you doing I’m all right um yeah

What why are we pulling a lineman when we know Chiefs are going to Blitz it’s so stupid um but anyways uh yeah this game uh pretty much came down to a 6 Minute stretch in the fourth quarter where the Blazers route scored I believe 27 to6 and went from a two-point lead to

Down almost 20 like you said and uh yeah that was it yep yep Javon jevin we brought up the Super Bowl so it’s fine it’s fine um this is yeah I might wallow a time or two here on this postgame stream in the misery of being a Niners fan it’s been a

Rough past couple of days to be quite honest with you and then I’ve had a headache the past couple of days is like I’m I’ve been grieving man I’ve been grieving but uh happy to sit down with you guys and talk about a basketball game that you know like 80% of it Eric

They played good and 20% of it they played terribly although some of it was like Alexander Walker hitting contested threes and the Minnesota timber rol is just making plays they’ve made plays all year that’s why they’re the number one team in the west so end of the day like

I’ll take it you know that’s pretty good you had some good Scoop moments Deandre dreon played great Jeremy Grant had a solid game so a lot of a lot of um good things from this game for it being a 12-point loss um it would have been a

Little bit different if they just kind of like struggled behind 10 to 12 points the entire game they were competitive man for three quarters of this game um fought back in the third to tie the game and just got blitzed in the fourth well I mean they were down N9 to 10 points

Most of the game but just had a couple runs and then it would get back up to 9 or 10 and then um one on that run to take the lead but yeah they were kind of in danger of that the first three quarters I thought yeah yeah did I say

Jeremy Grant solid game I thought he shot better in that five for 17 from him not so solid um but yeah I I like that they continuously fought from behind in this game continuously clawed their way back into this game made it a game um the rookies tonight uh tamani and scoop

Both impressive uh tman is 5 for seven two for two from three starting to hit threes again which is great and then scoot four for9 one of those was a heave so I’m just going to say it’s four for eight because veterans wouldn’t have shot that shot you know

Four for eight um one for one without that heave from the three-point line five for five from the free throw line nine assists two turnovers I mean he looked good man he looked good he kind of ran out of gas there late and it’s it’s become this thing with scoot where

He’s had really good first halves and part of the reason why I would lament us barely playing him in the second half when he had a good first half is I just wanted to see if he could put two halves together and he did that first game in

Denver he’s done that a couple of games here but he just seems to run out of steam in the second half of some of these games where he just looks phenomenal in the first half and then in the second half doesn’t really hit a shot we’ll still make a play off the

Dribble maybe hit a shot here there but um you know I think that’s kind of where he’s at right now is he can come into a game especially coming off the bench right right now as a rookie and actually provide a spark which is great but it’s

Just being able to sustain it for an entire game that’s becoming the challenging part and you know that’s to be expected with the rookie yeah and this uh as an’s game showed us as well uh it’s just it’s tough to be a driving point guard when

You’re uh going up against Rudy goar who completely controlled the uh paint in this game um made a lot of shots very difficult um like he always does uh yeah so I I don’t really blame scoop for that um he had uh two of the more impressive passes

I’ve seen him make this season uh one in each half uh one was a um kind of a behind the back no look pass to Javari Walker for a land which is sweet um and then uh he had a really nice um Baseline Drive dump off pass to Aon for a dunk

Uh I I thought I thought he passed the ball really well um would like to see him try and get more involved you know and like you said put two halves together but uh yeah it’s not not like he played terrible or anything in the second half yeah and he actually played

I mean that’s the thing is to put two halves together you got to play two halves in terms of minutes you know so 34 minutes today for scoot I like that especially with Al Brogden um like and I I truthfully think he’s ready to start from the standpoint of he can handle it

Right like I don’t as far as scoots development it’s been a topic all season long don’t want to throw him anything he can’t handle right and starting at the start of the season was something that he couldn’t handle and that’s what we wanted going into the season but he

Struggled more showed that he couldn’t really handle at the start of the season so then I was okay bringing him off the bench and bringing him off the bench has been a good thing but at this point he’s playing well well enough that I think he can handle starting he’s still going to

Have some struggles he’s still um going to make some mistakes there’s still going to be some Growing Pains but if he can handle those lumps then he can grow from them when he was struggling at the start of year that wasn’t something that was going to help him help him grow you

Know just starting off games getting devoured you know demolished basically just struggling turnover after turnover at the start of the year at this point though he’s shown me enough that’s part of the reason why I wanted traded the deadline was he showed me enough where I am confident in his ability to start

Going forward put together some good stretches and then when he struggles his ability to bounce back from them and his ability to to learn from them and play through it so um I like that even though he kind of slowed down the second half Chanty still played him quite a bit um

Because that’s been one of my things with chony is you know if scoot has a good first half good stretch don’t just sub him out early in the second half and not play him again after he makes a couple of mistakes so it wasn’t really necessarily mistakes

It was more so miss shots but I was happy that chy just let him play through it and there’s a stretch there where chony put him on Anthony Edwards gave him that challenge and let’s be honest nobody is stopping Anthony Edwards this year he’s been phenomenal um and you

Know scoot didn’t stop him but a lot of times it was Anthony Edwards working off screens um it wasn’t just him isoing and hunting Scoot and I like that Chanty gave him that challenge there in the second half of guarding a guy like Anthony Edwards at this point his growth

Is the most important thing and challenging him as long as he can handle it and handle any struggles that come with it is a good thing yeah um I just going back to cronin’s comments on Thursday I feel like they’re trying too hard to like

Coddle him and I just I I don’t think that’s the right approach I mean it might end up being the right approach I could be dead wrong I just I don’t think you have to protect every young player you know like to me scoot’s the kind of

Guy who just needs to be out there learning on the job and not not just sitting there or coming out of the game if he makes a mistake like you mentioned I’d rather just see him try to figure out how to put two halves together try

To figure out how to mesh with ay in the lineup try to figure out how to stop someone like Anthony Edwards in live action instead of just watching film on it um and so I think even if he struggles this year I I do think it’s

Better long term and I I do think that um I do think he just needs to have the training wheels taken off like we did with sharp at the end of last season yeah yeah um and Taylor Packer says for me it’s not really a big deal if he

Comes off the bench I just want to make sure he’s getting sufficient minutes uh um the one thing I would like to see with him starting is him you know start play for a stretch sub out then come back in in the first half and then start

The second half sub out come back in and just see like how he produces given the different like substitution pattern for his minutes CU right now it’s just like one stint from about six minutes on in the first quarter to you know 6 minutes left or 4 minutes left in the second quarter

And in the second half it’s kind of the same thing where it’s just like one 12 to 14 minute stretch for the most part maybe it’s even longer if you get subbed in earlier and at the end of those stretches you know it’s pretty easy to get gassed when you’re playing that many

Minutes a row and his play for a lot of games has followed the same pattern where he’s been good in the first half and then started struggling in the second half or just maybe missing shots maybe not having the same Rhythm so at this point with how much I think he’s

Improved this year I’d be curious to see how he found a rhythm or M maintained the Rhythm throughout a game if his substitution pattern was different where he was starting and where he was basically playing in four different stretches instead of two during the course of the game um I’m not sure if

He’ll play better by any means and obviously going against starters is is tough but that’s something I’m curious to see and to your point what you said Eric there’s a comment in chat um from from Randy pal who said uh Scoot and ant’s net rating together is I lost the

Comment but basically like their net rating isn’t good and that could be noise from the road trip but it’s not good and that’s where I would actually like to see them play as much together as possible right now just to see if they can develop some chemistry and just

Figure out something about that pairing for the rest of the year you’re talking about a team that is now 15 and 38 right so it’s all about what can you learn for the future what can you develop for the future and that’s one thing where I want

To see those guys get a chance to play as many minutes as possible develop chemistry just to see what that looks like by the end of the year because that could determine our thinking going into the offseason yeah absolutely and uh that was I think it was because of foul

Trouble for tamman I’m not 100% sure but uh scoot elri comes in a minute and a half into the second half and gets to play with the starters for a good chunk of period and we had like Thy balls the three grants the four and eighton the

Five so it’s not like we had the three guard lineup if you I mean some people might consider d a card but I I don’t know he can play either but it wasn’t like a small small lineup it was like a normal siiz lineup and uh I would I would

Really I mean I I have to say that we wanted it to be the three guards like sharp included but now that he’s more than likely done for the year um like there’s no reason to not make the number one priority is get as much of a sample size

Of scoot and anony playing together and they have to figure things out like you have to give them time to learn how to play with each other and learn how to to deal with one of them having the ball and one of them playing off ball or

Who’s supposed to take the ball up or who’s supposed to run off a screen and all that kind of stuff just it takes time to gel and so I think as much as you can get that out of the way this year or maybe you come to the conclusion

Like it’s just never going to work um if you give it enough of a sample size um so yeah I think uh I think that’s the number one priority for the rest of this year in my mind is getting those two as acclimated with each other as possible yeah 100%

Um like the way scoots been playing he obviously looks more confident that jab step and then drive left and laying at The Rim he had looked quick man like he started starting to showcas his athleticism a little bit better at the NBA level um he’s looking more like the

D Dynamic Athlete we saw in the G league and it was kind of weird you know comes into the league and you made comments about this a lot of other people made comments about this where his athleticism didn’t seem like what it was in the G League once he got to the NBA

Level for the first half of his rookie season so far but we’ve started to see it more and more um there’s still times where he seems unsure of how to attack a shot block um where he struggles you know he had a weird Up and Under layup where I think

He should have just went strong with his left like there’s still definitely some Nuance to learn for him but I just like that he’s um just blowing by guys a little bit easier and I’ve also started to noticed guys are respecting his three-point shot a little bit more he

Was got fouled on that one got fouled on one and then that drive I’m talking about where he you know jab stepped right and went left that Lamar was talking about uh at length during this game that play The Defender was up on him that’s why he was able to beat

Him and that’s the thing is is as defenses continue to respect his three-point shot more and more it’s going to be easier for him to blow by get to the rim the whole game’s going to be easier for him so the shooting development I think is was the number

One thing we were looking for after he starts two for 24 from three since then going into this game was shooting 35.5% from three and it goes one for two tonight his only miss was a heave right so he’s shooting the three ball well enough to be respected I want him

Shooting every time he’s open and you’re starting to see defenses not just completely disrespect them beyond the three-point line especially once he makes one because he makes one they start respecting him and then it opens up other things so uh it’s fun watching his Evolution right now

It’s fun watching him come into a game and and have good moments and it’s kind of gotten to the point where I’m expecting him to do some good things when he gets into to the game which doesn’t sound like I’m saying much but it is compared to how we felt earlier in the

Season yeah absolutely and what I was most impressed of outside those couple passes I mentioned was man like he hadn’t really shown this too much like he’d shown it in the G League of course but so far in the NBA hadn’t really shown this but he just

Like it’s almost like he transports from one like when he has the ball he’s like at the three-point line then all sudden he’s like behind the defender and like in the lane you know yeah and like that’s that’s a special skill that you can’t teach and if he learns how to

Finish better how to hit Runners better develop some sort of signature shot or some sort of move um I don’t think it’s quite big enough to do what uh you saw Anthony Edwards like almost become like a big man under the basket where he like Powers up and uses his strength to get

To the get to the uh backboard um but so I don’t think he’s quite big enough maybe to do that kind of stuff maybe against smaller guards but um he just needs to develop some sort of go-to move uh while he’s trying to figure out

The rest of his game and just work on that and just develop that get that locked in and then he can expand it more uh but yeah until he does that um he’s still going to struggle I think finishing sometimes but um it’s good to see him actually being able to get by

Defenders with relative ease yeah 100% leave a like on the stream let’s get the stream to 100 likes um I think those Anthony Edwards moves I don’t know he has that 6′ n wingspan apparently he’s a legit 63 like I think some of that is you know just just footwork Anthony

Edwards footwork is phenomenal you know that’s a big reason why he is a little bit bigger than scoop but um you know you see Jaylen Brunson do some similar stuff and he’s more scoot sized so that’s just some some more of the Nuance some more of the footwork things some

More of the fundamental stuff that scoot will hopefully learn as he continues to grow and continues to age um because if he can if he can come to a stop in the lane and pivot and score off of that then he becomes really dangerous um then then he becomes a

Problem so you know that’s something to look for probably next year that’s maybe something to work on in the offseason for him I think he’s done a good job focusing on what he needs to focus on at the start of the year was just changing

Pace CU he played way too sped up um and it was obviously a three-point shot and we’ve just seen tremendous growth in both those areas and then it was like okay well yes you need to change Pace but also when you have the opportunity you need to make use of that athleticism

Because scoot’s not a guy that’s going to be playing like Luka donic right the appeal is that he’s really quick and a really good athlete so finding that balance between being in control being being able to change paays and then utilize that athleticism that quickness it’s a balance between all three and I

Think you’re seeing him continue and continue to find the right balance um and and that’s that’s great because that was the most important thing on top of knocking down threes which he’s been doing so uh love the progression with him so far uh love the way he’s playing

It’s part of the reason why I wanted brogen traded and was willing to take back maybe less than other people or I was saying I would just take any first whatsoever in any year um and it’s because I I want to see more Scoot and it’s funny because the conversation

Around it and we’re thought of as the negative guys but the conversation around it was a lot of people saying like scoot scoot’s not ready to play more minutes scoot’s not ready for this for that it’s going to be a disaster like he’s going to get destroyed and

This and that and it’s like man have these people that are saying this not watch scoot the last 10 to 15 games because he’s improved as much in ter terms of his production and just how he looks in my opinion the last month as any other Blazer I’ve seen like sharp

Took that leap but a big part of that leap came when they were tanking and he had like free rain right scoot’s still doing it coming off the bench in the same role that he’s been playing for the better part of the season so his Improvement you know is part of the

Reason why I wanted brogen gone it’s going to be interesting to see how they handle things when brogen comes back if scoot continues to play this well um but that’s the that’s the number one storyline I think for the rest of the year assuming that they’re not going to shut down

Brogden um anytime soon is what’s the minutes balance obviously how well scoot plays but if he plays well what is the Min minutes balance between those two guys yeah absolutely and uh one of the things I’ve been looking at with scoot is uh how much he’s getting to the

Freeth throw line um so it’s increased throughout the year uh he barely got to the free throw line the first couple months and then December he gets to line 42 times January 62 times so much better job of of creating fouls and uh we’re only halfway through this month and it’s

Been weird with having a lot of days off and then now they’re going to have another week off so total attempts might not be great for February but I just I just think he’s doing a much better job of getting to the line and that will turn improve his

Efficiency um so far in February uh we we know what I don’t I don’t know what the shot attempts is but with a certain minimum amount of shot attempts he’s last in the league in two shooting percentage uh but this month so far uh 56 a half% and I don’t think

That’s going to go down tonight so yeah U so yeah right you know right round League average is MH and that true shooting percentage is crazy cuz he’s shooting 35.5% from the field 38.5% from three so he’s just struggling to finish from two he’s 5 for 13 from three he’s six for 18

From two that’s 33% and that’s the thing for him to really improve on going into next year because I think you know with his athleticism his wingspan his strength like he can be a good finisher I you know I just think that’s something he has to work on and

If he can add that with um the three-point shooting with getting to the foul line then all a sudden he’s a solidly efficient player because he’s been decently efficient this month because he’s 17 for 18 from the free throw line that’s 94.4% and he’s getting to the line you

Know that’s this is just over two games so nine free throw attempts his last two games this game five for five so now he’s 22 for 23 in the month of February in three games okay so like small sample size you know I’m talking about these

Percentages it is only you know a couple of games but um it’s it’s fascinating to watch him start to get calls that he wasn’t getting earlier in the year but also you know talking about a dude who is struggling to shoot he’s been a good free throw shooter this year he is at

81% going into this game that’s only going to rise so at least he knocks down his free throws and is finding ways to get to the line which I think he’ll only get better at so yeah absolutely love it love it let’s this is what I

Want to do with this post game let’s let’s bounce between positives and negatives all right all right so you know keep the people on their toes uh I want to talk about in my opinion one of the biggest negatives lately and that is matis iall whose three-o shot Eric is starting

To fall off a cliff mhm going into this game he was 35.1% I’ll do the math cuz matis in this game 19 minutes zero points okay 0 for five from the field and was 0 for three from three which means he’s shooting 66 for 191 from the three-point line which is

34.6% which is basically kind of close to where he was in Philadelphia he was shooting 33% when we traded for him and he’s trending towards that 33% he’s a career 34% three-point shooter he comes into Portland after the trade last year shoots 39% in 22 games this year started

Off the season shooting hot he is now unfortunately seeming to regress back to the caliber of shooter he was in Philadelphia I was waiting for my dog to finish drink water uh you’re fine you’re fine um yeah that’s that’s been one of the biggest disappointments over the

Last uh month or two is just Dall going ice cold and that’s another reason why I thought we should look to move him at the deadline because you can maybe still get some value but now heading into the off season if it goes down even further even

If it’s just like 34% you can’t you don’t have that to be like see we fixed his three-point shot um so now it’s going to be tough with this contract to get a ton of value you just got to Hope I guess in the offseason a team like

Dallas once they become eligible to trade for him still has interest in him or something like we did with Alan Krab yeah and and do something there but uh I mean they don’t really have a lot of assets anymore to trade um so that’s going to be tough um but yeah

Uh not really sure what they’re what they’re doing with him but they obviously are still pretty uh I I still think they like him and the organization and think he’s a big part of what they’re trying to do if he’s not shooting threes better than he has lately he has in my opinion

No value because all his value then comes from he gets Steals and like occasionally will block a shot but I’ve said that’s only on like 5% of defensive possessions right and people say oh he’s all defense though you know so he has to be a great defender but when we talk

About all defensive Defenders normally we should be able to talk about them slowing down star players I feel like we never talk about matis thel slowing down a star perimeter player and it’s not that necessarily we’re going to blame him for Anthony Edwards having 41 tonight but

I don’t I don’t recall a single postgame show where we’ve sat there like oh look at this you know an Anthony Edwards caliber player shot you know 35% from the field did not get going and it was because of the defense bati stall played

On them like I we we haven’t sat here in a postgame show saying that and we would if he did it like I’m willing to give him credit I was talking about you know I gave him credit for his three-point shot earlier this season right so we just never see him lock up

Anyone well part of that I don’t blame thel for because the Blazers and it’s been this way for years but they get cross matched up like worse than any team I’ve ever seen like it’s like always like the wrong person guarding like Aon is trying to guard

Goar inside or something and and then you got like thyow not on the primary ball handler and then like I don’t know just so many times tonight even though D started on him or tamman was on him for uh the very beginning of the game I thought tamman the first couple

Possessions did a pretty good job um but uh yeah um I just I feel like there’s way too many possessions where it’s not our primary defender on the ball um compared to like a lot of teams game plans to find a way to keep your best defenders guarding the perimeter you’re

Muted if you’re talking yeah no I I wasn’t even talking I was just thinking I mean agree with all that still though when he is guarding these guys I feel like it’s not noticeably great I just I struggle with his his place on this team because it’s

Very likely the Blazers are going to draft somebody that can play small forward with their pick or the Golden State pick and you got Kamar you got Grant playing three you got four guards right now like there’s just really no spot on this team for somebody for just somebody like thall I

Think there’s places in the league some decent teams actually that he could play some minutes and be okay I just feel like given the makeup of this team to see him start struggling from three has me more and more convinced that going into next season he

Shouldn’t be a guy that’s maybe on this roster at least in the rotation cuz i’ much I don’t want it to be something where the Blazers hypothetically okay there’s just going to be a random hypothetical let’s say what the Warriors pick they draft Dalton connect and they

Need shooting right so that guy can shoot the ball I don’t want it to be something where they draft that guy he’s NBA ready but then he’s not playing because you’re playing with t stable if he’s going to be shooting 35% and not really making as big of an

Defensive impact as I would hope so you know it’s kind of an evaluation period

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