Trail Blazers at the All-Star Break + Where Do They Go From Here? Locked On Blazers Listener Summit

Trail Blazers at the All-Star Break + Where Do They Go From Here? Locked On Blazers Listener Summit

In today’s show it’s a lock on Blazers listener Summit talking to fans of the program and fans of the basketball team about the state of the Blazers 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 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 program your first listen every single

Weekday Monday through Friday so make it a part of your daily routine tell your friends to do the same it’s lock on Blazers your team every day today show a very fun one we do these a couple times a year it’s a listener summit we’re listeners to the program join me and we

Talk about the state of the Blazers kind of just a check in on what’s going on with the team where they’re at and where fans want them to go moving forward uh if you want to get involved in a future listener Summit the way you do it is you

Listen to the program regularly I put out a call last week asking for folks to submit or folks to you know say they wanted to be on the show shared my email address all that blah blah blah and they get in there so the way to get into a

Future one is to be a regular listener shout out to my every dayers making this part of your part of your daily routine and your first listen every single week day uh without further Ado let’s get into it it’s the lockdown Blazers listener Summit joining me now listener

Aroner you may know him as a Aon if you’re a keyan Peele fan or just a fan of his in general Aaron how you doing I’m great how are you doing today I’m doing good I got a pair of headphones now um so life’s life’s good Life’s good

Baby I can hear I can hear the other side um we’re kind of talking about you know at the All-Star break talking about where the Blazers are now and kind of where they want them to go so let’s let’s start with where they are now what

What do you what do you make of their season thus far well obviously not great in the wind colum but one thing that has stood out for me um first and foremost was I thought back to a few years ago when we had norm and CJ and Larry Nance and roko

And that team and how it just always felt like when we got down by 10 points we just gave up it was like we were done like yep Deuces go into the locker room um um and while it sometimes sucks that our team right now is kind of

Consistently down like six8 to 12 points they play hard most nights there are nights where they get thrashed and you know it’s not pretty uh uh Oklahoma City comes to mind but um you know but I would rather watch a team that I obviously don’t have high expectations

For based off of the talent play hard every night and not win most games than a team kind of stagger to a 500 record just because there’s nights where decided not to play hard anymore and and this time in the NBA in today’s NBA 10 points

Isn’t a lot you can flip that really quick maybe not Portland because they’re defense struggles to get stops but yeah you can go on runs you know so um it just was disheartening so I’m been happy with that I’ve also been fortunate to go to a lot of the wins just randomly I

Don’t know how that has happened I’ve been for some good wins like Sacramento um another big thing I guess if I was blocking it in the first third and the second third that we just got done with of the Season my first third was that’s familiar to listener because you know

That it’s thirds baby and not halfs I’d love to see to see it yeah okay so what you like what you yeah what’ you like about those twoth thirds sorry so the first third I thought wow shade and sharp has moments of real shine and Pop um obviously it needs to get more

Consistent that’s what as you always say separates good players from great players to the best um you know MVP caliber players but there are just games and moments and plays where you’re like no one else can do that or maybe two other people can do that um but just his

Abilities to make plays is really fun to watch and it gives me hope that maybe we do have a franchise player on the team going forward someone to build around because I don’t think ants that guy with his uh defensive deficiencies I hate to say it because big fan and I think he

Can really cook but I just don’t know if building around someone who can’t get stops or who is just that much he’s gonna be hunted by players you know on Luka for example is gonna cook him every time Luca looks for ant in almost almost like a villainous way he’s like find me

Number one like he’s he he did to Shaden sharp a little bit too in one of the meetings but historically over the last couple years he’s been like yes I’ll take I’ll take one Anthony Simons please and like bring him up every time yeah and then scoot it’s probably too early

To say you know to be fair to him he’s super young but we haven’t seen it quite yet um right I was happy to see that he was the best player arguably on his team in the rising stars game um that was promising that a more to his level

Talent he was kind of showing what he can do um I think was the Dallas game where he put up like 30 or whatever was it I can’t remember it was super inefficient but it was like he’s finding his shots he’s getting there and I think over time there’s hope that he can

Figure it out um the second third of the Season though I’ve been just super psyched on Jabari Walker yeah um I’m trying to remember who the opponent was but I was there and he subbed into the game and immediately got like six and six on just like Hustle Hard gritty

Offensive rebounds put backs fouled you know and the crowd was eating it up um and he’s just so fun how he hustles and plays hard and I think there’s potential that he’s playing himself into a solid like role player future with the Blazers you know it’s sometimes weird talking

With friends where they’re like why are you talking about a role play it’s like you need those guys though when you find when you find your Kevin Durant or what you need other players around that who can be reliable and who fill in the blanks

You know um yeah I I’m a big fan of his and he also kind of has a chip on his shoulder and he he gets in people a little bit and that’s fun it’s fun watching him kind of take on that role a little bit of like oh yeah I’m gonna

Kind of give you some attitude for sure I don’t remember who it was but he was just like clapping at him because two people were drawing my memory is super phazzy on that but I just remember I just remember him going up and clapping at the guy and I was like yes

Yes yeah I think you may bring up a great point though it’s like maybe the sort of casual fan wants to find the guy right they want to they want to buy Damen Lillard’s Jersey right that’s like what they want to buy but I think there

Is a certain type of fan that really wants to wear a Wesley Matthew jerseys they want to be like they’re like Wes was my Wes was the King was he like oh he was the fourth best player on the team it doesn’t matter like he was the

Guy and I think there’s some appeal with Jabari with that it’s like he’s never going to be the second best player on a really good team doesn’t have that that’s just not his his skill set not his style not his approach he’s just not going to ever be that but yeah but he

Might be a really useful player on a bunch of good teams for a decade right like he might be he might have a long just because of what he does and how he plays I think um you know I think for him he’s just got to figure out where he

Contributes on offense that isn’t just rebounding but I think he’s really close to being good enough regardless because he’s just he just brings it like and you’re not going he just he just know knows he knows how he contributes right now like there’s no question he has he

Knows when he goes in the game like he said six and six immediately on hustle place he’s like what am I going to do I know what I’m GNA do I’m gonna go mix it up I’m gonna be physical I’m gonna get rebounds and like understanding what you

Do is so incredibly important in the league because so many guys think they are MJ and and they’re you just aren’t like you know yeah I think it’s a Channing fry thing where he says 85% of the league is role players it might even be higher than that it might be 90% like

It’s most most guys have to fill a role and Jabari looks like he’s G to be really really really capable of that I wonder what with that in mind and with your with the ideas of scoot and Shaden and maybe some Anthony Simon skepticism what

Do you want to see them do this summer like what do you want what what should they look like in the fall that was such a good lead into what the first thing I wanted to say about that is I think they should uh I won’t say they should have

Done the trade down deadline there probably wasn’t a good market for Malcolm Brogden but I think you can’t go into next season with a healthy scoop healthy ant healthy healthy Shaden and a healthy malol like no dice um yeah Malcolm’s you got to trade them I would

Like to see for at least a first round in matching salary because I don’t know who a young shiny Wing or forward that they could reasonably get is off the top of my head it’s probably going to be very dependent on how the playing tournament and the play shake out if a

Team gets bounced early and fall short and they decide they need to move things around um but yeah I I’m not sure who that player might be but I like the idea of a first because uh I like the idea of them having plenty of uh chances at next

Year’s draft because I’m very interested in Cooper flag um I’m not huge on like college players and uh scouting and that sort of thing very similar I’m a huge NBA Junkie but I’m trying to look ahead a little bit and I have other friends who are definitely more into the upand

Coming players and all they talk about is Cooper flag and uh so maybe they should plan on being young and maybe even worse next year say exact it’s a weird thing right it’s like maybe they should maybe they should be down in the trough again um it you know reportedly maybe they don’t

Have a great appetite for that maybe they don’t want to be that um and we’ll see what that means I think they’ve told us that they wanted to be competitive the last two years and they’ve been actively bad so like I sometimes I don’t believe them but you know a couple

Different reporters Brian wior and Jake Fischer you know separate Yahoo sports and as well as ESPN both reported this idea that the Blazers want to be the Rockets which to me means balancing youth in the rotation with veterans um and I have okay I have two thoughts on

This I’m going to say this in an episode in some point in the future but I’ll I’ll say it to you here Aaron at what point do do amrey Simons get to be a vet next year’s gonna be a seventh NBA season yeah that’s a good point at some

Point athrey Simons has to be a vet so to me if the vet means keeping amrey Simons on the roster that is I would be maybe not super super super excited about it but I’d like totally reasonable line of thinking if it means keeping Malcolm Brogden because you need him I I

Just don’t I don’t know it doesn’t make any sense to me um uh I will liken it to this when Lamarcus aldrige left the Blazers pivoted most mostly young they didn’t go crazy young because they didn’t have draft picks but they went mostly young those guys under the age of

27 and there were guys kind of in the Damen Lord CJ McCollum um you know four years of college and three years in the pros timeline right but they kept Chris Cayman Blazers just needed Chris Cayman he didn’t play a minute he was in outrageously bad shape because he was he

Didn’t he know he knew he wasn’t GNA play but he was like he taught them stuff in the locker room here’s what you do at the end of the season we tip out the team attendant because that’s what you do because we make millions and they make thousands and we can make their

Lives better like just veteran stuff and and about being prepared get that find that they don’t need the person to they don’t need the person to play they don’t need them to play I’m with you trade trade Malcolm brogs in and and free the young guys because being bad next year

Where’s Ace Bailey where’s Cooper flag bring him on down yeah absolutely um I even I know we don’t have someone kind of behind Jeremy Grant to fill that role but I’m even like what do we have to lose other than games for next year I I’m not saying in

The offseason trade him but I think maybe looking towards next deadline I don’t know how I don’t know how good his contract will look I you know that stuff’s a little bit over my head but I’m just like yeah at what point do we need that

When you have Aon and you have ant and you have possibly Robert Williams you know down that line where people who have been in the league for a number of years I mean yeah I forget an’s been in the league that long because he seems

Still so I mean he’s young he’s he’s 24 he’s 24 but next year’s season seven if you can’t if season seven doesn’t count as being a veteran nothing does then yeah most guys would kill to have a seven-year MBA career right like that’s that’s the dream tumani Kamar is

Dreaming of playing seven years in the NBA right he’s trying to stick yeah um so yeah I I’m I think that balance is interesting right I think you bring up a good point it’s like you kind of want them to be young and bad again but maybe

They don’t want to and there’s some downside of being truly awful and like aimless or whatever so it is yeah it’s a balance right it’s a balance you don’t want to be some plenty of teams in the NBA stay bad forever plenty of teams I I mean um the Charlotte Hornets haven’t

Won a playoff series since uh George W Bush was in office so like it has been a while um it has spanned three presidencies um so it’s like you don’t you you can get caught but I think the Blazers are on a trajectory where they

Don’t have to commit to being bad if you screw up a bunch of times You’ be bad anyways so uh right pick a direction I’m I’m I’m with you eron exactly thanks so much for joining the program it was it was it was fun to

Meet you fun to chat with you yeah thank you so much for having me um yeah I’ve been listening for a few years now and just really love being a daily listener and staying caught up and hearing your point of view so thanks for having me

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Your boy Jesse how you doing I’m good how are you Mike oh I’m living the dream you know that I’m a little frazzled with the technology but I’m making it happen here for the listener Summit um you know we’re at the All-Star break it’s it’s what colloquially is known as the first

Half of the season is done uh much more than the first half of the season has been completed we’re two-thirds of the way through what’s your impression two-thirds of the way through the Blazer season kind of big picture what you thinking yeah um well I can’t remember

Who it was that um said this kind of earlier on in the season or the preseason but the fans are not ready for the rebuild and that seems to be kind of the broad experience I’m I’m seeing with a lot of fans is uh people are kind of

All over the place about you know they’re mad about this or upset about that and kind of you know losing maybe losing a little bit of the big picture and um I’m trying to kind of keep it I don’t know what what do you

Say keep it a buck yeah keep it a buck there you go it’s you know we have pretty low expectations uh I think I’ve only really gotten down after the the really bad beat down in OKC and down 62 after three quarters that take it out of

You a little bit and the other night you might have pretty much summed it up perfectly I don’t know if the tweets still out there or not but um when you compare doing a daily podcast to some more traditionally challenging professions not not that this isn’t challenging this is very challenging but

Uh what you know serious kind of occup yeah I would say it’s unimportant unimportant there’s some days when it’s hard to make content but it’s never important it never has there’s never been an important day in Blazer podcasting I I was at that game uh the second Minnesota game and it was

Uh friend you know invited me to go and uh it was a lot of uh how your kids doing and you know what’s what’s new at the office kind of uh more than more than watching basketball when when you say you’re like trying to keep it a buck and keep it in

Perspective what is bringing you Joy what is like what are you enjoying about watching this season well in answer in service of answering that question can I do a brief shout out yeah of course it’s it’s it’s really a season where um well a shout out for the third bench which is

A uh group of fans and third bench adjacent it’s a group of fans we have seats together in the three section 317 and everyone met on Twitter and you know through the uh Blazer Twitter community and um really this season has been a lot more about uh community and social and kind

Of just connecting with people and that includes that includes you know uh through team events uh through games through you know just through the our common uh connection through you know being Blazer fans it’s you know bringing a lot of a lot of us together and you

Know we’re having a good time whether we’re winning or losing and um you know when it comes to basketball what’s bringing the most Joy was uh actually probably Shaden before he uh got hurt he was having a pretty bit inconsistent but a pretty nice breakout and uh especially that uh

Great game in Brooklyn yeah the G with the sent it to I think he sent it to overtime and um you know more recently seeing the uh development of scoot and uh hopefully hopefully that continues a little with a little bit more consistency but yeah I I

Think I’m with you on like the most enjoyable part of the season was when shayen was really cooking in December and was he had like five straight games of 25 and you’re like hey that that’s what I like it’s with this whole team and with this season it’s like you know

That they’re not going to win that many games this year right like if you if you’re realistic I think there are fans out there and I bless you who think like that if this team just would like get a little bit healthy and would be coached by like Mike dantony that they’d make

The playoffs or whatever but like um I don’t know I’ve seen the Western Conference it’s going to be hard like a good team is going to miss like you know it’s just it’s just it’s going to be tough to get one of those final eight spots and even finishing eighth in the

West is like not a very good chance of um doing much when you’re there and y y y right like it’s it’s it’s hard um but I think absent that sort of faith that hey you know what this could have been a good team it’s like what you’re rooting

For is to see what’s next to see like oh this isn’t the thing in 202 4 but it’s in 2026 like this dude is going to be so good in 2025 you know just fast forward 12 months going be so good and being robbed of that because of Sharp’s injury

Just stinks it’s just hard to it’s hard to to kind of stomach and then you don’t get the you don’t get his minutes with with uh with Scoot and so then those minutes like that was going to be the really fun part of the back half of the

Season we just like unleash those two dudes um you know the like that can’t get in the bar crowd and just like you know see see what they see what they can do and you just you kind of get robbed of that it’s it’s been it’s been hard um

Speaking of the future and all that what do you want to see them do like what is your vision for what’s next or or are you someone that even considers that far down the path oh definitely I I mean I like uh looking at you know what could

Be uh coming up in the draft what can be coming up in you know free agency and trade season and um you know development arcs and um I I kind of uh I kind of saw both sides of uh the comment uh that was

Made by um oh uh I forgot who made the comment but the uh Blazers are trying to be Houston this year and I I remember that sort of a comment and uh um the what what I understand that to be is we didn’t want to get rid of Jeremy

Grant this year and uh I I totally I totally kind of understand that because um you know rolling forward I defitely want the team to not give up on acquiring more picks and more assets because we need that pipeline to just keep flowing in and I’ve heard from you

Know various rumors that they’re happy with the amount of you know future assets we have and they’re ready to start building well I I sort of definitely want to see more more future assets we we have uh you have to keep a pillar like a Jeremy Grant around just

To sort of keep the team from collapsing in the present but um I definitely would like to see well I mean what what do we have I think I heard the other day you might have said we had like 14 players under contract for next season and of

Course being a fan I like all of those players exactly but but I definitely want to see more like high Talent lottery picks coming in so you know that’s really what I’m about is is is imp increase our young Talent uh level keep the uh picks coming in until you

Know until the they say is like the whole chest is fully stocked so yeah I think it’s a tough balance right it’s a tough balance because you want to say like um okay you know uh this dude’s gonna grow you know Tom tomorrow’s gonna grow into something and Chris Murray’s

Gonna grow into something and Jabari Walker’s gon go okay you’ve got this really good young forward core and all but then also like you look out into the world right and you’re like what do the Blazers need you’re like well they could use a good young forward it’s hard to

Like it’s hard to balance those two ideas right where it’s like I like the players on the roster I think I’ve told the story in the podcast before but I have a friend um who definitely doesn’t listen and might not even know that I host a podcast but I would I would ask

Her like who do you like who do who do you like on the team and she’s like I like all of them like I like all of them I don’t want them to like um this was like maybe in the Lamarcus departure era some 10 years ago and I was like who do

You want them to keep and she was like every one of them and every year I’m the same way I want them to keep everyone and I think there’s like natural fan inclination to do that it’s like I love I love these dudes like I love them but

Then you also kind of have the same thing you’re saying where it’s like well I want to accumulate assets I want this I want to fill up the war chest and all those things so it’s like you gotta at some point you gotta the challenging part of a team going from being pretty

Darn bad to pretty darn good is that you got to know when to move move the pieces around um and I think that’s part of the challenge of the summer is what do you move around and when you do move those around what can you get back in return I

Think they’re they find themselves an interesting place um you know you said you you go to a bunch of games and you have a crew of going to games is there any level of losing that could stop you from attending Blazer games uh not really it’s pretty much just how how

Often and uh we find different reasons to go so you know I’ll uh you know I’ll have my daughter bring a bunch of friends and and we’ll go or we’ll just go and uh it’ll be about uh making an event out of it we done a couple we’ve

Done two remix Blazer headers where it’s just like a kind of like a day you know make it a basetball a cool five hours of basketball there yeah so uh yeah you definitely sort of like it’s easier to come buy tickets when you want extras and it’s tougher to give them away but

It’s more about uh you know when it gets kind of basketball gets a little bit stinky you have to uh sort of just CA cater you know as much as you can handle and you know the rest of it it’s for somebody else exactly Jesse thank you so

Much for joining the program it was a whole bunch of fun thanks appreciate it this next segment is brought To Us by our sponsor better help listen therapy can be really valuable for you depending on whatever you’re going through in your life if you are experiencing an acute

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Listener Summit joining me now listener Matts welcome to lock Welcome to The Listener Summit Matt how you doing I’m doing great thanks for having me yeah thanks for popping on here so here we are Allstar break talking what you like through the first two-thirds of the Season what what

What have you sort of appreciated about this Blazers year I mean we’ve talked about it a lot but the heart and hustle is probably my favorite thing these these kids don’t give up very often other than the road trip from hell but yeah I mean just watching them play hard doing their best

Um me the improvements coming then it’s nonlinear as you always say and uh but you know it’s been that’s been the best part I think yeah they don’t get like you said they did lose one game where they’re down 62 points after three quarters so they had they had some bad

Times but for the most part and and they’re kind of back on it now is like yeah there you you’re not going to see them get like truly truly thrashed like they got beat pretty bad by Minnesota to end the break but I think even like you

Know on Tuesday’s game they were in until they extremely weren’t and then on Thursday’s game they had a pretty good third and first five minutes of the third quarter and then like yeah the best team in the Western Conference kind of just flexed their muscle a little bit

And that was that you could tell when Minnesota put their their pedal down I was I was with my daughter and she’s like uh at the end of the first quarter how long are we gonna stay Dad we’re gonna ride this thing out but the second good they played

Really good and yeah that was easy to see see the see they’re in it yeah you could convince her like aren’t you glad we stayed they’re only down 15 look at us yeah it’s all relative year exactly and then they cut it to eight and it was

Like hey maybe and then the and then all of a sudden it was 23 by the end of the third and you’re like oh just kidding never mind never mind never mind U did you stay to the end uh we left with about five minutes left okay well that’s

When the Blazers left too so that’s I know I kind of once once they pulled everybody I was like okay we can that was their s they were like hey Matt you’re free to go brother you you it’s a school night we can leave a little early

On this one exactly he like listen you you gave it your all 43 minutes of basketball is enough for you so so get out of there is there anything else that’s kind of you know the heart and hustle is there anything else well I guess if maybe not stuff that you’ve

Liked like where where are you at with this team are you are they kind of breaking your spirit are they giving you hope like what where where do you land uh depends on the night I would say but they don’t really ever break my spirit I’ve been around too long like I’ve I’ve

Been through this enough times like I know it’s coming and um nothing will ever like be quite as dark as the days of searching for the point guard of the future and D like the T fair and all those days where just point guard of the future is the darkest

Blazer period you know that that’s oh man IE that so there’s a plan here I don’t I don’t know that it’s completely laid out but I can see the like shape of a team you know there’s nights where you’re like oh this could really work you can see like okay Tani needs to

Probably come off the bench long term but like he can give a lot of energy and you can see that Chris Murray could be a reliable like three and D guy in a year or so maybe I mean that’s the Hope right the team s The Hope and and it’s it’s

Real like the young guys are all engaging there’s nobody on the team that you’re just like oh this isn’t GNA work at all um and so yeah I mean definitely not breaking my spirit and most of the time I can see the outline of something

Try to figure out you know not that I makeing decisions but trying to figure out like uh you know who’s going to be around or how many veterans are we going to keep and like all those things just kind of guess in um and personally hoping they don’t tear it all the way

Down to the studs because I just I just can’t with that but um you know okay so so what do you want them to do what do you want them to do so let’s let’s get specific here they have to make some decisions on probably very specifically

Malcolm brogs and and maybe Jeremy Grant but probably maybe not this summer with Jeremy Grant but somewhere in the nearish future what do you want them to do with those guys I mean I like Brogden for this year but I think he’s probably got to go at the end of this year just

There to assuming Shaden comes like healthy there’s too many guards and the young guys at least all three of them have proven to be imminently playable I so I think you miss brogen’s Steady Hand a little bit but I also think you guys will get there versus like Jeremy Grant

I don’t know who’s G to replace them I don’t see it on the roster I don’t see anybody who can come up and just score I mean admittedly he doesn’t have a fully rounded game and he’s not going to be a number one probably on a good team but I

They don’t I don’t see a straight up scoring forward they just don’t have anybody in the pipeline right right now so I mean my ideal thing would be if you could swap brog for aish three four that can that can score a little bit would be

Would be nice bolster that I mean maybe they think it’s Murray and that’s fine maybe they think it’s it’s tumani and all those guys I don’t know but um I don’t that’s my that’s the big hole I see like if you get rid of Jeremy I don’t know who’s going to

Score yeah they would miss him for sure like they would that that’s is I have said bunch of times in the show it’s like I don’t I don’t really like the Aesthetics of Jeremy Grant’s game like it doesn’t it doesn’t speak to me it’s

Um it’s like I I don’t love the like I’m GNA shoot it possessions where he’s you can tell is the moment he touches it that that the that Ball’s going up and he makes incredibly hard shots because of it but like it it bothers me uh to

Watch 80 sometimes a year but um like they don’t have like you said they just don’t even even forwards alone they just don’t have that off like they don’t have they don’t have someone who could soak up those shooting possessions and have it be reasonable and like get them there

Like you can’t throw the ball to to uh DeAndre enough times to make up for it because he just doesn’t have that individual offense so you would miss that role for sure um you know maybe they trade for it maybe it like maybe it grows like maybe Shaden sharp becomes

Such a good individual scorer that it becomes easier right but um I don’t think you can make that call now for me I don’t think you could make that call now um no he’s too inconsistent right now I mean injury obviously you can’t really judge it I me he looked really

Good to start the year but man even even before he got hurt he was kind of coming down off the mountain a little bit which totally normal but totally yeah I mean the big thing is they need an alpha I don’t know who it’s gonna be but they

Don’t have oh that’s a buzz word because because uh chony bips used it after that one game to be mean mean to to I think it was uh Anthony Simons had 40 and he said we were missing an alpha um he’s right though and you’re right they

Need someone who grabs the reins and says Hey listen they need that dude um it’s not just like it’s not just skill like I I’ve said this on the show before but it’s like kawh Leonard at one point was one of the five best players in the

NBA and he absolutely wasn’t like a leader type but he was incredibly skilled but he needed he needed Kyle Lowry on that team and he needed Pascal seak and they needed um marus like they needed vets who were kind of like kept the train running on time and then so

His skill could take over um yeah they still need that they still need that do do you think do you think anyone could grow into that on the roster I think I think scoot can I I see like every once in a while where he’ll like

Grab the ball and go or you’ll see him like kind of put his head down and you see ant lately ant’s been getting kind of like ticked off in games getting technicals and going hard and maybe maybe that’s buried in there but he’s never really shown the like I will take

Over for the whole game I mean we were just spoiled with B for so long that you’re like okay we’ll just give it to him and he’ll go score at least def offensively defensively is different but um I don’t know I sometimes I think scoot can but like he’s got to figure

Out that mid-range if he’s gonna do it um or you know and but I and he’s just I could tell he’s too timid right now in my eyes like sometimes I see him not wanting to like take it away from Ant or whatever so it’s hard to it’s hard to yell and say

Hey listen to me when you’re like one of the worst offensive players in the NBA if if scoot gets like and and he’s certainly been way better lately but like particularly very early in his career not only is he 19 but he was like bad and so it’s hard to be like it’s

Hard to use that sort of part of your personality to be like hey you know it’s like if the you know whatever you like if you work an office job like if the guy who’s the worst at your the worst at work is like kind of like rallying the

Troops at the morning meeting it’s like hey Jeff sh sh you know like Jeff you do what you worry about you okay you get your reports in on time and the rest of us will figure it out so it’s like it’s the same it’s the same type of thing

Like you kind of have to have a level of competence or you either need a level of competence like to be good or you need to have enough seasoning like I’ve been around forever and I’m not good anymore but check the tape I used to be good

You’re going to listen to me um and I think the Blazers are missing that like they’re missing that um and and and and I think they value right they they want to be they don’t want to like to your point they don’t want to strip it down

To the studs at least that’s what the reporting suggests that they kind of want to have some veterans on the roster and have some balance um are you are you hopeful that you will watch a good Blazers like the next time you watch a good capital G Blazers team how how many

How many seasons out when you close your eyes do you see that hopefully two but realistically probably three capital G good three three I think cap I think you’re right I think capital G good three like I think next year they’re going to be bad the following

Year they might be like competitive you know 40 40 38 to 44 wins um and if you know we finish on the high end 44 oh oh crap they’re the six seed in the west but like you know I think three teams right now are on Pace to win 55 games in

The west like to get to the top you got to be really stinking good um yeah I think I think you’re right I think I think four hit the picks and everything yeah oh you listen it’s hard to get there yeah it’s hard but yeah I

Think I think yeah when I close my eyes too I think like you know what Mike it’s only 750 more podcast episodes you can do it Mike you can do it you’ll get I’m crossing them off the wall of my prison cell 749 to go baby

Um no I I I think this season is rewarding in some ways that like um because like you said you can appreciate hey they’re down they’re going to lose this game but I’ve appreciate the way they’ve played and all those things whereas teams with higher expectations you don’t get to appreciate that they

They kind of crush you and you say they lost no so yeah I watch games totally differently now I mean yeah sure there’s no stress in the in watching the game and it’s just I’m just watching different things I might watch see what scoot does or I might check out see if

Anybody’s playing defense or anything like that I watch it totally different now yeah it it changes your perspective because it has to um especially if you’re going to watch you know 75 of them or whatever it’s like you kind of gota you you can’t lock in to be like

Well are they gonna beat the t- Wolves tonight they are not Matt no uh Matt thanks so much for joining the program it was a whole bunch of fun yeah thanks for having me m take care thanks again to Matt Aaron and Jesse for joining the program listener Summit it’s

Always a bunch of fun and I love hearing from folks who you know watch the team as regular as I do and listen to the program and kind of gathering their thoughts if you want to be involved in a future listener Summit it’s not that hard you just got to listen to the

Program become a reg make make the show a regular party daily routine make it make it make it your first listen because I put out a call on a show for to join The Listener Summit and then about a week later we record these so uh you just get rewarded for listening and

I’ll I’ll share all the details when I put out the next call we’re going to do one of these right at the start of the offseason and we’ll probably do one in the middle of the offseason as well so in the next couple months we’re going to

At least do uh two more so you know listen to the program and that’s how you get involved that’s going to do it for today’s show I appreciate you listening I’ll talk to you soon

Locked On Blazers listeners join the program to discuss their thoughts on the team at the All-Star Break and their hopes and visions for what come next.

0:00 – Intro
1:45 – Listener Aaron
15:42 – Listener Jesse
27:15 – Listener Matt

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