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Just going to sticky this here. Media day is tomorrow, the team leaves either Monday night or Tuesday morning to fly down to Santa Barbara for training camp again this year.

Our first preseason game is the 10th @ 7PM at the Rose Garden against the New Zealand Breakers.

We have four total preseason games as does everyone, two against Phoenix and one against Utah.

Sean Highkin is heading down to cover the team, I'm not sure who of the non-newspaper/magazine beat writers are going down.

Expect lots of clips and photographs coming out tomorrow.

This will likely be the most interesting pre-season and season for the team since perhaps 2012
for like it or not, the team has adopted a new path forward.

There will be a lot of rough times ahead for this team will have a lot of new faces, who will need
time to gel together. It's going to take some time before the team plays consistent ball but the
team should be better hopefully by January.

It'll be interesting to see how Scoot, Murray and Rupert start off as rookies. Guys like Ayton have a
lot to prove but the team's future has been helped by addition draft capital with the potential to
add more.

Quantity generally doesn't beat out quality so it'll take a couple seasons for that quality to develop. But when it does this is easily our best group of prospects Since 06 esp if we add 1 or 2 high firsts

There's been some hate about a couple of those picks being 6 years out but adding a good rookie when your core is 24 or having those assets for trades really is lucrative at that point

PDXKnight wrote:Quantity generally doesn't beat out quality so it'll take a couple seasons for that quality to develop. But when it does this is easily our best group of prospects Since 06 esp if we add 1 or 2 high firsts

There's been some hate about a couple of those picks being 6 years out but adding a good rookie when your core is 24 or having those assets for trades really is lucrative at that point

Considering the teams the Blazers are trading with, I'm okay waiting 5-6 years for a draft pick. The 2024 Warriors pick probably won't be all that great. Need to wait until the teams are old or no longer any good.

Blazers are a playoff play in team in modern nba. Don’t believe me just watch - check my post history back to 2005 if you dig accurate predictions

We’ll be better mid term than the blazers have been since la/Wes all them left from a potential level. We all know the CJ/Nurk and side pieces tandems were highly flawed. We’re building talent now. And depth.

A lot of people aren’t used to this version of the blazers. Gonna hit hard

Scoot to Sharpe (YouTube short)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iflG8ETh91s

It's like 5 seconds long, but a great highlight from training camp.

Shem wrote:Scoot to Sharpe (YouTube short)

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iflG8ETh91s

It's like 5 seconds long, but a great highlight from training camp.

*summer league training camp.

Highkin was on 1080 today and he said the starting lineup is pretty much 100% locked up...

Scoot
Ant
Thybulle
Grant
Ayton

Pretty much in the books, so don't expect Time Lord or Shaedon starting.

DusterBuster wrote:Highkin was on 1080 today and he said the starting lineup is pretty much 100% locked up...

Scoot
Ant
Thybulle
Grant
Ayton

Pretty much in the books, so don't expect Time Lord or Shaedon starting.

I do think Brogdon has a chance at beating out Simons

Norm2953 wrote:

DusterBuster wrote:Highkin was on 1080 today and he said the starting lineup is pretty much 100% locked up...

Scoot
Ant
Thybulle
Grant
Ayton

Pretty much in the books, so don't expect Time Lord or Shaedon starting.

I do think Brogdon has a chance at beating out Simons

If he's even here by then

Norm2953 wrote:

DusterBuster wrote:Highkin was on 1080 today and he said the starting lineup is pretty much 100% locked up...

Scoot
Ant
Thybulle
Grant
Ayton

Pretty much in the books, so don't expect Time Lord or Shaedon starting.

I do think Brogdon has a chance at beating out Simons

I have a better chance of beating Usain Bolt in a foot race.

This legit may be easiest “wow, that’s got no chance” take I’ve seen in years, maybe ever, here.

If Brogdon was going to beat out Simons, it means they're comfortable with Ant as the sixth man, which means they would start Shaedon at the shooting guard and not Brogdon to help his development.

The Sebastian Express wrote:If Brogdon was going to beat out Simons, it means they're comfortable with Ant as the sixth man, which means they would start Shaedon at the shooting guard and not Brogdon to help his development.

The only world in which Brogdon starts is if Sharpe, Scoot, Simons and Thybulle are all injured at the same time.

****.

Sorry, shouldn’t have said that.

DusterBuster wrote:

Norm2953 wrote:

DusterBuster wrote:Highkin was on 1080 today and he said the starting lineup is pretty much 100% locked up...

Scoot
Ant
Thybulle
Grant
Ayton

Pretty much in the books, so don't expect Time Lord or Shaedon starting.

I do think Brogdon has a chance at beating out Simons

I have a better chance of beating Usain Bolt in a foot race.

This legit may be easiest “wow, that’s got no chance” take I’ve seen in years, maybe ever, here.

Brogdon will not be starting over Ant but I think you have a shot in that race under the "right" conditions.

DusterBuster wrote:

Norm2953 wrote:

DusterBuster wrote:Highkin was on 1080 today and he said the starting lineup is pretty much 100% locked up...

Scoot
Ant
Thybulle
Grant
Ayton

Pretty much in the books, so don't expect Time Lord or Shaedon starting.

I do think Brogdon has a chance at beating out Simons

I have a better chance of beating Usain Bolt in a foot race.

This legit may be easiest “wow, that’s got no chance” take I’ve seen in years, maybe ever, here.

It comes down to motivation for Brogdon if he wants out, has got to show the league he's healthy.
A strong start might pique the interest of Miami, Philly, LAC and whoever is interested in him.

He thought with the trade of Smart, he had a chance at starting at PG for the Celtics. Having a second
ball handler on the court does help.

Norm2953 wrote:
It comes down to motivation for Brogdon if he wants out, has got to show the league he's healthy.
A strong start might pique the interest of Miami, Philly, LAC and whoever is interested in him.

He thought with the trade of Smart, he had a chance at starting at PG for the Celtics. Having a second
ball handler on the court does help.

Look, I'm not saying it's a bad idea. Brogdon is bigger, and is a better defender, playmaker, shooter and has experience on his side.
I've been saying Ant should be a microwave six man for a while.
And as you mentioned, if we're going to trade him, showcasing Brogdon s a good idea.

BUT
It won't happen, at least not to start the season. Simons is being hyped by management and coaching as our go-to scorer. It's his job to lose

RTG HD wrote:

DusterBuster wrote:

Norm2953 wrote:
I do think Brogdon has a chance at beating out Simons

I have a better chance of beating Usain Bolt in a foot race.

This legit may be easiest “wow, that’s got no chance” take I’ve seen in years, maybe ever, here.

Brogdon will not be starting over Ant but I think you have a shot in that race under the "right" conditions.

This got a legit out loud laugh, props my friend haha.

mighty_duck wrote:

Norm2953 wrote:
It comes down to motivation for Brogdon if he wants out, has got to show the league he's healthy.
A strong start might pique the interest of Miami, Philly, LAC and whoever is interested in him.

He thought with the trade of Smart, he had a chance at starting at PG for the Celtics. Having a second
ball handler on the court does help.

Look, I'm not saying it's a bad idea. Brogdon is bigger, and is a better defender, playmaker, shooter and has experience on his side.
I've been saying Ant should be a microwave six man for a while.
And as you mentioned, if we're going to trade him, showcasing Brogdon s a good idea.

BUT
It won't happen, at least not to start the season. Simons is being hyped by management and coaching as our go-to scorer. It's his job to lose

Simons may arguably be the best player on the team. Even showcasing and even if Brogdon is playing to his peak ability, Simons is just flat out better. This team thinks Simons can be a real #1 option (and arguably may want to showcase him as an aside).

Literally in any world I’m trying to imagine, there’s just zero way Brogdon would start over Ant.

Do I want to go through another 9 years of having an undersized backcourt due to our SG? No.

However, I'm all for Simons starting providing that the coach is willing to call a spade a spade if it's not working well on the defensive end.

Simons is uber talented and if he can find the form that he did in the second half of the 2021-22 season when Dame was out, I'm happy to wait some time to see if that's possible. As ultimately this year is a rebuilding year. A loss isn't a bad thing w.r.t a higher draft pick.

My ideal hope is that both Simons and Sharpe ball out, such that we can trade Simons for an attractive package knowing that Sharpe is showing all the rights signs to keep growing as a player.