Blazer's Edge: for Portland Trail Blazers fans

Latest Episodes:

Blazers Edge Night Eve with Blazers Edge staff Mar 25, 2019

Show notes

‘Twas the night before Blazer’s Edge Night and some of the staff’Gathered together to talk Blazers and laugh . . .

Join Tara, Danny, Dave, Cassidy, Miles, Steve and Paul of BlazersEdge.com as we go over what we’ve seen from the Blazers so far this season. Have they met, exceeded or fallen below expectations? Which first round matchup would be best for the playoffs? What do the Blazers have to accomplish in the post-season to preserve the core of this team? All this and more on the latest Blazer’s Edge podcast.

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WHAT Podcast: Amara Baptist, Digital Content Manager Portland Trail Blazers Mar 21, 2019

Show notes

Amara Baptist, the voice behind Trail Blazer’s twitter, joins the WHAT podcast to talk about being on the road.

On the latest WHAT podcast, Tara and Cassidy talk to Blazer’s Digital Content Manager Amara Baptist to find out more about being on the road. Pizza rolls. Fro-yo. Ugly photo vests. Bench reactions. Take a tour of the NBA Arenas with someone who has seen them all!

00:55 Icebreaker: what is your go-to game snack? Tip: Ice cream sandwiches on the 300 level are the best!3:38 How is the first season with the Trail Blazers going?5:25 What was the seven game road trip like? Really (really!) long. Good bonding experience. 6:20 Who does the travel planning?7:30 What are other NBA Arenas like? Are they all pretty much the same or do they have their own personalities?8:31 Looks forward to going to Toronto, Staples Center, Detroit’s new arena is beautiful, but she really judges an area on the quality of their wifi. 11:00 Which arenas have the best amenities? Amara stays very on-brand with praise for Little Caesars Arena, Barklay Center, Staple Center has a frozen yogurt/soft serve station at half time. 14:30 Are there any places that are tough to play in? Philadelphia was really tough on their own team.16:00 Where does media and team personnel sit? Best used to be Oklahoma City but they have moved media farther from the scorers table. Milwaukee seating is really far away.18:29 Usually sit with the NBC Sports Northwest people. Media has to wear photo vests, visiting teams don’t have to wear them.21:00 Close games are the most stressful.22:24 Favorite things to watch for for posting on social media? Bench reactions.23:34 What is the etiquette about saying “hi” to someone who is working at a game? 26:35 Coffee talk: This week’s recommendation is Cinder Cone from Never Coffee Lab.28:00 Check out Amara on social : @amarabaptist and @trailblazers plus, check out her podcast, Social On the Sidelines.

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How will the Blazers Adjust while CJ McCollum is Out with Dave Deckard Mar 18, 2019

Show notes

With Danny out sick, Dave Deckard, Managing Editor of Blazer’s Edge joined Tara to discuss all the implications of CJ McCollum’s injury. How will the starters adjust? Who slides into his spot? Will that disrupt the bench? What are the implications for playoff seeding? Who is their best matchup (hint: anyone but Golden State)? So many questions and Dave his here to answer them all. Get well soon Danny and thanks to Dave for sitting in!

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WHAT is up with the Spurs? Mar 14, 2019

Show notes

We’ve been speculating a lot this year about what is going on with the San Antonio Spurs. Will they make it to the playoffs without the Big Three? Will Gregg Popovich retire? What is it like since Kawhi left and, of course, how is LaMarcus Aldridge doing?

To answer these questions before the teams meet up on Saturday, we went straight to the source and called up Marilyn Dubinski (@alamoaggie) a writer for our sister site poundingtherock.com.

We asked Marilyn all these questions and learned so much more: that she loved watching the Spurs with her grandmother, that her dad used to work out with George Gervin, and where she thinks all the wildlife in the arena comes from.

Tune in for all of this plus one of Cassidy’s famous icebreakers: in a Zombie apocalypse, which three NBA players would you pick to be on your survival team?

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How Much do the Blazers Miss Evan Turner? Mar 11, 2019

Show notes

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang take a look at the week that was, Maurice Harkless' inspired play, CJ McCollum post all-star break shooting revival, Tara cursing the Blazers in Memphis, Anfernee Simons getting minutes, the Blazers missing Evan Turner, Thunder-Blazers, playoff match ups and more!

Intro

Opening Comments

:20 Tara makes a Dan joke

1:00 Tara goes to Memphis

5:30 Chandler Parsons yoga mats

7:15 Looking back at the OKC game

9:00 Ball stopping and lack of player movement

12:30 Thunder are 4-0 vs Portland, do you want to see them in the playoffs?

14:00 Blazers bench looks rough without Evan Turner running things

14:50 Seth Curry and playmaking

17:00 Differences between running sets/plays and shot hunting

19:00 Harkless continues to play well!

21:15 This version of Harkless is what Portland needs

22:30 Tara's Harkless-Nurkic theory

26:00 Blazers as a team, struggling from 3 recently

28:00 Evaluating Kanter (again)

33:00 Will/Should Collins be out there more right now?

35:15 Floor spacing bench units

38:00 ANFERNEE SIMONS TTIME!

39:10 Tara doesn't like Dan to enjoy things

41:35 Facing the Denver Nuggets twice to end the season

44:00 Things are swell in Golden State!

46:00 Looking at seeding and potential playoff match ups

52:00 Closing Comments

Outro

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WHAT is the deal with the CBA? An introduction with Brit Robotista Mar 07, 2019

Show notes

We got real nerdy on this week’s episode of the WHAT podcast and invited Brit Robotista (@britrobotista) onto the pod to go over the basics of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and the NBA league owners. She helped us understand why it exists, what it holds, what happened in the summer of ‘16, and how we might prepare ourselves to understand what options will be on the table the next time Damian Lillard is up for a new contract.

Get out your pencils and your legal pads and take some notes (or not, you can relax with a glass of wine and that’s fine too), we’re diving into some really important stuff, with a wonderful tour guide to help us understand, WHAT is the deal with the CBA?

Follow Blazer’s Edge on Twitter @blazersedge, WHAT Pod @HoopsAndTalks, Tara @tcbbiggs, and Cassidy @CassidyGemmet. This week’s guest: @britrobotista

Women’s Hoops And Talks (W.H.A.T.)Join the Women’s Hoops And Talks Facebook group to talk about Trail Blazers with others who identify as women who love basketball.

Music used in the episode: "Happy Alley" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

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The Revival of Moe Harkless, Road Trip Wins & Rodney Hood Takeovers Mar 04, 2019

Show notes

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang take a look at the Blazers going 5-1 on the 7 game road trip, taking care of business against the teams you should and coming up just short in Toronto to Kawhi Leonard, Blazers trying new lineups, playing a new style at times, Portland not relying on Damian Lillard to go for 30 a night, Jake Layman's heel turn, the revival of Moe Harkless, Rodney's breakout performance in Charlotte and more!

IntroOpening Comments2:00 Thoughts on road trip so far3:10 Rodney Hood and self care5:10 Tara’s favorite part of the Hornets game5:50 Lillard not forcing the takeover of the game7:20 Portland ball movement and ranking 24th in assists9:00 Actively looking to get guys involved11:00 Trying things that they might see in the playoffs11:50 Dame & CJ not having to be THE guys every night14:40 CJ doing more than impacting the points column16:00 Looking at the bigs vs Toronto17:30 Blazers playing with Kanter and Collins19:00 Balancing minutes for development vs going after it now20:30 Different lineups and celebrating the Blazers bench… weird21:40 The revival of Moe Harkless25:00 Tara believes it was positive reinforcement for Moe that made the difference25:20 Moe can’t ever take off the headband28:20 Tendency breakers28:30 Meyers Leonard the Big Ice Cream Scooper31:00 Blazers and defensive changes32:00 Aminu’s adventures in dribbling35:00 Chasing Westbrook, PG & the Thunder38:00 Kanter and trolling Westbrook/Adams41:00 Portland’s desire to go in on offense and let the chips fall43:00 The sweep by NOP really bothered a lot of guys- can it be a motivation46:30 Dan, the eternal optimist49:00 Portland cannot drop the game to the Thunder51:30 Wanting Jake Layman to be a heel53:15 Update on the ‘Intensive Purposes’ commercialClosing CommentsOutro

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WHAT to watch for the rest of the regular season Feb 28, 2019

Show notes

On the latest Women’s Hoops And Talks (W.H.A.T.) podcast Tara and Cassidy get to know one of the newest Blazer’s Edge writers, Lindsay Hostetler (also known as Corvallis Foodie on Twitter). She talks about what it was like growing up a Seattle Sonics fan in a small Washington town, how she became a fan of the Blazers and what she likes about writing about the team.

Then we all chime in about what we will be watching for from the Trail Blazers as they close out the regular season. How will the ball move? Will they play some, a lot, or just enough defense? Finally, we speculate about some of the front runners in the Western Conference. Will Denver suffer in the playoffs due to lack of playoff experience? What could we learn about Damian Lillard by watching Chris Paul, and is this really it for the San Antonio Spurs?

Follow Blazer’s Edge on Twitter @blazersedge, WHAT Pod @HoopsAndTalks, Tara @tcbbiggs, and Cassidy @CassidyGemmet. This week’s guest: @corvallisonian

Women’s Hoops And Talks (W.H.A.T.)Join the Women’s Hoops And Talks Facebook group to talk about Trail Blazers with others who identify as women who love basketball.

Music used in the episode: "Happy Alley" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

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Who's in, who's out and why it matters Feb 25, 2019

Show notes

IntroOpening Comments

2:16 First two games since All-Star Break

2:43 Enes Kanter impressions. Skilled big man who lives in the paint and gets rebounds. 3:14 How the siging of Kanter demonstrates the Blazers are all in on offense. 4:34 There's going to be buckets everywhere. 4:53 48 minutes of Nurkic and Kanter is going to be a lot for any team to deal with. 5:30 Kanter can do things that Nurkic can't do in the post. 6:21 Kanter has more offensive consistency than Nurkic, but less eye popping. 7:14 Why do people say Kanter is bad at defense? He doesn't take up as much room as Nurkic. He's a step slower. 8:03 He's also not the worst defender. They are probably not going to struggle all that much, he doesn't give up more than he gives. 9:03 Is there any kind of defense that he is decent at? He's passable at most, you just want to leave him under the rim and hope me keeps people away. He just needs to be his best offensively 9:39 Will Collins see the court again? 11:33 Collins is better at help side or pick and roll protector. He's still not great at defending the rim. But most people in the NBA are not great at defendin the rim. People are just too good at offense now. 12:50 What if other teams go small? Is Collins a better possibility in those situations? 14:21 Stotts is putting in lineups to push the pace and get up the floor. 15:42 How much time do the Blazers have to experiment with the lineups? 18:35 Offensively, in the first two games back, Damian Lillard has not had to force the issue. 20:03 The ball is moving really well. Dame and CJ don't have to hunt for so many shots. 20:35 Other teams have historically gone after Damian Lillard at the end of games to wear him out. But the last two games Damian Lillard's usage rate has been significantly lower. 21:02 Blazers are 14-1 in games where Damian Lillard's usage rate is less than 25.1 % 22:22 A discussion about players "carrying their weight". 24:02 McCollum has come up big lately in his ability to do more than just score. Rebounding, steals, defense, etc. 24:46 Rodney Hood and Jake Layman have been good at timely production. Moe Harkless too. 26:02 Damian isn't the only one who can spark a run now. Other players like Jake or even Moe lately have stepped up with the key, well-timed energy plays. 27:14 Moe made his presence felt in both games after the All Star break. 29:05 Moe Harkless has tapped into something, lets keep it going. 30:27 Damian Lillard's signature move, the baseline step back fadeaway in traffic. 33:22 Catch-and -shoot guys have signature moves in ways that they get themselves open. 34:41 More praise for Damian Lillard because you can't say enough good things about him. Referencing his interview with Chris Haynes. 35:52 How much better are the Blazers after the new additions and how much credit should also go to continuity? 38:10 Ed Davis praise for Jake Layman. 39:55 Would Bringing in big stas in years past beeen as effectve as the culture that Damina Lillard has grown in portland. 41:23 Looking ahead to Cleveland, Boston and Toronto 42:47 Take care of business in Cleveland. 43:33 What are the Bachup centers like for the upcomin games? What kinds of a challenge will he pose for Kanter? 45:34 Which Blazers has the best opportunity to shine this week? Lets see if Moe can keep it going. 46:36 Jake has become a regular and 47:54 Enes the Menace. Good nickname? 48:26 Nurkic and Kanter trash talk on top of teams having to battle two big players for 48 minutes 49:28 Blazers already made the Warriors melt down before they added Kanter to the roster. 51:32 Thank you to everyone who made Blazers Edge night a reality again! Closing Comments Outro

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How will Terry Stotts redistribute the minutes with Kanter in the lineup? Feb 18, 2019

Show notes

Dan Marang and Tara Bowen-Biggs discuss highlights from All Star weekend including Damian Lillard’s outstanding performance in Sunday night’s game. Then they compare what happened in the Trail Blazers’ loss to Oklahoma City to how things went down in the win against Golden State. Short answer: Zach Collins.

Finally they dig into one of the most exciting things the team has done lately--bringing in Enes Kanter to finish out the season. What are the skills that he brings? How will minutes be redistributed? Who's playing time will suffer the most? We can’t wait for the games to start and see what happens.

Join us for all of this and more on the latest episode of the Blazer’s Edge Podcast.

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