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Trail Blazers TV analyst Lamar Hurd joins the show to talk Deni Avdija's play this season as he nears a return to the court, Scoot Henderson's up and down campaign, Donovan Clingan's recent play and the Blazers defense.
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What up world is fast first point card and trailblazers reporter Mike Richman you listen
to another episode of locks on Blazers Park locked on podcast network available work
ever you get podcast and also on YouTube thanks for making this show your first listen
coming as each and every weekday Monday through Friday so make it a part of your daily routine
making your first list and tell your friends to do the same it's locked on Blazers your
team every day in today's show Lamar heard trailblazers television analyst joins the program
and we'll talk the ending return of Danny Ovidia scoot Henderson's play this season and
the rise of Donovan clinging and more let's just get into it all right joining me now
trailblazers television analyst Lamar heard how you doing Lamar I'm doing good Mike how
you doing I'm doing pretty good it's good to catch up with you good to have you back on the
show always appreciate you we've got we're going to talk all things Blazers the stretch run of the
season and looking ahead but let's start with like the smallest bit of news which these days for
the Portland Trailblazers unfortunately is the injury reports the injury board is out and Danny
Ovidia has been upgraded to questionable without I'm I won't force you to speculate on what that
means but I'll happily do it um typically the way the Blazers have handled long from injuries
guys have gone from out to doubtful to questionable Danny Ovidia has been questionable or out
doubtful the last two games he's now upgraded questionable typically that means that Danny's about
to come back in what ways are the Blazers the most different with Danny Ovidia on the floor like
how what is the way he changes them the most in your opinion well he puts 25 points on the board
he you know puts whatever six seven assists six seven rebounds so there's a tangible benefit to
having them out there then there's all the little things that I know you're we're well aware of the
way that he can kind of bend the defense the type of attention he gets when he gets the ball in
his hands at the middle of the floor he just makes other guys shots even more open and he's
just a threat himself to take over a game at a certain time you know he played really well
down the stretch last year he was really really good like he was like it was like one of those
things where it was like if he plays like this he'll be an all star but then you kind of feel like
yeah March and April you know you don't want to say this you don't want to stamp it as real
but it was clearly he was really good right he took a he took a major step forward the whole
second half last season the last 35 games is very very good did you see this level in him like
whether whether it was the level he's been at this season where I think he's probably like
he's borderline all NBA and if he gets if he's eligible he will get votes for all NBA I don't
know if he'll make the team but he'll definitely get votes did you see this level in him last year
I did and I that's not me saying it now because it came to fruition I even said it's a
Kevin Lacer we were joking earlier about there was a game in San Antonio earlier this season and
somehow Denny's name came up and we were talking about you know where he might go and I told Kevin
I said Kevin that's why I mentioned to you last year I really felt like he could be a franchise
type player and then Kevin half jokingly but half serious was like no you didn't and so I remembered
when I did it is when we were in New York and after a game we were wrapping up the game and he had
he had a really good game at msg last year if you remember that but I was thinking when I made
the comment I made it because I was thinking about the totality of Denny's season to where it was
at that time and when he first came in remember remember Denny's first few games how he was getting
like layups and just missing layups but that's what his career had been based on up until that time
so I felt like okay well that's gonna flip like that's not gonna last forever and then when I started
to see him with the ball see him with the ball in his hands and how forceful he was because I
didn't know that when he was at Washington but when I saw off for he was I was like this is kind
of and I said this in games last season I said I'm not saying he's LeBron James I'm not saying he's
Janus what I'm saying is when he gets the ball in his hands in open floor I'm watching defenses
react the same way they react when those two guys have the ball in the open floor okay now he's
making threes off the dribble too so he starts putting these things together with what I knew he could
do and then in addition all that he's just such a pleasure to be around you know like we've had
a really well really good in Portland with Damien Lillard you know doesn't get any better than
him in terms of an athlete to be around and to ingratiate himself with the community the people
the co-workers Denny is very similar very and noticing all that last year in addition to his
basketball I felt comfortable saying I think this guy could be like a lot of teams franchise
player and by the lake which found the tape that that I said it at that New York jigsand they tried
to play it back and the people in our truck earned a volume down right before I said the word
fan thine so Kevin and I had a good kid that but then he was able to verify the video later um so
it's less alike in a roundabout way like yeah last year I did see this I saw like
the averages he's hitting now um I thought he'd get better and I'll tell you another thing like I
really believe there's another level he can go to and kind of easily because early in the season
he wasn't shooting the 10 foot shot the 15 foot shot a whole lot and like for somebody
can barrel their way to the rim you're always going to have a defense on the tails and so even
when he gets into the fate because of how good he is drawn files defense is always going to be back
just a little bit just a little bit or at the at the very most they'll be vertical they'll be straight
up to avoid getting a foul and I kept saying I don't know why Denny won't get to that 10 foot spot
and just shoot a little fade away just a little lean back like it's a really easy shot to shoot
especially for somebody as good as him and he started shooting at this year and he started shooting
other pull up so if he gets really efficient in that zone which I really think he can I think
he's got another level he can hit yeah I like I don't know if he's ever going to be a guy who takes
the like tween tween has he has he fall away 19 footers like I don't know that he's going to be
DeMar de Rosen there but I do think that that middle of the paint the like when they give you
space because you're such a you're so mean on your drives and you just like throw your shoulder
in everyone they say like okay don't catch the shoulder you know like get him at the rim and
contest him there well then you have that little bit of space I think I think he's done a really
good job on in that same area with realizing when he has spacing throwing those little half
lobs with his with with off the off the dribble with his right hand like if you give him a little space
and he has that and he has a ball in his right hand that's a lot like he's he's become a very very
good like half court in traffic lob tosser he's made Donald and clinging he's just giving him some
easy buckets in those ways Rob obviously as well and some of that is just reading because guys don't
they don't want to give him all that pressure or they or they're trying to get him back to his
you know send him to his right hand and he says oh you came up too high right over the top I think
he's done really that those areas the the passing was always there but his willingness to still be
a passer on the on drives is really something that I've appreciated this year because um
you know he's he leading the NBA in drives per game when he was when he was playing regularly and
you know when he when he was right physically and but he was also lean league and pass off those
drives right he was he was he was driving because it's valuable but he was not being you know there's
times when you need him to be selfish this kind of the way the sport works but he was he was really
using that drive as a weapon for everybody and I thought that that's like a matured right that's
a maturity to understand that I got to use my strengths to make everyone better and then like you
said that's kind of what how he greases the wheels for everybody yep and that's his personality he's
he's always trying to make it better for everybody who's working with them and that might what
you just explained it leads me to feel like he can get even better because right now he's making
those drives and passes to a team that's been the worst three-point shooting team in the NBA this
season if he gets a point where there's several shooters lined up around him consistently um he's
taking another step uh and so right now the damage he's doing he's doing with certain limitations
with all due respect to the guys out there playing and doing their best you know one reason a place
we're so excited to acquire v-craties because they're like we sorely need shooting so as that
continues to improve around him I think he'll be really dangerous I mentioned to one of the blazer
6x before a game I said if you guys ever got real shooters you'll you'll be like Denny's gonna
be even better and they shot me look like how dare you and I was like hey go on you know we both
know what what it is like I'm trying to be mean to any of these gentlemen like they're you know but
like you we we know what the level of shooting you guys that is exists in the league and I think
they've been honest at times about the need for more shooting and I think if it hadn't been coming
from me and sort of an op-handed quip they would have it would have landed a little better but I
thought it's pretty funny it was like Mike don't say that to me okay no um pass first point
guard can speak up with everything wants to yeah no listen I you have to be if you're gonna be
critical away from someone's face I think it's it pays off it's it you might as well say the same
thing right in front of their face right team can't shoot I've said if I'm gonna say it in the
Michael said I'll stay next to you Mike I don't even consider that critical I think uh you know
that's that's just the truth of the matter the stats say the team doesn't shoot well right
they'll start like some uh crazy opinion uh and they know and guys on the floor who aren't shooting
well nope they're not shooting well so everybody knows what it is and everybody knows that uh you
you line some more shooters up around any and good things will happen yeah absolutely and and
what good players really do is they don't necessarily make the game easier like they don't make it
they don't make players excuse me they don't make the players better but they make it easier they
make all of your decisions easier so if you know some of the like two money come on are having to
take four jab steps and shoot because he's not open on the catch well the catch becomes cleaner
because of the drives like all that stuff at all it's low it all flows downhill um I want to ask
you about scoot Henderson before we do that I want to tell you that today's show is brought to you
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all right thanks for making this show your first listen if you're living that everyday lifestyle make
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the rest of my conversation with Lamar hurt i want to ask you about scoot Henderson we haven't seen
a ton of them but we he's been back and he's played a bunch he's in a he's in a shooting funk right
now he he's he's really struggled on on this road trip to make shots last four games he's he's been
not shot well but beyond the shooting which i think is obvious what have you seen from scoop uh
from in his spin in his return to the court this year uh this year i feel like he got off to a
pretty good fast start considering he hadn't played um you know like i was making a point to
Kevin we were talking about this and i said you know the really cool thing about scoop when he first
came back is it's not like an athlete who started the season got to play some games got to get an
NBA shape and then got hurt a couple months in and then had to ramp back up like he never got
that NBA touchpoint from a game standpoint until he played a game and that was really impressive
the way he came back to me over his last few games um you know i i just because he missing i
wouldn't say this but i would say this because of how he's missed certain shots and he had one in
the game against Atlanta where it was a how he missed that stood out to me um i i i wonder if
some of it is mental it would only be natural to have a bit of a mental obstacle going on in your
mind when you just look at the totality of his career to this point rookie year wasn't what he or
anybody around him expected second year oh saw some good stuff oh okay school shootin threes now
he shootin off the dribble and all these things and then coming into this season right two things
they mean little returns so that's a variable that mentally likely was not a part of his approach
before that time and then he gets hurt he gets hurt right during the training camp time right before
that time when he was playing really well and the reason i say that i didn't see it but i say it
because the people who came up to me that are in the gym with him every day that went out of their
way to talk about it when there's no cameras on this wasn't something for me to report in the game
we know he's gonna be out for a while so this isn't like a setup to preview schooled information
it's just candid conversations schooled apparently was doing some real good stuff in that environment
at a level that they hadn't seen him do it so with with with the coming in and then want knowing like
okay the clock is ticking like we're we're a month and a half a blazer basketball away from
Damien Lillard returning now we don't know what that means exactly and and how they're gonna integrate
and all that but we know he's one of the best still doing it so he's gonna play a factor so i
can only imagine to an extent maybe not a lot school knows that and he knows that this is a
an important time for him to make an impression um i it's easy to say well sometimes it feels like
he's pressing a little bit but i'm not so sure that that's the case because some of the same
misses that i'm saying he's had that stood out to me like whoa that didn't look good
i seen him make the shot in that same scenario so um i don't know if it's pressing or just a matter of
you know uh confidence wavering a little bit and and like he been around school you know
school say very confident young man even back to his rookie season when he wasn't playing the way
he wanted to play if you talk to him you want to know that like he would think everything was going
great because he he believes and knows he's going to break out of whatever the funk is which he did
from rookie year to year two um so i'm just hopeful that at some point over these next couple games
that he's able to reengage himself in a way that he feels good about and that blazer fans can feel
good about yeah the first three four games that he played it was like oh yeah he's gonna he's like
he's gonna help like he can he can really do some stuff he can really help and i think he's just
kind of struggled with the efficiency stuff and then outside shooting um you know i think uh
some of it is just like maybe just the natural course of like having a bad shooting game but like
you said some of the you know some of the misses like being way off it's like okay oh yeah that's
that's at least something to note it right and they're just way off like not like missing short
like in the Atlantic game he had two threes i think it was his first two threes i don't
remember a few was this but he had two that didn't hit the rim he had a layup where now he was
trying to plant two was left and then go back to the right and reverse the ball but he hit the
glass and then just bounced off you know that's like an air ball essentially from a layup position
and it's good to better than that so like he's had certain misses where it just seems like all right
something's going on not so sure what it is but whatever it is i do believe he'll step out of it
yeah you were talking about his confidence i think i don't know about i don't think i've shared
this on the podcast but i'm like over three maybe over four lifetime getting scoop to admit that
his confidence is shaken i've gone into the locker room kind of like someone on one moment
with him and been like you know has you have you like you know had you had you know maybe change the
way you think about this and that is absolutely not nope no no and i'm like then i'll go back
months later and say like have you has this changed no no nothing's changed nope still feel the same
way and he's like he is whether it's whether it is you know how real it is or whatever but he's
he's not he's certainly not about to tell me that he feels like it's like his outlook is any
different he has he has a certain amount of confidence that is i think required to be in the leak i
i think that is a if nothing i think that's a good sign so the most part that you have that
level of confidence yeah because it's hard it's hard to stick and you got you kind of believe
that you got to believe that you will uh on scoot i think the best version of scoot for me is the guy
who you know pick and roll screen re screen dribble see the read you know gets it gets a play with the
ball in his hands with denny back scoot has to play a little bit off the ball not not exclusively
right but did they they you have to balance that right what do you think about him as an off-ball
player at this stage like where where where has he excelled and where can he get better
inconclusive to me of some places he's excelled as when you know they space him out a little bit
and they run that action to get the stampede catch and with his speed and his leverage
he's able to step on people um he is a catch and shoot threat well he i mean
not include in the last few games but he he turned himself into someone that defenses didn't just
comfortably leave wide open they still weren't you know maybe running him off the line or that kind
of thing but they were they were mixing up picking roll competition they weren't just going under
all the time some classes under than over or vice versa so he gained a level of respect off the ball
i just with him and denny on the floor i think that's a tough um that's a tough
unless one of those two guys might start shooting 40% from three or something to that nature
i just i don't know how good that tandem will work i think um in spots it can definitely work
depending on matchup depending you know like it can work but i think what happened is denny came over
here and at the time when denny came over i don't think the idea was this guy's gonna be the one
we're putting the ball in his hands and we're like from the standpoint of the at the point guard
position or hey ball needs to be in his hands 12 out of the 24 seconds at a shot clock that's
what we're we're looking at dosage in with this guy from time and time i don't i don't know that
that was the plan so at that time it's like yeah school still won't have the ball in his hands and
he's gonna make stuff happen and all that but like things happen and i know you've seen this kind of
thing before as as a team evolves you start finding out certain things and you start figuring out
you know okay well we're gonna go this direction with with this plan so you know maybe it started off
and the team was thinking school will be the point guard and and they still might be thinking that
but they also could be thinking okay we got to figure out how to get school playing off the ball
because we need that ball in denny's hands um so i think it's the inconclusive right now and that's
just another one of those bombers of him not playing the season like that was the kind of thing
that we wanted to find out about and it's what i'll be looking for you know the last 20 games or
whatever number right now let's never ask an NBA team employee to tell you what day of the week
is it or how many games i played oh what day of the week it is it's Memphis it is so it is
game against Memphis a day of the week um yeah i wonder with with that like i i think i'm with you
is that the balance there seems tricky because denny has been a pretty good spot-up shooter but it
doesn't maximize him right it takes away some of his superpower and like one of the things that i
strongly believe and i think i've stolen this from mic dan tony and kind of looped it into my own
thing is like you might as well do what your best at every time down the floor like that there's
value in just doing what your best at every time down the floor um choosing not to do that is uh
is is a choice you make so you know maybe some of it is figuring out what what scoot is is absolutely
the best at how to maximize that and play off of denny there because i think denny's earned the
sort of like the guy um he's he's uh he's yeah that's the thing denny is put pressure on the timeline now
because he has the type the book before this the the the the idea of laser basketball was let's find
out with these guys got less experiment let's try different line-ups let's try guys at different
positions hey you're not a three-point shooter well you can try it right now and what denny has
done is he's fast-tracked a little bit where it's like all right the trial period is narrowing
its end because there's there's this one guy that doesn't need any more of a trial period and so
now you got to start doing some things that you feel more certain about so um you know denny has
taken away that time from some of those teammates but uh hopefully like i said but then it's these
last few weeks they can still find a time like school can continue to explore his game a little bit denny
you know when he comes back depending on what's going on depending on how many wins the team needs
uh you know being a play in and move up and all that kind of stuff that stuff will dictate what
they are able to do trial and error with and what they got to say no we got to we got to we got to go
what we know on this yeah i think that's an interesting way to put it is like they've they've
their their ability to be uncertain has the that window has closed they are there it is time to be
more certain about what you've got i think that's uh that's a good uh really interesting way to frame
it uh let's let's talk down the cling a little bit first i want to tell you that today shows
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still a password point guard still Mike Richmond still listen to locked on blazers he
is the rest of my conversation with trailblazers tv analyst Lamar heard uh let's let's talk
on the cling a little bit because dude had a monster February he had a monster February um he
he listened quietly he did gotta get the locked on blazers curse he had a really nice December
and I brought him on the show he got about a bad January shooting the ball and then he got
further away from the show and then he was awesome in February so I think he shook off the locked
on blazers curse I hope it was happened to you you're gonna be flubbing names tomorrow and just
missing couperages um but what it what has um what have you appreciated most about Donovan
Klingon's rise in you in his second season well talk about trial and error I appreciate Donovan's
ability and willingness to shoot the three-point shot even when things weren't going well and
he had times early in the season when missing a lot uh he kept shooting it because he's put the
work in on it um I appreciate that and I appreciate how much better he is finishing plays this season
compared to last season and I don't want to say that he got better at that oh Mike you're giving
me a look so let me okay oh you made it he's he's he's he's finished you all he's finishing well
I agree uh he's so so um and I'm and I'm not saying finishing well I'm saying better than
last season so last season sure times Donovan will get the rebound and I did not feel like oh he's
about to drop step and dunk this or he's about to power through somebody and and finish this play
and he has done that more this year than he did all of last season in my estimation so that's
one of the things I'm I'm happy about him being more assertive with that because he's got a
size advantage most nights um and then just defensively uh you know I know he's not
blocking the shots the same way um he's all turned a lot of shots they're wanting to keep them
down uh low all the time you know so like they want to have them drop off of his man when he's
off ball and uh he you know the blazers will sit and drop covers a lot of times in a picking roll
and even with that like once people get into the pain he's good at defending that gets the two on
one and you know being disruptive uh but the next thing is going to be for him having a bit of a
rob Williams ability where if the team does go small or if they do drag him out to the three-point line
coach splitter feels comfortable knowing that they want to keep down if they're about to ram but
he's able to get out a little bit better slide his beat and um just be be helpful in that particular
case yeah I think the um I think there's some angst among the fan base about uh the way teams
are able to sort of target the blazers with that drop coverage a little bit on three-point shooting
I think it's a little bit overstated I mean some of it is like recency bias because the on
yaku kong would just got hot um but the first couple three you made were from the corner they
weren't really necessarily drop covers they were more like helping in from the weak side from the
weak side um which is like a very normal NBA thing like you're gonna pull in from the weak side
every team does it um this just he hit him he hit him and it feels a lot worse um but like I uh
there were some moments where they could have gotten further out on a conglue later in the game but
I think the first two specifically were more like weak side threes that he just hits um do you
what do you make of the defense this year it hasn't been as good um I think clangit has been a
really good rim deterrent but again his shot blocking is down and the the overall block percentages
down but what do you make of the defense this year like why don't what are the is it just the case
of like a million little things that are not as sharper or why aren't they as good as they were
for that stretch last year when they were really awesome they were great at the end of the year
well there's a couple factors here um they got a different coach right now so you know we know
coach bill of defense was really big on his priority list of the point where a guy like Shane and
Sharpe who was scoring well got sat because closing the field like he was playing defense
the injuries I think put stuff in a bit of a tailspin where the identity they wanted to have they
didn't feel comfortable that they can have that with the limited lineup that they were playing out
there but even with the defense has not been what I thought it would be uh there was even
aim there was a gain uh who was it it was a home game it was recently and oh against Denver
member of that Denver ever won by I don't know with 40 50 points whatever they won by 54 maybe
yes so in that game the first half the blinks are already getting blown out and nothing they
were doing defensively with working well and so I told Kevin I was like you know this to me
seems like a good time to go to that small chaos lineup and just see and I'm not even saying
it's gonna work but nothing else was working so this is just something that they could try that
we had seen early in a season times when it went to it it did work so I thought it'd be good time
to do that and when it came out of half time nothing nothing changed nothing changed from that
standpoint the intensity didn't increase the lineup wasn't a faster lineup they went to a
late in that game uh but that that lineup and that style of play is something that I just thought
we would be seeing a lot more and somewhere along the way I think just for coach blitter and the staff
they they settled on a comfort of playing the way we seen them play with the guys that they have
so um it's unfortunate because defensively they they they should have been one of the better teams
in the NBA the whole time with their personnel but they just it just never really came to fruition
and some of that the defensive ace the guy was second team last year to mind a camara
he even thinking about the defensive load he had to carry throughout the early part of the season
when guys started going down you know the same way how in offense better players can like make
other guys life easier like you were saying it works the same way defensively and I think if they
had that defensive chaotic lineup all the time even he would have signed even more and I don't
even think he was bad I think he's been good but I'm just saying I think he would have looked
better I think he would have even better so I would I think I would just talk it up to to the injuries
and that throwing off the lineups a place where the coaches staff felt like the way they they are
playing as the way that they needed to play yeah I you know I think early you know the the first four
games or whatever the the tight the small lineup is going to call the tiny lineup they play a lot
do the six five plus the the smaller lineup centerless lineup was awesome like it was lights out
and then after some injuries I think they were I think at least the numbers like with the in the
centerless lineup they were just awful on defense and I think they kind of said okay we're going
to play a center like we're gonna play we're you know we're gonna play a center and then it took
them so long to get back and get healthy that they're probably not as comfortable as they might be
they've tried it a little bit but but they they haven't really leaned into it in the way you
thought they would and I think splitters say to you I was talking about this a little bit is like
he felt like he was putting a lot on Tumani's plate at some point this season is he's playing 38
minutes like what you know what how much can I ask him to do and I think Tumani has not been as good
on defense but I still think honestly for me I think Tumani has still been one of the better
defenders in league without a doubt I don't know if he'll make all defense this year just because
of the teams overall defense but Tumani to me is not the is not the number one I wonder a little bit
of it is just like because of all the injuries it's like the offensive load for for denny obvi has
been massive and that's taken a little bit away from him on defense and he's he's a very good
defender but it's like you only have so you only have so much human energy to use out on the court
and he's expending it running 10,000 picking roles game right and this so I think some of it is if
you balance the offense and get him a little more comfort there you can get back to defense and I
think I think it's like I think it's there for him like I think the like you said I think the
personnel is there for them to be a good defense I've been I thought there were going to be a top
10 defense in the league and they just have not been and so it's been surprising to me Lamar
thank you so much for your time it is always a pleasure to chat with you you are truly one of
the great I don't know okay I'm gonna say this I'm just gonna give you just a big old compliments
and you're gonna have to sit through it but listen I'm a I'm a league pass junk I'm a league pass
junk I watched I watched so many league pass games to the point where I have some no fly zone there's
some broadcast where I'm like watch this game on watch this game on mute I'm not I'm not we don't fly
here that's that's not gonna work for me but I would say my I think the thing you do better than maybe
anyone else in the league is quickly recognized and diagnosed what the heck just happens and I hope
laser fans realize that because if you watch as much league passes I do there are really fun broadcasts
out there but I don't know that anyone can say here's why this happened as quickly in the league
as as Lamar I he is as good at it as as as as anybody he says well they were on top of the screen
and so it allowed them to go back door and when they back door the weak side guy had to help and
that's why the corner is wide open and Lamar can do that at full speed he can he can do it as the
game is he can process as the game is happening he doesn't need to see the replace six times and you
do not get that other places so laser fans appreciate Lamar because he is he is watching the game at
a very high level and he's he's making you smarter about hoops and if there's anything we
appreciate I'll lock down blazers it's trying to get smarter about hoops Lamar thanks so much I
appreciate you man good man thank you really appreciate it dear listeners come back for tomorrow
show blazers grizzlies grizzlies are in Minnesota right now they're playing a basketball game that starts
well it's kind of timestamp this a little bit soon they're playing a basketball game that starts
in 25 minutes so they'll be in the second night of a backs back and traveling blazers play a
little rest advantage in Memphis chance to end the losing streak get rights against against the
grizzlies and after that game I'll have it covered for everything that happens because that's
what we do five days a week we're having a podcast also on YouTube tell your friends about
the show and then come back for more the rest of the week I appreciate your listening I will talk
to you soon

Locked On Blazers – Daily Podcast On The Portland Trail Blazers

Locked On Blazers – Daily Podcast On The Portland Trail Blazers

Locked On Blazers – Daily Podcast On The Portland Trail Blazers
