Mailbag: Which Trail Blazer Reaches the Next Level?! | Hyun-jung Lee Gets a Training Camp Invite

0:00This is the Lockdown Podcast Network celebrating 10 years of your team every day. This is Jake from Lockdown. When the game's on the line, the best no end to pass. Because the right assist can change everything. And off the court, it's no different. That's where your State Farm agent comes in. Whether it's protecting your car, your home, or helping you prep for the unexpected, they'll help set you up with a game plan that works for you. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. And the other options are selected by the customer, availability and eligibility, buried by State. What's more exciting than two NFL division rivals going head to head in Australia? It's knowing you can watch it live on Netflix. Netflix is expanding its NFL coverage this season and beyond. In addition to the Rams and the Niners kicking off week one, be sure to catch the first ever Thanksgiving Eve matchup and two Christmas Day games on Netflix. Watch the Los Angeles Rams versus the San Francisco 49ers live on Netflix tonight at 8.35 PM Eastern, 5.35 PM Pacific.

1:06What up world? This is Pastverse Point Garden Trail Blazers reporter Mike Richmond. You are listening to another episode of Locked On Blazers in today's program. Talk about the Blazers adding a sharp shooter to the training camp roster. But we're going to start with a good old-fashioned mailbag. We haven't done one of these in a while in part because I just incorporate your questions into the show and don't do them as a spoon-fed mailbag. But I got a couple interesting questions from a few listeners and I want to do those today. We will talk about who needs to level up for the trailblazers and then settle a beef between two friends about whether or not it's time to retire the trade machine briefly. Let's start with leveling up. This question comes from Rick. Rick writes to tell me email me locked on blazers.gmail.com.

2:08Still the best way to get in touch with me locked on blazers. I just had the email address wrong. Locked on Blazers.com at gmail.com. That's what it find me. That Rick writes to tell me that they've tried to make some other questions work and haven't gotten the show. But this one's a winner and indeed Rick, this one's a winner. So longer email, typically I get longer emails and kind of edit them down for the show. The gist of this question is this. Only one player on the blazers can ascend from their current status as the role they're officially in, this sort of stage that they're in in the NBA, the rank that they're in the NBA. This player would you want that to be in order to impact the greatest number of wins in the upcoming season. You got to define the statuses. Of course Rick did. They are. I'm not even amending. These are just ricks. I think this is about right. But these are the ricks language that they are deep, no minutes player. So that's your first rank. Low minute rotation players, regular rotation players and backups, role playing starters, high

3:09end starters, all stars and superstars. I would probably put, for me, if I did have to to quibble here, I would probably put a some sort of third star category in there because I like superstars is a weird term because I don't think Jalen Brunson is a superstar, right? But he's the best player on the team that won a championship. He's better than an all star. There's this sort of, there's a level that's in between this. For me, true superstars is probably four or five guys every year in the league, which means if that dudes on your team, just by them alone means you're going to have a chance to win a title. It's the Nicky Yokech, Yonis and the Kumpo realm. And I'm not even sure is Yonis still there. Is Yokech still there, right? It's hard to win a championship league, but I guess Wembee or Shakey, I'll just say Alexander, right? Like the sort of the true top two to five dudes in the league who guarantee you a chance

4:14by their mere existence, their presence and the lineup. That's for me superstars. So I'd probably have another category in there between all stars and superstars. I'm going to call that term stars. And why I'm sort of getting into that classification, that taxonomy is because I think the player you would choose to sort of level up would be Denny Avia. Because I think the simple answer to this is that the market inefficiency in the league is having one of the best players. It's, you know, I think depth is really important. I think it's pretty clear that during the 82 game marathon of the NBA season based on sort of style of play and all those things, you probably need comfortably 10 guys you can play, but you also like on your 15 person roster, you probably need 12 that you can interchangeably fit into that 10 like you need 12 dudes to play 10 each night. I just think that's that's sort of the nature of the way the sport works now.

5:18So I didn't always stick with Denny. We'll get back to why I chose Denny in a moment. But I sort of noodle on this a bunch because I think it's a good question from Rick. One of the players I kind of thought about a little bit was what if Scoot Henderson moved from like a regular rotation player to back up to a role playing starter like he was just like very clearly an NBA starter. What if this was a year that was just undeniable? Yeah, yeah, Scoot's like he's comfortably one of the 20 best point guards in the league. You got to play him every night, right? Like he's that he's that good and that and that useful. I think that would really help it would help with some clarity, maybe some some other roster decisions you could make. But because of the sort of clutter does like the Scoot Henderson being really good actually help with how you figure out the sort of Damon job pairing and all that, right? Does the Scoot really clarify any of that? To me, not in the immediate. That might be more valuable moving forward, but not if you're talking about winning the most games this year. I asked a friend this, that friend happens to be my wife. And I said, what do you think about this?

6:20And her choice was she's not going to listen on the Y. I'm giving her credit, but we'll just stick with friends. A friend and their pitch was that Donovan Klingin would be like it from Klingin moving from a role playing starter to a high end starter because that reliable high level big would unlock so much more for other players and also just like in terms of clarifying like, okay, this dude is going to be, you know, he's 23. This dude's going to be good for a long time. You've got, you know, one of the 10 best players, one of the 10 best centers in the league, you got bankable 10, you know, top 10 center in the league and that Klingin leveling up really matters. That's a good pitch. Might get more credit if you listened, but in any case, for me though, I went with Denny because if Denny levels up from all star to star, the taxonomy that I kind of hemmed in Hadoi, I had to, you know, at the beginning of this segment, that is the most impactful

7:21for the upcoming single upcoming season because the most important thing like top and talent is how you win in league. It's still really, really, really matters. Certainly depth matters. I think it's clear that's particularly to get where you want to go, but to win, to win at higher levels. You know, I guess there is some, there is some debate here, I guess, which is why I think Klingin is a pretty good pitch. The highest number of wins, right? Because you're going to win more games probably during the 82 game stretch, then during the 10 week playoff stretch, when the maximum number of games you could win is 16. But I do think the biggest, like I said, the market inefficiency, the hardest thing to find in the league is like stars, bankable stars. Not, you know, all stars are hard enough to find, but like guys who are above that who are an all star every year and are like comfortably, you know, I don't think Denny's, for me, he's not at the level where he's going to send to one of the five best players in the league. But if he was comfortably one of in that range from, you know, seven to 18, because I think

8:25there's a lot of guys who could, who could, you could make a strong case in that sort of, like one of the top 20 players in the league and on any given night they can rise up to here. I was kind of thinking like what Jason Tatum has been sort of over the last, not, you know, pre-endery. We're like close, darn close to one of the five best players in the league, but like very comfortably the ninth best player. And you know, no worse than not, he's like in the top 10 and debatably in the top five for a long stretch. And I think something like that ascension for Denny is the thing that changes the, is the biggest single impact on the Blazers is that a bankable star. I don't think it's totally out of the question that Denny gets there, but that, that it is harder to rise from role player to starter to high end starter. Like those are in smaller jumps than from high end starter to all star and from all star to beyond those of that, those at the top tier, it is a, it is a small group. And as you climb the pyramid, there is certainly less room for the rest of the folks.

9:27So to me, Rick, good question. I like this. If you have an idea for, I guess like the parameters of this question are that one player ascends to the next rank, every other player remains stagnant. So you assume that no one, you know, they might get better, but they don't rise above their, their current station. And I think the most impactful player rise in their station would be a young Denny of you. Okay, I got more questions settling a beef between two friends in the second segment. We will do that there. And so about trading Shadensharp, join me on the other side. The problem of finding clothes that you can live it all day, be comfortable and do whatever you need to do, whether it's just chilling, going to meetings, playing golf, being on the move, that problem has been solved by Kozirth. The everyday polo is the answer. It's lightweight, built to move with you, just easy to wear wherever I've got it on right

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11:35Call 1-8-334-Wigovie or visit Wigovie.com to view the Medication Guide and to learn more about Wigovie. Why wait? We go need! All right! Thanks for making the show your first listen. Live an holiday life style. Go to the Locked On every day or club. Five bucks a month gets you access to the ad free audio of this podcast. So it's Locked On Blazers without the interruptions. Plus you get to join the members of the Discord, a community of Blazer fans where you can shout it up with me and your fellow Blazer fans. And as we get into the season, there's going to be a whole lot of fun stuff to talk about. It's a great community. Come join locksonblazers.supercast.com. The link is in the show notes to learn more. Let's keep it rolling with our mail bag. This question comes from, this is an interesting way to stylize an email. The question was, the email was signed by initials, the initials JMP. But then in that email, JMP mentioned a friend by their first name.

12:41So we're going to call, we're going to do it how the email works. Sorry, friend David, if you do not want to be named in the pod, but it's too late, blame JMP. Whose name is also in the email address, but I guess I'm trying to be respectful with the way things were crafted in the beautiful email. Locked on Blazer's pod at gmail.com. If you want to email me a future question, will I do a mail bag again this season? Probably one or so, but no, that's... I like getting emails. I love going back and forth with fans. It is a really good way to clarify where my thoughts are and where, you know, and where your thoughts are if you're a fan of the team, right? And you listen to the show. But I think it's better to inform the way the show is built as opposed to true mail bag. Whatever, true mail bag. Here we go. This question comes from JMP, lightly edited from a much longer email. But this is the core paragraph. He mentioned in the show last week that Chae and Sharp has more utility than just trade

13:42salary. But I still think or thought that coming into the season, he made the most sense as the trailblazers, easiest trade piece for several reasons. I'm going to come in to the lettering here. He lists the reasons, but they kind of boil down to age, salary, and positional overlap. JMP continues. But my friend, David, to you, David, my friend David says, sharp is untradable due to his current injury status. Who is right? The question goes on to say like, do I need to sort of retire trade machine or the blazer's going to make a trade out? Let's stick with the Chae and Sharp stuff. I think the framing of this is generally correct. Coming into the season, Chae and Sharp did make a lot of sense as a trailblazer's trade piece because of his salary was, you know, he's starting a four year, $90 million contract. It is not a super onerous deal. It is a long term money.

14:43And I think in general teams don't like trading for that many years left on a contract. But Sharp is young and you're buying perhaps some of the best years of basketball he will play and you're buying some upside and you're buying with that trade. You know, he, if he hits, he can outperform that contract pretty readily. And if he doesn't, then it's not such an awful contract that it will burn you. But if, if Sharp is like not particularly good, that, that contract is low in starter money, you know, roughly. And if he's not that, if he's below that level, then that does hurt. And in the, this current era of the league, it's always been a problem. No matter what era of the league to have bad money on the books, it is, it is more so now. It can be, it can be worse now because just the nature of punitive rules for having expensive rosters and the way salaries have grown and the cap salary cap has not grown with it.

15:45If you get an 8% raise in your salary, but the salary cap only goes up by 6%. You're, you know, you're outpacing your contract is outpacing the growth of the cap. So I think that is a big sort of that's probably a bigger deal than the second apron stuff. But people like to blame the second apron stuff. So we'll do that anyways. But I do think Sharp at his money was easier to make bigger trades work because, you know, he get that 20 million range quickly. He's young. So we'd have appealed to other teams and the blazers as, as JMP mentioned, do have position to overlap there. So like you can say, okay, well, if they're going to commit to job moving forward and they're going to commit to scoot Henderson moving forward and Denny's going to have be like a ball on his hand guard on offense. Then having another that type of player who's like, and who's not a great shooter, like maybe that's maybe that isn't the way you want to go, right? Or, you know, not to mention, Damien Lodz existence and Drew Halldeague, etc. Because they're a little bit older and a difference. Maybe a different timeline. Certainly in the life of Shane Sharp's contract, they don't expect both Damien and Drew

16:47to be on the roster. And I think Sharp is more tradable or was more tradable in general than Scoot Henderson, if you're just talking about which blazers sort of young guard with age general, general trade appeal and positional overlap, would you look to move? Because with Scoot, you have, you are trading for the right to pay him. You are not. It's not like because he's hitting, going to hit restricted free agency, basically what teams are trading for is the right to give him his next contract. Now, that might have some appeal because you can squeeze him in restricted free agency and maybe get him on the low and all these things because you really don't have any wiggle room as a restricted free agent. But Sharp is in some ways is already baked in. And I think both it makes the initial trade a little bit easier. And it also because he makes, I think like, seven or eight million more bucks than Scoot to make salary matching work for veteran players. And because you have some certainty of what that next contract will look like and some sharp has been more productive than Scoot Henderson.

17:50I think Scoot has maybe more, like I said in the past, more outs, like he has more ways to be a positive player than I think Sharp does, but undeniably Sharp has been more productive in the pros. So I don't think it's exactly, to me, it's probably not Scoot. But getting to the meat of this question is he untradable with the injury? Probably, yeah, probably. Going off the year he did, he probably doesn't have, he doesn't, he doesn't have the buzz, right? And like, you can tell he doesn't have the buzz because look how the blades just built the roster and exactly build a roster that says, well, Shaden has to play. Like we got to figure out a way to get Shaden Sharp on the court. Just not what they did. They didn't build a roster that demands that, right? They built a roster where Sharp was going to play like 17 to 22 minutes off the bench or something like that. So even as incumbent team didn't, didn't make him a, like a strong priority, right? So he, he wasn't, he wasn't, he's so appealing coming into the season that other teams were

18:53going to be able to bend over backwards to make a deal for him, right? I think it's pretty clear that Shaden Sharp doesn't have like star upside, but again, like, scored 20 points a game in the league last year. There's like some productivity there that God has, should appeal to teams and the youth and the athleticism and all those things. But I do think with an injury that will keep him out for at least six months and potentially longer, we don't know, but like he's supposed to, the wording from the Blazers, although I think in general, believing them, believing the specifics of any of the Blazers press releases of regarding injuries is maybe a fool's errand. But what it said was he'll be reevaluated in six months. That puts him out until about the all-star break. That would also be, you know, probably post, it will be post-trade deadline before he plays, assuming that that timeline is correct. So what like, can you trade for someone without knowing what his knee is like coming off the season that in post season that he had and the money that you would have to pay him? It's like, I just don't think he has the appeal.

19:55So while I do think in general, in September, put the trade machine away for the love of all that is holy, we packed that thing up and busted out in December. And then go nuts. But like, there isn't a realistic window for a likely trade. Certainly anything's possible. I'm not ruling out anything weird in the league, but it's realistically trades aren't going to happen until the calendar flips in January and February. So we will have more clear. So first of all, put the trade machine away anyways, JMP. But I think this dream, where it was like sharp is the puzzle piece that kind of unlocks at all, is for now at least needs to be dormant. And then you can see if that volcano in your little trade machine loving heart begins rumbling again in, let's say, December 20th, the week of Christmas, give yourself a little

20:58early gift. But yeah, I think I think a settle the beef. I think David named in the email is correct. And JMP is largely incorrect. I think Shane Sharp is probably untradable for the year, but he's at least, it's at least has to be dormant for, has we retired at least for a few months, call it four, three and some James three, we'll call it three and a half months, three and a half month hiatus on smashing buttons in the trade machine because they're going to play basketball soon. And ostensibly, that is the point of being a fan of a basketball team. Let's talk about the Blazers adding a sharp shooter to their training camp roster. Young Jung Lee come on down, join me in that third segment, we will talk all about it. Just though I want to tell you that today's program comes from oh, do running a business

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23:09You show up for your team. Now it's your time. Ask your prescriber about We GoVie, some maglatide injection 2.4 milligrams, a G.O.P. 1. Call 1-8-334 We GoVie or visit We GoVie.com to view the Medication Guide and to learn more about We GoVie. Why wait? We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! We GoVie! Still a pass for his point card. I'm still Mike Richmond, still a little bit locked on place. Trailblazers, according to variety of sources, including the Nagasaki Squad and the Japanese League that released a press release that said, Young Jung Lee has signed a contract according to a popular web browser translation tools that I used. Young Jung Lee signed a training camp contract with your Portland Trailblazers.

24:15Who is Young Jung Lee? Hung Jung Lee? Well, almost soon to be 26 year old, to turn 26 right when the NBA season starts, who played college ball at Davidson and has bounced around in the Australian League as well as in the Japanese League over the last few seasons. He went to high school in Korea. He's Korean, plays with Korean national team. He also went to a little bit of high school in Australia as well. He played at Davidson for three seasons. He could really get buckets in the Atlantic 10. He was a first team all A10 player as a junior. His sophomore season at Davidson, he had a 50-40-90 season. That's 50% from the field, 40% from 3-90% from the free throw line. He was a mark of hyper-efficient scores. So he left after his junior year.

25:16He's a COVID kid. He could have played as far as I can tell, like 17 consecutive seasons in college. But he didn't even use his five and then appeal to play seven and then appeal to play nine and then appeal to play 11. Like so many kids, his exact high school graduating class would have. But he decided to go pro after three years. He was really rare for someone of his status. He was projected as a second round pick coming out of the draft, maybe with some upside to go a little bit higher. But he got hurt. He hurt his foot during the pre-draft process, like right heading into the NBA combine. And so he would have at least had a chance to raise his stock there. But instead, he missed several months and ended up missing almost eight months from the injury until signing with the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League that spring or that winter in 2023. So he, you know, his sort of NBA dreams were dashed before they got started just a poorly timed injury, unfortunate injury. Then after his G League stand with the Warriors, he played a couple seasons of Pro Basketball

26:20in the NBL. That's Australia's NBL for the Iluar Hawks, famously once employed in the Lamellable. Then during one of those seasons, he played professionally in Japan in the Japanese league for Osaka Vasa. So the way that the NBL and the Japanese league works, you can play both seasons, kind of just play a little bit of year round basketball following his two years with the Iluar Hawks. So he was on the Blizzard Summer League team, played very briefly in 2025, played in two games. He actually left early from Vegas because he clearly had another job, that other job, playing for Nagasaki in the Japanese league, spent this past last basketball season playing with Nagasaki. And then this summer, he played for the Spurs Summer League team. And according to the couple of green outlets, again, including an official press release by his team, Nagasaki said very specifically signed an exhibit 10 deal. Then his contract has expired in Japan in the B League. So he assigned an exhibit 10 deal with the Trailblazers. Lee is a 610 shooter. Like I was aware of him at Davidson as just like an entity and watching his highlights

27:25before press record on this bad boy, dude shoots not a lot of off the dribble game, but he's, but he's NBA size at 667 to 10 and can really shoot the ball. And I think that's, that's what you're getting with an exhibit 10 deal is like a true training camp contract. It is basically a preferred G league contract. You get, you can be given more guaranteed money and a larger, a larger salary initially to join the team's a G league affiliate if you get caught. You'll get waived at the end of the training camp and signed by the G league team. It's, it's sort of the typical path for this time of year. In general, like could the Blazers use a 6, 7 dude who could shoot it? Yes, probably. Like, I think that like can play a little bit of small forward and can really shoot the ball. Seems like a player they could use. I'm not sure from, you know, highlights scouting that, that Lee is enough of a defensive player.

28:26And I watched some possessions and Vegas. And it's like a friend this summer. And it's not like he really stood out like kind of like getting beat to the rim by Yaxx, a landing board. It's like, I don't know. Is that a meaningful one off highlight? I don't know. But like, I think that's for me, that's the question. It's like, can you defend and league because if you can't, if you can't really defend and he's a specialist and specialists are hard to fit in unless you can really shoot it. And if you can really shoot it, you have a spot on the end of the bench. The problem is the Blazers don't really have roster spots. They've got 15 spots spoken for, assuming that Jeremy Sohan makes the team, which I believe he will because I think they need that positional size. Again, the defense, the ability to play like a little bit of power forward, a little bit of a small ball center. I think so hand well, he's like probably not going to be part of the regular rotation. Certainly is adds some utility in a spot that they don't otherwise have on the roster. And the Blazers don't have any two way spots to be had. Those spots are held by Jason Kent, Chris Youngblood and signed the summer John Tonjay.

29:27Tonjay is similar, I guess, a little smaller, but similarly in terms of like this dude can score, but what else does he bring? Tonjay has a little, you know, more NBA experience because he certainly played actual minutes in the NBA and spent time as a two way guy. So I think, you know, he's probably got a leg up. I will say two way contracts are non guaranteed. They are, they don't count against Saurikap. They're very fickle from the players perspective and you can kind of just churn through them. So certainly the Blazers, if they like Lee could, could keep, could keep him, but there is not an obvious spot for him. I think the most likely scenario is like with almost everyone that signs an exhibit 10 deal this time of year that the Blazers are going to keep him in their system, right? They're going to push him through to the G league. They're going to keep him in their developmental program and if either, you know, either they get a close look at him and get to continue to scout him, obviously liked him if they had him on the summer league team before, or you know, if there is a spot or if they decide to move off one of the one of the two way guys in the future say, okay, hey, we got a look

30:27at you, but we're going to we're going to go another direction. They've got at least a preferred fill in on the back half of, you know, on the back half of the season waiting in the wings within their developmental system and they get him in their building. The daily team literally practices at the Blazers practice facility like you get, you know, there's some there's some value for the team in terms of getting close eyes on him. That's going to do it for today's show. Come back for Friday's program as well. That's that will be Friday's show. The end of summer here at Lockdown Blazers. We've been doing three days a week Monday, Wednesday and Friday for all of August in these first couple weeks of September. Coming back Monday. We're back five days a week where we get podcasts also on YouTube. Tell your friends about the show. Tell them Lockdown Blazers is back and we are rolling along. Tell them to come get us where they already get us. Where are they get podcasts? Whatever podcast app they're to use. It's also on YouTube. Come join the gang. Let's go.

31:28The season is here. I'm excited. I hope you are too. First check out Friday's program and then get ready. Strap on your seat belts because the ride is a comment. And we're not going to stop. And don't break in August of 2027. And even then we still are turning out three a week. So what we do, Lockdown Blazers, I appreciate you listening. Tell your friends all the good news. I will talk to you soon. It's Halloween time at the Disneyland resort and many. It's begun to brew up the lights and spine tingling fun. Halloween time August 21st through October 31st. Visit Disneyland.com or contact your travel advisor for important details. Thank you for making Lockdown your first listen every day.

32:29For your second listen, find the Lockdown NBA podcast where there's no off season. West Matt and Hayes keep you up to date on contract negotiations, rumors and everything you need to be the most informed NBA fan. Find Lockdown NBA on YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts. Part of the Lockdown podcast network, your team every day.