Blazer's Edge

Queen of Rip City Brooke Olzendam and her mom, Alison, took a break from holiday festivities to chat with us. We learned that Crab Louie was invented in Spokane, that Alison was Brooke’s first AAU Coach and how close Brooke came to becoming a pharmaceutical rep (a boon for us, a bummer for the pharmaceutical industry). We also hear the story of Brooke’s 7th grade citizenship award and get a picture of her dancing around with a hairbrush.Then we turn to Blazers talk. What was it like for Alison to meet the Blazers? What is Carmelo Anthony like? Brooke explains how Melo has helped on the floor as well as bringing a breath of fresh air to the team. 1:00 Signature Holiday Dish: Crab Louie which was invented in Spokane. Also, do pretzels belong in Jello? 5:00 Introducing Alison Olzendam, Brooke’s mom, teacher and coach. She was Brooke’s AAU coach. Her coaching mantra: “You just gotta shoot”. Sports are a great place for kids to test themselves. 8:00 Brooke’s mom supported her by always being there for her. She pla

1:30 A week ago the Blazers were coming off of four losses and now they are coming off of three wins and Carmelo Anthony is Western Conference Player of the Week. Is there anything less worth getting mad about than Anthony returning to the league and getting this award? We can’t think of anything.   4:45 Will there be tribute videos this season? Or will Anthony refuse because he’s not retiring yet? 6:30 Is Melo the most famous player who ever played on the Trail Blazers?  9:15 Anthony in Portland makes them much more interesting from a national level.  14:45 Carmelo is legitimately an upgrade at power forward compared to what the other options were when Zach Collins went down.  16:00 Why do you think he was out of the league so long? He was not good in Houston but he wasn’t the reason Houston struggled so much at the beginning of the season. 20:00 What has the locker room been like since Melo joined the team? Things seem good of course winning helps, so it is hard to tell if any of that positive energy (or ho

Preview LA Clipper and Los Angeles Lakers with Sabreena Merchant (@sabreenajm) 1:00 How are the dynamic duos doing in Los Angeles? Clippers: Kawhi Leonard isn’t exactly the player he was in the playoffs. He is being load managed and getting up to speed, and fans are getting used to that. Kawhi and Paul George haven’t had much time together. They are extremely imposing defensively.  4:15 LeBron James has exceeded expectations because he’s playing defense all year and that is contagious. Anthony Davis is playing at DOPY level. 6:00 How are other teams trying to beat them? You have to hope that the Clippers have an off shooting night. Moe Harkless has been great on defense for them, willing to guard point guards. Lakers can be beat from the three point line, make LeBron be a jump shooter.  8:30 Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell have been so important to the clippers because there were here last season, Harkless has made a difference and has been promoted to the a starting spot. 11:00 On the Lakers its been Alex

Former co-host Kendyl Bennett joins the podcast to talk all things Carmelo Anthony--how do we think he is settling in? Will he continue to average 16 shots a night? How will that impact Rodney Hood’s shot opportunities? We wonder why Hassan Whiteside is so up and down and what will it take for him to reach his potential. We talk about being thankful for balance in the league and we share our thoughts about the Golden State Warriors new reality and if the San Antonio Spurs are really, truly, having a bad year.  00:45 Icebreaker from @paulnavarre “In the spirit of Melo, who against all odds has made me cheer for him and really start to like him: the player who made you change your opinion about him the most.” We talk Patrick Beverly, Carmelo Anthony, Jamal Crawford and Jusuf Nurkic.  6:15 What does everyone think of the Carmelo Anthony Experience? Kendyl: When he first came, we thought “why not?” the team needed some new life. He’s improving, he seems to have put the work in. Lillard and McCollum are going to h

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang take a look at where the Blazers are and where they need to be in the coming weeks. Along the way, they discuss the development of the young guys, whether or not Coach Stotts should be on the hot seat, expectations for the team until the New Year, salvaging the season, and more! Intro Opening comments Changing Expectations 2:00 How long can you hold on? 4:00 Can they save this season? 7:30 How has Carmelo Anthony looked? 9:30 Melo and the “Little” things 11:30 Frustrations with lineups young vs old 14:00 Front office dynamics in the NBA 19:00 Is Coach Stotts on the hot seat? 22:00 Chasing wins vs Development 25:00 Can we call Skal a young player? 31:00 What is Skal’s ceiling and/or likely scenario? 34:00 Do Skal or Anfernee Simons need to play w/more attitude? 35:30 How Collins and Skal unlock things on both sides of the floor 37:30 Why are we seeing Tolliver on the floor over Skal? 40:00 Playing Simons and Skal together 4

Maggie Hendricks of 670 The Score in Chicago joins Tara Bowen-Biggs to preview two Portland vs Chicago matchups coming this week. Highlights: 00:50 Expectations going into the season were set by the front office who said that the Bulls would be aiming for the playoffs. They don’t look like a playoff team and now they are talking about developing players.  2:00 Infighting and strange choices had been plaguing the team lately. Coach Jim Boylen said that Zach Levine made three egregious errors and pulled him.  3:00 What happened to the Player’s Committee? Isn’t Zach Levine the head of the player’s committee? It doesn’t seem to exist anymore and there is no clear plan for how they are going to fix communication. 4:20 Who is the leader of the locker room? Otto Porter Jr is the most likely candidate, even though he is pretty new. He is a respected veteran. They are such a young team and they don’t have many veterans to show them the way.  5:20 Strengths: Coby White and other players are fun to watch when they are o

Tara and Cassidy are joined by Nitz from The Daily Ding podcast to discuss the Portland Trail Blazers’ rocky start, how adding Carmelo Anthony to the team can help them out, and what other moves we would try if we were the GMs.  Highlights 00:30 Icebreaker: “What’s your ideal time to stay at an event before you leave early without telling anyone” Thanks for the question EvanSowards! 4:00 Busy week! Who is having a worse year, Golden State or the Trail Blazers?  5:45 How Carmelo chose 00.  8:30 On Carmelo Anthony not wearing number 7 and should anyone wear number 7 again? 11:30 How much should we let nostalgia keep us from moving forward?  13:45 Should the Thunder retire Kevin Durant’s number?  16:15 When Cassidy heard the Blazers had traded for Anthony she was initially mad, she has never been a fan of his, but she’s warming to the idea. Generally we’re glad he’s back in the league but mixed on how we feel about Portland being the team that he came to. He’s not going to fix the defensive issues.  20:15 Now th

On this week's Blazer's Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang are joined by Steve Dewald to take a look back over the last week and discuss: Carmelo Anthony signing, the ups and downs of momentum, what will the rotations look like, trends in wins and losses, the bright spot that is Nassir Little, how bad are things really, and much more! Intro Opening comments Steve Dewald - first reactions to Carmelo Anthony signing Melo and “ring rust” 3:00 Could/Should Melo start? 7:00 How will Nassir Little’s role/rotation shift? 10:00 Can the Blazers take advantage of Melo’s knowledge? 13:00 Why does Melo deserve anything? 17:00 The difference between between chaos and dysfunction 22:00 The Pau Gasol question 26:00 What is the best case scenario for Little right now? 28:30 Nassir Little reminiscent of Gerald Wallace 31:30 What is Little’s ceiling by the end of the year? 33:00 Could we see more lineups with Kent Bazemore and Nassir Little? 35:00 Where is CJ McCollum at right now? 38:30 Was CJ hindered by the po

Coty Davis of thedreamshake.com joined Tara to preview the Portland Trail Blazers vs Houston Rockets matchup. How has Russell Westbrook’s arrival changed the team? What are the Rockets weaknesses? Who is the leader of the team? Coty is a long-time fan of Carmelo Anthony so he also weighs in on how his arrival might impact the Trail Blazers.  1:00 How the arrival of Westbrook has changed things. The pace has really increased. The offense is now “six seconds or less”. There seems to be a new attitude. 2:00 How do they play together? They start each half together, but then they are staggered. Westbrook is getting longer rests than he ever did in OKC. James Harden is still playing a lot of minutes. He seems to run out of gas every season.  5:00 Has the duo evolved in any way? They both are really sticking to their game, they don’t seem to have evolved together yet.  6:30 What are the biggest weaknesses of the team? They struggle on defense and they are small so they are frequently out-rebounded. Their defense is

On this emergency episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang react to the news of the Trail Blazers agreeing to sign Carmelo Anthony to a non-guaranteed contract. Why would they do it? Can he actually help them? How good and/or bad can things actually get? What happens between now and the trade deadline? It's a near real time reaction to the agreed upon deal and well, just listen for yourself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week’s podcast, Tara and Cassidy talk about injuries that have plagued the Trail Blazers and the league. We discuss our own personal sports injuries and what we learned from them and the look at how injuries have increased over the past several years. We ask why they might be occurring and what could possibly be done to curtail the rising rates.  Then we take a trip around the league and make up headlines to capture all the weirdness and excitement of the first three weeks of the season.  Highlights 1:00 Icebreaker: The Blazers are headed on 6 game road trip do you have any flight routines? Must have snacks or entertainment?  4:00 Favorite moments from the Blazers in the last week or so are watching Damian Lillard score 60, Nas Little being in the floor, Anfernee Simons making things look easy, and being included in important end-of-game plays.  7:00 The injury bug has hit the Trail Blazers.  8:00 What we learned from our own sports injury stories, about love of the game and how the sports we played w

On this week’s episode of the Blazer’s Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs makes a call to the bench for the super sub and is joined by Managing Editor of Blazer’s Edge- Dave Deckard. Together they look at the first 10 games of the season, Lillard's 60-point game, evaluating role players, McCollum's shooting slump, expectations by the new calendar year and more! Intro  Opening Comments Initial Thoughts 2:00 Compared to your expectations, where is Hassan Whiteside at? 4:30 What do you think of the idea of Rodney Hood playing at the 4? 8:30 Could we see Nassir Little getting some time at 4? 10:00 How are we feeling about Kent Bazemore in the starting lineup? 13:30 Are Hezonja and Tolliver playing different roles than you thought? 17:30 Anthony Tolliver and decision making 21:00 The 3-guard lineup with Lillard, McCollum & Simons 25:50 How worried are you about McCollum’s shooting slump? 27:00 Taking a look at where McCollum fits with this group 30:00 At what point will you make a decision about this version of the t

Tara talks to Jeff Siegel of peachtreehoops.com and earlybirdrights.com (and formerly on blazersedge.com) to preview the Portland Trail Blazers upcoming game against the Atlanta Hawks. Follow him on twitter @jgsiegel, @earlybirdrights. 00:30 The Atlanta Hawks have had an up-and-down season so far. For most of the season they have had pretty good luck in opponents three point shooting but opponents are starting to shoot well from beyond the arc now. Trae Young has looked good and John Collins did too before he got suspended for 25 games. 3:00 Biggest strength of the team is Trae Young. He is one of the top passers in the league and also has good shooting streaks. They have depth and play a deep rotation but the players are not high caliber yet.  4:30 People who have length and can blitz have the most success against Trae Young. Once you get the ball out of his hands there are not too many other options.  6:30 The team did not fight the NBA about John Collins’ suspension. He will be back in December.  9:00 Kev

Jamie Goldberg of the Oregonian makes her first appearance on the Women’s Hoops And Talks Podcast. Fresh off of six years covering the Thorns and the Timbers, Goldberg is the newest NBA and Trail Blazers reporter for the Oregonian. We talk to her about what it has been like making the transition from soccer to basketball, her first impressions of the team and the players and what she is looking forward to covering on her new beat.   Highlights 00:30 Have she and Jamie Hudson worked out what we are supposed to call them?  1:00 Icebreaker: What is your self-care strategy after a tough game?  3:45 Introducing Jamie and how she became a sports writer? 5:30 What has the transition from soccer to basketball been like? What did she do to prepare?  7:00 What was the end of the soccer season like, and what was it like knowing you were going to move right into something new?  12:30 Early impressions of the team. Damian Lillard has lived up to his reputation. League mandated press time in the NBA is much more liberal th

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast- Varoon Bose of Bleacher Report and carrier of the Blazer's flag in New York city hops on with Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang to talk; Damian Lillard's MVP start to the season, the positive and the negatives of the Blazer's start to the season, will the Blazers sign a big man, should Skal Labissiere get more minutes, breaking down the last play vs the Philadelphia 76ers and more! Intro  Opening comments Varoon Bose of Bleacher Report 3:00 How to be a Blazer’s fan away from Portland 5:00 How are the Blazer’s viewed outside the market now 8:00 Through 6 games- how are you feeling about the Blazers? 11:00 Hezonja and Hood- the little things and expectations 17:30 How the new additions are impacting opponent’s game plan vs Dame 21:00 The need for Dame to bail out the Blazers in the 4th quarter 24:40 Something doesn't feel right with where McCollum is in the offense 28:00 What has Dame added to his game this season 36:00 Will Dame get enough buzz to be voted

Tara and Cassidy discuss the Trail Blazers’ first four games--how much can we learn from this start? We discuss how high our expectations were going into the season and whether or not they have been met by this small sample size.  Then we talk to Jannelle Moore from Golden State of Mind about the surprising start for the Golden State Warriors. Why does she think they are struggling? How much is the coach to blame? How will they look when the Trail Blazers play them in San Francisco next week?  Highlights 1:00 Icebreaker courtesy of twitter friend @burlicious_M: what was your favorite Halloween costume?  6:00 Historical starts for the Blazers.  10:00 Did we have high expectations or low expectations and why? 14:00 Sometimes it is hard or weird to watch this team because we were so used to the last team. 15:15 Zach Collins’ injury, how did we react? What does it mean for the team? 19:00 Coaches challenges and last two minute reports: best things ever? Terrible ideas? Or somewhere in between? 27:00 Jannelle Moor

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang take a look a the first 3 games of the Blazers season to find themes- both good and bad, points of emphasis, discuss the defensive woes from the 3-point line, how the new players are fitting in, Rodney Hood's possible emergence as that oft-discussed "3rd option," Zach Collins' shoulder injury and what Coach Stotts may do with the lineups, the next 3 upcoming games and more! Intro Opening Comments Early trends 2:00 What’s happening on defense? 3:00 Small sample size theater! 5:00 There’s good news, promise! 8:20 Do the Blazers finally have someone to count on beyond Dame & CJ? 13:00 Early impressions of Hassan Whiteside 16:30 Whiteside needing to step out of the paint defensively 21:00 How has Collins looked…before the injury 22:00 How will Stotts deal with Collins’ injury 28:00 First thoughts on Hezonja? 31:00 Could Hezonja start in Collins’ place? 34:00 The Kenergizer Bunny makes his appearance 37:00 CJ McCollum finds his

Join Tara, Cassidy and Blazers Edge editor Lindsay as they predict which Portland Trail Blazers will stand out amongst their teammates? Who will be the sixth man of the year for the Blazers? Will it be someone who brings energy off the bench, or someone whose technical proficiency means he’s reliable? Who will be most improved? A young player who finally gets the opportunity or an older vet whose improvement impacts winning the most?  We wonder who is going to contribute big time in the community the season, who will replace Evan Turner as class clown, and who will impress with his fashion sense? From Anfernee Simons to Zach Collins, we discuss how we think players will contribute this season. Then we play “First to 50” in which we predict who will be first to reach 50 in various box score stats.  Highlights 1:00 Made up headlines from opening night.  4:00 Award Predictions. 5:00 Who will be the 6th man for the Blazers? 11:00 Most improved player? 15:30 Defensive player of the year? 19:00 Community Assist awa

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast- Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang are joined by Isaiah De Los Santos and Nate Mann to discuss who the breakout player could be for the Trail Blazers, injury worries in the frontcourt, previewing the first three games of the season and more! Intro 1:30 Getting regular season ready 3:50 How worried should people be about the ankles of Portland big men? 5:00 Skal? SKAL! 10:00 Jusuf Nurkic signs with Klutch Sports  13:00 Impact on CBA with issues in China 14:30 International growth of the game 16:30 Nurkic’s commercial opportunities 18:00 Fantasy Draft update! 18:50 Who’s going to have a breakout year? 19:10 Nate Mann takes Zach Collins 22:30 Blazers are the midrange maestros 27:45 Isaiah De Los Santos takes Rodney Hood 28:30 Hood and a full summer with the team 31:00 Hood should be the best scorer Portland has had at the 3 in a while 37:20 Hood has opportunities and a place in the pecking order 40:00 Danny Marang takes Anfernee Simons 43:00 Where will Simons

As Rip City prepares for the start of the new season, we welcome Trail Blazers’ sideline reporter Brooke Olzendam to the WHAT podcast to get us all caught up on what is happening with the team. She’s been getting to know the new players over the past few weeks and gives us her impressions so far: Whiteside’s humor, Tolliver’s smarts, Hezonja’s intensity, and Bazemore’s joy. Along the way we get a story about the Goonies house in Astoria, and update on Jusuf Nurkic, and two new songs to add to the 2020 Trail Blazers Playlist.  Highlights 1:00 Icebreaker: Weekend getaway suggestions for new team members? 5:30 Impressions of the new players. Very cohesive, they were eager to get started. Kent Bazemore is shooting well. They like the coaching staff and the freedom to play to their strengths.  7:30 Getting to know brand new players, how does she figure out the best way to cover them, make them comfortable and open? 9:30 Did anyone surprise you now that you are getting to know them? Hassan Whiteside is really funny