Blazer's Edge

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 Cae

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!  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 t

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 oth

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 fo

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 Wome

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 pic

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. Follow us on Twitter: @Blazersedge, @dmarang, @tcbbiggs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Tara and Cassidy talked to Diana Allen from SLCDunk.com to learn more about Rodney Hood and then they talked to China Parmalee from Knicks blog, PostingAndToasting.com, and Rebecca Lawson from MavsMoneyBall.com to hear from both sides of the big Kristaps Porzingis trade that went down last week. Find us on twitter: @hoopsandtalks, @tcbbiggs, @CassidyGemmett, @dianaallen, @Chinqua, @beccaaftersixEmail us: hoopsandtalks@gmail.com COFFEE TALKA blend with mad hops like Jake Layman: Ethiopia Bombe from Dapper and Wise, has hints of an orange creamsicle and caramel candy with a prominent hops flavor. Music used in the episode: "Happy Alley" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License Help send kids to a Blazers game, buy tickets for Blazers Edge night Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang take a look at the Blazers since adding Rodney Hood, what's new, what's different, what could things possible look like going forward? After that it's a look back at the 4th quarter meltdown in Dallas? What happened- was Luka Doncic too much? Then it's time to whip around the league to review the deals made or not made and where that leaves teams in the pecking order- are there any new threats to the crown? How about in the Western Conference? All that and more on this week's episode! Intro :55   Opening Comments 1:30 Burn the tape and move on 3:00 What was going on there (Dallas getting to the rim)? 6:00 Was Dame going nuclear in the 3rd quarter a good thing? 7:50 I don't think that game is indicative of where they are -Tara 10:00 How much of it has to do with the deadline and adding in new players? 10:20 If I gave you these names could you get 50% of them? 12:30 There is not an argument to be made, Hood is better offensiv

On this episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang go through the ins-and-outs of the Rodney Hood trade, look to future - are the Blazers done? What could Portland do between now and the deadline, what they hope Portland will do and what will most likely happen as they read the tea leaves. Beyond that they discuss why Nikola Mirotic is not the answer for the next move, Damian Lillard landing as a surefire all-star, Blazer's struggles in all-star events not named the Skills Contest, Puppy Bowl > Kitten Bowl and more!1:00 Danny wanted to talk about Titanic but the Blazers made a trade! 1:20 Nik Stauskas and Wade Baldwin for Rodney Hood. 2:15 Is Hood a shooting guard or a small forward? 3:15 Nik saying goodbye was sad. 3:40 Dan is a jerk to everyone who lives in Cleveland. 4:30 Get to know Rodney Hood 5:41 Drafted by Utah 3.5 seasons. Injured as a rookie. 7:01 Difference between his Utah stint and his Cleveland stint. 7:40 He will probably play the 3 and hopefully do everything H

1:39 Journey from blogspot blog to Blazers Edge 3:36 How did you explain to people what blogging is?? 4:54 What was it like when you went from making all of your own stuff to doing stuff with OregonLive? 6:26 The old days of forums on OregonLive 8:45 Transition from Oregonian to Trail Blazers. Right after Oden draft. The Trail Blazers were going to be good and they wanted to really dive into digital content. 11:30 Imatrailblazersfan.com and other innovations by the Blazers. 12:40 Blazers were ready for social media. 16:00 the case for letting guys fight. 16:15 Team Mom was ready to punch Greyson Allen. 18:15 Utah game and Meyers Leonard stepping up! 19:45 This was the Meyers Leonard everyone has been wating for . 21:55 Dame and Meyers played some of their best pick and roll coverage. Meyers and Dame's defense was impressive. 22:58 Zach Collins was robbed of a block. 23:40 should Seth have grabbed Damian's rebound? 24:20 What change did Terry Stotts make defensively from the first two Utah games t

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast, Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang take a look at the Blazer's recent run of play, Jusuf Nurkic against top competition, CJ McCollum possibly rounding into form, the never ending Jake Layman v Moe Harkless debate, trade rumors that do and don't matter and more!1:44 How Did the Blazers play against two strong centers? Rudy Gobert? 3:00 It was nice to see Nurkic really get after Gobert and the Jazz 4:19 In almost every game you can poinpoint the moment Nurkic "engages" 6:06 Nurkic had a 6X5 against the Jazz if you count turnovers and Fouls 8:04 How did OKC limit the ball going through Jusuf Nurkic? Steven Adams backed off him and said "go ahead and shoot" and cut off his passing lanes. 9:34 State of assists for the Portland Trail Blazers 12:39 Anything to be learned from Phoenix and Atlanta games? 13:46 Atlanta game was a good night for CJ McCollum who has been looking a lot more like himself over the last 10 games. 16:53 CJ has always been able to do a lot

This week we are checking in with folks in Phoenix and Sacramento to find out how the number one and number two draft picks are living up to expectations. First we talked to Gina Mizell of the Athletic about DeAndre Ayton, chosen first by the Phoenix Suns. What is Ayton like? How is he getting along with first time NBA head coach Igor Kokoskov? Will he and Devin Booker be a powerful force in Phoenix? Then we reconnect with Jill Adge who joined us right after the 2018 draft to tell us about how fans felt about Marvin Bagley III. The Sacramento Kings are off to one of their best starts in years and people are still mad that they didn’t pick Luka Doncic. Join us as we catch up with Gina and Jill and learn more about some of the league’s rising stars. Along the way we talk about LEGO robotics, NBA and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) We speculate about a possible Bagley and Dame Dolla collaboration, and ask how former Trail Blazers pick Harry Giles (traded along with Justin Jackson for Zach Colli

The Trail Blazers are coming off of a 2-2 week and Tara and Dan dive into what we learned from the losses and the what we can take away from the wins. How bad was it losing to Denver and Sacramento? Does having only 4 turnovers against the Cleveland Cavaliers really tell us anything? Will Jake Layman average 20 points a quarter from here on out? Will there be someone else playing alongside Nurkic if the Blazers make a move at the trade deadline? We weigh in on the Ringer’s proposed CJ McCollum-for-Aaron Gordon trade that has gotten so much buzz this week--you can guess Dan has some thoughts--and then list our choices for the All Star starters. Join us for all this and more. 1:45 Recapping the week that was. Denver and Sacramento6:10 Cleveland and New Orleans7:30 Is this the Nurkic who is going to be there in the future? 8:40 What can we take away from the League's the lowest turnover game on record?  Less bounce passes to seven footers. 12:50 Oral history of the Jake Layman experience against New Orleans16:1

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang take a look at the upcoming trade deadline and explore what Portland is possibly doing in the lead up to the midseason break. Will they be looking to add to the roster? Will they opt to fall inside the luxury tax and make moves on the periphery? Why would Jeremy Lin's name pop up out of nowhere? Beyond that, they take a look at the past week of very business-like basketball where Portland went 4-1 on a 5 game home-stand, Nurkic v Jokic, what we know now about this team that we didn't to start the season and more! Intro Opening Comments 2:00 Taking care of business 5:00 Tara doesn't like to call teams good or bad 6:30 Reviewing the Blazers-Nuggets game 7:45 Jusuf Nurkic v Nikola Jokic 9:00 Why you don't double-team Jokic 10:30 Thoughts after Denver game 12:00 Tara doesn't like Jokic because there's no flash... is she wrong? 15:00 What do we know now about this team that we didn't know to start the season? 19:00 They ran a pos

The Trail Blazers have reached the halfway point in their season and the NBA is weirder than ever. Tara and Cassidy take a look at the last three Blazers games, wonder if Jake Layman should get a starting role and if Noah Vonleh would still be making an impact in Portland. Then we turn to the big question: can NBA players be friends? And how do friendships unite fans? We spoke to some superfans who have bonded over their love of the Trail Blazers even though they are 67 years apart in age! We had a wonderful time talking to Arinze and Charlene McGee and Soosie of The Golden Girls Who Love the Portland Trail Blazers. 1:30 Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets, a rare home and home back to back: what did we learn?6:00 More Jake? Moe Fun? What to do with the Jake Layman Maurice Harkless debate?10:30 Basketball is full of hard decisions.12:00 An easy decision, firing Tom Thibodeau. Players don’t need to be yelled at. 13:00 If the Trail Blazers didn’t have Terry Stotts (and they couldn’t have Gregg Popovich)

On this week's episode of the Blazer's Edge podcast Tara Bowen-Biggs and Danny Marang have an off day pod to take a look at the night that was for Jusuf Nurkic, Damian Lillard's All-Star odds, the Blazers going back in time, resorting the Blazers offense, where does CJ McCollum fit in now, storylines to be left in 2018 and more! Intro Opening Comments 2:00 Lillard All-Star odds 4:00 The schedule gets "less bleak" after a brutal December 5:20 "I don't under stand how the Blazers are playing every other night" 6:20 You can run the offense through Jusuf Nurkic 8:00 Takeaways from the Nurkic 5x5 performance 9:10 How would Nurkic react without having the ball? 11:00 Nurkic picking and choosing his moments better this year 12:30 Harkless has the ability to be THAT guy nightly, that's what's frustrating 16:20 "Moe is filling that 3rd option." 17:30 "I love it when he (Aminu) brings the chaos." 20:30 "Right now I think it's best that Dame is the 1st option and then Nurkic (with the ball) as the 2nd option." 23:00 "I

After exchanging holiday baking stories, Tara and Cassidy briefly discuss Portland Trail Blazers highlights from 2018. They wonder why the can’t remember anything before last season’s playoffs and look forward to the Blazers getting through this really tough stretch. Then stay tuned for our conversation with KOIN TV sports reporter and anchor AJ McCord. She grew up an athlete, learned about sports from her mom and grandma (Go Chargers!), and has great stories about covering the Blazers including talking to Damian Lillard about the shoes he wore opening night in honor of Paul Allen, traveling to New Orleans to cover the NBA Playoffs, and how she is able to relate to the players after a big loss. 1:00 Pastry talk2:45 Why can't we remember anything that happened before the playoffs?6:30 Go vote for Damian Lillard for All Star! We'll wait. 11:00 How are we feeling about the rest of the Blazer's season.13:20 Relax everyone, LeBron is intact. 15:05 Introducing AJ McCord, sports reporter and anchor at KOIN 6. Grew