Craig Birnbach has an NCAA championship ring.

Now he wants some bigger hardware [kidding, sorta].

On the latest episode of the Blazer Focused podcast, Aaron Fentress is joined by one of the newest members of the Trail Blazers broadcasting team. Craig Birnbach is no stranger to anyone who has been around the NBA or sports media in the past decade and change. Birnbach worked at KATU-TV as a sports broadcaster for 12 years and has now joined the Trail Blazers broadcasting team.

On this episode, Aaron and Craig discussed:

·     Craig’s career path, and basketball bonafides

·     The state of the Blazers right now

·     Ant and Nas

·     Pumping the breaks on the concern wagon

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The Portland Trail Blazers have been up front so far that the season would likely include some up and downs as the team adjusted to a new coach, a new defensive system and tweaks on the offensive side.

That’s been true to form.

On this week’s episode of the Blazer Focused podcast, Aaron Fentress and Andrew Theen discuss the first four games of the season and snap takeaways from the 2-2 split.

Here are some highlights from this week’s show:

- Dame’s struggles and CJ’s brilliance

- Anfernee breaking out, Nassir’s strong start

- Nurk’s up and down start

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The NBA season kicks off Oct. 20 and there is drama galore: Ben Simmons, Kyrie Irving, more super teams.

On the latest episode of Blazer Focused, Aaron Fentress is joined by colleague Aron Yohannes (a Milwaukee Bucks superfan) to discuss the storylines ahead.

They discussed the Blazers' ceiling with a new coach and some new pieces and storylines across the Association.

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The Portland Trail Blazers held their media day this week, and all the talking points were strong. This is a team focused on defense, where roles will be accepted and leaders will be held responsible.

On the latest episode of Blazer Focused, beat writer Aaron Fentress is joined by Joe Freeman to discuss what to make of media day, training camp and the storylines to come.

They hit on Larry Nance Jr., accountability, Dame's strongest statements yet that he's still all in on Rip City, CJ's maturity and understanding of the business vis a vis trade talk and much more.

[Disclaimer: We had a technical error. You'll hear Fentress coming through Freeman's track when there's cross-talk. Apologies for the error, but the conversation is great!]

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Basketball time is nearly here!

On the latest episode of the Blazer Focused podcast, Aaron Fentress and Andrew Theen discuss some of the key storylines surrounding the team as it approaches training camp, the first preseason game and media day.

They discussed Norman Powell, Jusuf Nurkic, the offensive adjustments, taking better threes and that pesky defense.

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It's officially the Dog Days of Summer, but there's still plenty to talk about when it comes to the Portland Trail Blazers.

On the latest episode of the Blazer Focused podcast, Aaron Fentress and Andrew Theen discuss the every-swirling Ben Simmons trade rumors given his recent comments about training camp. They also discussed the Larry Nance Jr. trade, Dame's wedding, CJ's exciting baby news and much more.

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On the latest episode of the Blazer Focused podcast, beat writer Aaron Fentress is joined by podcasts editor Andrew Theen. They discussed Aaron's recent pieces examining Chauncey Billups' coaching philosophy as he sees it and Norman Powell's decision to return to Portland and why he feels so comfortable here.

We also discussed Cody Zeller's potential impact and what Billups likes about him, how the offense could be tweaked to increase ball movement and the defensive changes to come.

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