Jacked Ramsays: A Portland Trail Blazers Podcast

It’s a Jacked Ramsays Mail Bag where hosts Danny Marang and Brandon Sprague answer as many listener questions as they can in an hour. The biggest news for the Blazers, perhaps in over 20+ years dropped this week as Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweeted out that former Nike founder and CEO Phil Knight (along with real estate mogul and partial owner of the LA Dodgers, Alan Smolinisky) submitted a written bid north of $2billion for the Portland Trail Blazers. With that much of the show focused on the ins and outs of the potential deal - how Portland as an organization and city could benefit and the likelihood of it all coming together.

Beyond the major news, the Blazers continue to be linked in rumors to the Toronto Raptors’ OG Anunoby, the Phoenix Suns’ Deandre Ayton, the Atlanta Hawks’ John Collins and to the Detroit Pistons’ Jerami Grant by various outlets and reporters. With less than 3 weeks to the NBA Draft, the Blazers appear to be ramping up the noise and/or smoke around their desire to make a big move with the assets they currently have on hand.

Speaking of the Draft, after bringing in G-League Ignite’s Dyson Daniels for their first post NBA Draft combine workout. With Daniels being mocked in the region the Blazers are slotted to pick, this lines up with what General Manager Joe Cronin as stated the team will do - establishing value of the pick, which includes getting eyes on players that could be available at #7.

This also include Bennedict Mathurin of the University of Arizona, who held a private workout at the Blazer’s practice facility but also denied the request to speak with local media following said workout. While not a major problem, it does look like Mathurin’s camp is trying to protect their client at all costs leading up to the draft. No player has ever fallen in the Draft for failing to speak to local media following a closed door workout.

It’s a full hour with Marang and Sprague covering any and all the breaking news while answering the biggest questions submitted - so tap in and get watch and/or listen as the guys fill in all the blanks.

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Rafael Barlowe of NBA Draft Big Board and LockedOnNBA joins Danny Marang and Brandon Sprague to take a look what the Portland Trail Blazers are facing leading up to the NBA Draft night.

Together the trio hits on potential prospects that could be within in range for the Trail Blazers at pick #7, starting with the first high profile name attached to the Blazers by their first workout - G-League Ignite’s Dyson Daniels. Barlowe discusses Daniels’ late rise (without any games being played) from mid-lottery to early 20’s a few months ago to now being a potential top 5 pick. AJ Griffin, Keegan Murray and another dark-harse candidate in Shaedon Sharpe - and how they’d fit in Portland are all up for debate.

Assessing value to the #7 pick is something that Blazers GM Joe Cronin has said the Blazers will continue to evaluate - so, Barlowe attempts to lay out the value of the pick in this class against a few others and just how deep this draft class is.

Beyond the draft class, Danny and Brandon ask Rafael his thought on the value of the pick in trades as Portland has been linked with multiple higher end young players like OG Anunoby and Deandre Ayton in the last 2 weeks. Where would he draw the line on a return and what makes the most sense for the Blazers now and in the future?

It’s an hour plus of a deep dive into the decisions the Blazers face in a little less than 3 weeks with the Draft rapidly approaching. Tap in, follow along and submit your questions to the next mailbag show by emailing [email protected] to get your draft questions answered.

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On this edition of Jacked Ramsays Live, hosts Danny Marang and Brandon Sprague discuss the second big name the Portland Trail Blazers have been linked to nationally, OG Anunoby.

Joining Deandre Ayton, Anunoby is a player that answers a lot of questions the Blazers have been asking for years about their frontcourt - can he defend? Does he have size? Is there any semblance of offense in his game? Both players tick those boxes and while Ayton wants max money, Anunoby is on what most consider to be an incredibly valuable deal - slotting under 20m AAV.

Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report states that: “Following a standout season from Rookie of the Year Scottie Barnes, word has circulated among rival front offices that Anunoby grew dissatisfied at times with his role in Toronto, where Barnes joined Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet as the primary ball-handlers in Nick Nurse’s offense.” Which, if you’ve been following along this offseason is something that has been discussed at length.

Now, it’s gone semi-public with Fischer highlighting that a formal request from either Anunoby or his representatives (read: Klutch Sports) has not yet materialized. However, what appears to be transpiring is the Blazers are linked to and going after impact players that make sense for the now timeline and the later.

Hop on with Brandon and Danny as they work through Fischer’s reporting and see what’s next.

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Thursday evening, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that Mike Schmitz - Draft Analyst for ESPN, formerly of Draft Express, was being hired by the Portland Trail Blazers to become an Assistant GM.

Since the dismissal of Neil Olshey in December for creating a hostile working environment, multiple changes have taken place. Proceeding Olshey’s dismissal, Chris McGowan resigned his position as President while Chief Marketing Officer Dwayne Hankins was promoted internally to fill the same seat. The same was true of now GM Joe Cronin, who in Olshey’s absence stepped in as interim GM until recently being given the full time gig.

Jason Quick of The Athletic noted yesterday some additional changes the Blazers have made since mid-December.

Join hosts Danny Marang and Brandon Sprague as they took a look at recent front office moves and what that may mean for the Blazers coming up. Does Schmitz’s hiring signal a change of plans for the Draft? How will his hiring help the Blazers?

Hop on the live show and get your questions answered now!

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Danny Marang and Brandon Sprague take a look at the news, notes, rumors and more coming out of NBA Combine Week. Which teams might look to move up? Who's going first overall - Jabari Smith Jr or Chet Holmgren? Will the Saramento Kings move back? Which players may have moved into the lottery?

Zach Lowe on the Blazers possibly targeting Deandre Ayton and how using the 7th pick to trade for Jerami Grant isn't what they're looking at.

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Join Danny Marang and Brandon Sprague for the Jacked Ramsays NBA Draft Lottery, live watch party kicking off at 5 PM PST! The room will be hosted on Watch Playback’s platform where everyone will be synced up on the same feed and able to converse in real time. All you need is the login of your TV/Streaming/Cable provider to be verified and you’re good to go.

During the show they’ll be discussing, draft picks, slots, team goals for the Blazers and other franchises, which players are most likely to rise and which might fall in in the first 14 picks.

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Join Danny Marang and Brandon Sprague as they breakdown the big news of the day: Joe Cronin has been appointed the General Manager of the Portland Trail Blazers.

In entirely unrelated news, Brian Windhorst of ESPN said on the Hoop Collective podcast today that the Portland Trail Blazers might be a landing spot for Klutch Sports client and upcoming free agent of the Chicago Bulls, Zach LaVine. In order to clear such room for the Blazers to sign LaVine, they would need to renounce Anfernee Simons, Joe Ingles and Jusuf Nurkic to even have a chance of creating the necessary room.

Is there any truth to the noise or is this Klutch doing their best to shake free the best possible offers for their client? Could Portland partake in such a ploy to curry favor with the most powerful organization in the league currently?

They’ll hit on that and take a look at the NBA Draft Lottery that is less than a week away and more! Tap in and jump on the show live!

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Join Danny Marang live with special guest Ricky O’Donnell of SBNation as they take a look at the upcoming NBA Draft. Together they’ll preview Ricky’s big board - evaluating where he deviates from others, who he really believes in and who he’d rather stay away from.

Does he have a surprise #1 overall pick? Does he buy into Chet Holmgren long-term or does someone like Paolo Banchero or Jabari Smith Jr make for the safer and/or more effective play?

With the NBA Lottery less than 2 weeks away, the Trail Blazers have a 37.2% chance of jumping into the top 4 and a 9% chance of landing the number one overall pick. While it’s great to dream, the more likely scenario is that they’re picking between 6-8. With that, who in that range makes the most sense for right now and/or the future? As guard heavy as Portland is, if the best player available is guard-esque such as Jaden Ivey (unlikely to be there, but still) or Shaedon Sharpe - does Portland need to take the risk of bloating the guard position to make sure they get the most bang for their buck? Or, should the Blazers factor in Damian Lillard’s timeline and look to who’s most ready now - say perhaps Keegan Murray?

Finally, we’ll ask Ricky what he would do if he were in charge in Portland. If the pick landed Top 4 and there was an offer on the table for OG Anunoby or Deandre Ayton - would he rather have the sure thing or the rookie scale option and look more towards the future?

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Join hosts Danny Marang and Brandon Sprague on this episode of Jacked Ramsays Live. They’ll take a look at the upcoming group of free agents as the official offseason moves a step closer.

Danny and Brandon will also discuss the impact of Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets getting swept by Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics. What does that do to the landscape? Could big changes in Brooklyn cause a domino effect throughout the league that forces teams to change their offseason plans? (Like, perhaps Ben Simmons and/or Kyrie Irving being put on the trade block?)

The Trail Blazers will almost certainly have access to the full Mid-Level Exception (~$10.3m) this summer. What players and/or position groups might they look to target? Invest it all in a back up 5-man like Mo Bamba or Thomas Bryant? Target a 3⁄4 like Kyle Anderson or TJ Warren? Or maybe they split it up and focus on a younger, potential upswing player like Jalen Smith and paying a bit more than a vet minimum to outbid other teams for depth elsewhere?

While the class of free agents isn’t great, Portland is motivated to get back on track after a “gap year” situation. After losing out on the New Orleans Pelicans’ lottery pick there’s less room for error around the rest of the roster. So tap in as the guys go over and debate which way the Blazers could go with the tools at their disposal.

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Join hosts Danny Marang and Brandon Sprague live as they take on as many questions as they can in this one-hour live show!

Following the New Orleans Pelicans’ playoff berth, the Portland Trail Blazers lost a second lottery pick heading into the 2022 NBA Draft and the 2022 offseason “Great Reshaping” of the Blazers roster. Without that additional lottery pick, where do they go?

Could a deal still be done for Jerami Grant? Could the Blazers cobble together enough with the 2025 Bucks 1st round pick, a young player and Eric Bledsoe’s contract to get Grant or a player at least within range of him in contribution department?

Interim GM Joe Cronin has said that they would evaluate the value of their own lottery pick after they know its standing versus what they could use it for on the open market to acquire a player for. Obviously Grant’s name has been out there — but what about a player such as OG Anunoby shaking free in Toronto? Would a Top 6-7 lottery pick be enough to convince GM Masai Ujiri to let him go?

Toronto has a core of Fred VanVleet, Gary Trent Jr, Scottie Barnes, and Pascal Siakam alongside Anunoby and Precious Achiuwa. However, Toronto has wanted to add traditional size to their roster. There were rumors around the Portland Trail Blazers and Jusuf Nurkic multiple times over the past year. With Anunoby another player represented by Klutch Sports, could there perhaps be an alliance brewing with the mega-agency?

Tap in, submit your questions, and participate in the first of many live shows this offseason for Jacked Ramsays!

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