In today's episode, Michael and Rohan open up the mailbag and wonder if the Trail Blazers are better than everybody thinks they'll be, discuss which team would be the best if every player on it were in their prime, debate Trae Young vs. Bradley Beal, and rank the NBA's current rebuilds.
The following transcript is an excerpt from the Open Floor podcast. Listen to the full episode on podcast players everywhere or on SI.com.
Michael Pina: Are we under rating or undervaluing or sleeping on the Portland Trail Blazers? The narrative is just very negative, I feel because of the trade rumors—there was the offseason debacle with their head coach search. But you look at this roster, you dig into some of the lineup data from last season, particularly after they got Norman Powell. And it's like this team was good and they have Dame. And if Dame's committed, if C.J. is healthy, if everybody's healthy, they can be really good.
Rohan Nadkarni: I think the issue with the Blazers are known. We know that they can be pretty good every year. I think the issue is we know what their ceiling is, which is that they are just one of those teams that need things to break right for them to have a deep playoff run. You know, the year they went to the Western Conference Finals, they just kind of had the bracket fall in their favor. And I still think that's their high or most ceiling, is to make it to the final round in the West. I don't think they're going to make it to the Finals with their current core.
Find recent episodes on SI.com. Join the Open Floor Globe fan community on Slack.
