MAILBAG: Would the Trail Blazers Trade Down in the Draft?
Plus questions on the future of ROOT Sports, WNBA expansion, Kris Murray vs. Jabari Walker and more.
Here’s the reality of covering a team as early in a rebuild as the Trail Blazers are: this time of year, and the next three months, hold more intrigue than time of the year when games are going on.
As I told you at the end of the season, this was a tough year for holding interest and subscribers. I expected as much. The team wasn’t very good, the games weren’t very accessible on TV (which we’ll cover below), and when those two things combine, people check out. I probably would too if I was in a different line of work and just watching these games for fun.
Overall, since the start of the season, I essentially held even when it comes to subscribers coming on board and dropping off, which I consider a win given the circumstances.
Since the end of the season, it’s been a different story. Starting with exit interviews two weeks ago, and continuing as we’ve pivoted into offseason lookahead coverage, I’ve had a good number of new subscribers come on board. When everyone knows their favorite team is going to be bad in the present, they become more interest in the future, which is full of possibilities, realistic and not.
For those of you that are brand-new, welcome. We do these mailbags roughly once a month, whenever it makes sense in the NBA calendar. It’s a good way to cover a variety of different topics at once and tailor my coverage directly to the things that you, the paying customer, are interested in.
And for those of you that haven’t come on board as paid subscribers yet, now would be a great time to consider it. Draft and offseason coverage is beginning to ramp up between now and late June, and a lot of that content is going to be behind the paywall. This is one of the busiest times of year, but also one of the most expensive times for me. I have two important trips coming up—to Chicago in two weeks for the lottery and predraft combine, and to Las Vegas for Summer League in early July. Being independent means having to pay for that travel myself, which is completely worth doing for me to bring you the best coverage of the Blazers that you’ll get anywhere. But it’s not cheap, and your support is what keeps me going.
Further proving my point that this is the busiest time of year: I put out a call for mailbag questions on Thursday morning and had to disable comments after less than a day because you already gave me enough for two parts.
Today’s installment covers a wide range of topics including the Blazers’ draft strategy, where things stand with ROOT Sports and the Portland WNBA expansion effort. Part two will run tomorrow and get into Anfernee Simons’ future and some other offseason roster topics.
Hey Sean, thanks for the great coverage this season. My question is sort of centered around the draft but is course still somewhat contingent on where they land in the lottery. Because this draft has been well documented as a less top end talent heavy draft, do you think the front office is vetting moving off their top pick for a proven commodity (assuming it lands anywhere but #1) and still selecting for best fit and taking a flyer on a guy at 14?
- Shane L.