Greetings from Santa Barbara, where the new-look Trail Blazers are holding their 2023 training camp. Both Brooke Olzendam, she of Trail Blazers TV, and I, Casey Holdahl of Trailblazers.com, are here on California's coast to cover the fledgling days of Portland's 2023-24 season, but before turning our full attention to the future, we had to say some extended goodbyes on the latest edition of The Blazers Balcony podcast...
As you can likely surmise, this, our 98th edition, covers...
• The trade sending Damian Lillard to Milwaukee and Jusuf Nurkic, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson to Phoenix in exchange for Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, Jrue Holiday, a first round pick and multiple first round pick swaps
• The trade sending Holiday to Boston in exchange for Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams III and two first round picks
• The job that Joe Cronin and his staff did in putting the deals together despite difficult circumstances
• Anfernee Simons coming into his own
• Initial thoughts on Ayton, Brogdon, Williams III and Camara
• The departures of Lillard, Nurkic, Little and Johnson and what each brought to the Trail Blazers both professionally and personally
While we're still getting to know the new players, we had quite a bit to say about those who have moved on, so this one clocks in around twice as long as usual. But if you want to hear what two people who probably spent more time covering those who have recently been traded, especially Dame and Nurk, than anyone else in the world, give it a listen. You can even break it up into two parts if you like, your call.
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