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Trail Blazers president of basketball operations joined the November 29 edition of CBS Sports' 'The Flagrant Two' podcast with Bill Reiter and Reid Forgrave. Among other topics, Olshey discusses his career evolution to becoming a general manager in the NBA, the impact former Trail Blazers' coach Mike Dunleavy had on his life, the challenges and opportunities that come with managing a roster in Portland, the mentalities of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum and scouting for future prospects.

Listen to the full hour-long episode below. 

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AUDIO: Olshey Joins 'The Flagrant Two' Podcast

Enter the 2017-18 season, perhaps the biggest question concerning the Portland Trail Blazers was replacing Allen Crabbe's 44.4% shooting from three-point range -- the second-best mark in the NBA last season. Following Crabbe's trade to Brooklyn in the summer, third-year guard Pat Connaughton has risen to the occasion in replacing Crabbe in the Blazer rotation. 

Highlighted by a career-high 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting and 4-of-7 shooting from deep, Portland hasn't missed a beat with Connaughton in his new role. The 24-year-old out of Notre Dame is averaging 7.6 points per game on 44.1% shooting from the field and 42.5% from three-point land. Connaughton has caught attention from around NBA media, earning the distinction of 'Six Players Showing Major Progress' from The Ringer. 

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The Ringer: Connaughton One Of 'Six NBA Players Showing Major Progress'

Peaking this week at No. 4 on the Bilboard Hot 100 with what the magazine calls 'the biggest rock crossover hit in five years' in the single 'Feel It Still,' Portland's Portugal. The Man is high on top of the music world right now. 

Bass player Zach Carothers and lead singer John Gourley on the band's Blazer fandom: 

"You have to be [a Trail Blazers fan], man—we're from Alaska, and so we never had our own pro team in the city that we lived in, so we were, like, Mariners/Seahawks fans... I was more into hockey and never really got into basketball until we moved to Portland. One of our old members was just a crazy Blazers fan, and when they made the playoffs, he was like 'Come watch a game!' And it was like, 'Oh s***.' Instantly I was into it. It was so much fun... The community in Portland is just so awesome. I remember being in some terrible bar with a really low tiled ceiling when Brandon Roy made that last-minute, game-winning shot. People started jumping up and down; beer was going everywhere. Those ceiling tiles were all knocked out. The place was electric." -- Carothers

"That was one of my favorite times, because it was like before we had smartphones in the van. So we'd listen to the Blazers games on AM radio." -- Gourley

"I feel like it's the same as every year. It doesn't matter how they do, we're gonna love it anyway. Everybody still goes to games." -- Carothers

On a potential collaboration with Dame D.O.L.L.A.: 

"He won't call me back—I like anything Lillard does." -- Carothers

"Everything about him is kind of cool. He's like a throwback. There are so many athletes that just don't really have that social media presence or don't know how to be on camera, and he's just—he's got a Kanye [West] thing." -- guitarist Eric Howk

"He's super inspirational. I really like following [his music]. There are some athletes who I feel like are just looking for likes, and then there are people who are just real. Lillard is as real as it gets." -- Gourley

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Portland's Portugal. The Man Talk Blazer Love, Lillard's Rapping

Trail Blazers star combo guard CJ McCollum will not be present on the court in Wednesday's season opener at Phoenix. 

Over the weekend, McCollum was suspended for leaving the bench during an altercation in last week's preseason matchup with the Suns,  which coincidentally also occurred in Phoenix. While McCollum acknowledged he broke the rules, he admitted he felt the punishment was harsh, as told by trailblazers.com's Casey Holdahl: 

“They could have suspended me for the preseason game, they could have fined me more money and allowed me to play in a regular season game,” said McCollum. “It’s the intent and it’s usually up to them, it’s to their discretion, so they had a choice. They didn’t have to suspend me."

On Monday's edition of ESPN's 'The Jump,' host Rachel Nichols came to McCollum's defense. Respecting the reasoning for the rule after a late 1990s in-game brawl between the New York Knicks and Miami Heat, Nichols cited more recent examples of players leaving the bench area that resulted in no punishment from the NBA: 

Hear Nichols' full reaction as well as footage of McCollum's eight costly steps below. 

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ESPN's Rachel Nichols Calls For 'Adjudication' Following McCollum Suspension

It's a busy week to be Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard. Not only is the 27-year-old beginning his sixth season in Rip City, but the two-time All-Star is set to release his new album under the guise of Dame D.O.L.L.A. as well as his new signature shoe from Adidas, 'The Dame 4,' on Friday. 

Lillard joined national sports radio host Jim Rome on his weekly podcast to talk about his new album and hoops. Here are the highlights from the conversation:

"When I first started putting out music often, like two summers ago, people was saying ‘You need to be in the gym. You guys got eliminated in the Second Round.’ There was a lot to be said about it just because I guess people was I guess concerned about the time I spent in the studio, but my thing was always spend even more time in the gym; that’s the first thing I do every day. Each time we get into the season — I’ve improved each season. I go out there and do my job, and I do it well. I kinda ignored every time somebody had something to say about it."

On working with Lil Wayne on CONFIRMED…

"When a lot of the beats came on, he was automatically like rapping lyrics to himself. If he rapped something, he was going in the booth and he was laying it down regardless if he was gonna keep it or not. He was going in there and just in the booth and saying his stuff, just going from there. That’s something I wouldn’t do in the past."

On his “obsession” with beating Golden State…

"When I say things, it’s not just — I don’t let my emotions take over me. When someone asks me a question, I just answer from how I feel. I think everybody should feel that way. You’ve got guys teaming up because they wanna have enough firepower to beat Golden State. Everybody know that they’re going to be one of the best teams in the league, if not the best team off of their talent and the way that their talent plays together and the brand of basketball that they play. It’s clearly on everyone else’s mind, too, that that’s what they wanna get done. Me, I wanna be the one to [beat Golden State]. Everybody kinda shows them the respect of being that top dog, which they deserve. They’ve earned it, but for me as a competitor, I wanna knock ‘em off that. That’s kinda what I’m obsessed with as a player."

"You can’t say it’s good or bad. It’s competition, and that’s one thing that one change. Guys wanna team-up and guys wanna give themselves a better chance to win it all, then it’s not illegal. It’s not against the rules, or then it wouldn’t be done. I don’t think it’s good or bad, but for any competitor, I think it just raises the level of your competitiveness."

On the potential of him joining a superteam…

"Me personally, I’m never joining a team of stars. I just couldn’t ever do it, especially one that’s won the championship and has just eliminated me. I just couldn’t see myself doing it. I would wanna beat them. I wouldn’t wanna be the top team that just went 73-9 or whatever they win. I wouldn’t wanna join that. I would rather beat them, than to join them."

Listen to the entire interview on JimRome.com, the conversation begins at the 11:50 mark.

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Lillard Talks New Dame D.O.L.L.A. Album, Superteams on Jim Rome Podcast

"Lillard Time" comes to late night Friday evening when Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard guests on the Late Late Show with James Corden (12:37am / CBS). Blazers fan and Late Late Show writer Ian Karmel was kind enough to share his excitement of hosting Lillard in-studio on Twitter before the taping of the guard's appearance Thursday evening.

Friday's appearance is hardly Lillard's first venture into the evening talk show circuit. His first guest spot came in October 2014 when the Oakland native visited the CONAN set in Hollywood to talk hoops and his #4BarFriday project with Conan O'Brien. Pre-Dame D.O.L.L.A. days, Lillard even dropped a few rhymes on O'Brien. 

Though video is no longer available online, Lillard visited Jimmy Kimmel Live! in August 2015 to promote the ZX Flux adidas line. Lillard also starred in a Foot Locker ad with Kimmel and Minnesota Timberwolves guard Andrew Wiggins. 

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A Brief History of Damian Lillard on Late Night TV

In his 64 years on Earth, Trail Blazers legend has seemingly done it all. 

'Big Red' won two NCAA titles and three National College Player of the Year awards at UCLA, an NBA Most Valuable Player award and an NBA title with the Blazers, another NBA championship with the Boston Celtics in 1986, all before a successful NBA and college broadcasting career. Walton's done all of this on top of writing a New York Times bestseller and attending over 800 Grateful Dead shows over the years. 

Now the hall of famer can add a Katy Perry music video cameo to his long list of accomplishments. Walton appears alongside NFL Network's Rich Eisen in Perry's basketball-themed video as commentators for Perry's team of Tigers vs. Sheep. Also making cameos are Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns, New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, former SNL star Molly Shannon, actor Terry Crews and stars from 'Stranger Things' and 'Game of Thrones' among others.

Perry performs at Moda Center on February 2. Check out the video below. 

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Bill Walton Appears in Katy Perry's 'Swish Swish' Music Video

Perhaps the brightest spot of the Trail Blazers' play in the Las Vegas Summer League has been the performances of No. 26 overall pick Caleb Swanigan. The 6-9, 250 lb. forward out of Purdue is one of four players in Vegas averaging a double-double with a clip of 15 points and 10.5 rebounds per game, all the while quickly earning the admiration of fans back in Rip City with his hustle at both ends of the floor. 

Swanigan was recently profiled by ESPN, showcasing the rookie forward's determination to have the best motor in the NBA as well as his well-documented background of having overcome homelessness and teenage obesity. Check out video below, featuring insight from ESPN Insider Kevin Pelton and read Ohm Younmisuk's story here. 

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ESPN's Pelton on Swanigan: ‘He’s More of That Traditional, Bruising Power Forward’

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