The Portland Trail Blazers are still biding their time in advance of the 2023 NBA Draft, deciding between using their third-overall pick to select a prize rookie, trade the asset for veterans, or some hybrid of the two. But things are not placid in Blazers-land. Damian Lillard gave a national interview tabbing the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets as quality, desirable teams in the event of a trade. Former teammate CJ McCollum added fuel to the fire with an interview on ESPN essentially saying the time is right for Portland to make the decision between Lillard and youth. Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic offered a semi-resigned shrug of a tweet in response to McCollum, and so went the trade hype dominoes.

On Episode 31 of Dave and Marlow, Dave Deckard and Marlow Ferguson, Jr. touch on those interviews and the PR mess, plus John Hollinger’s comments on Jerami Grant, and the possibility of Lillard staying in Portland if the Blazers get the chance to pick Scoot Henderson in the draft and elect to keep him. The co-hosts also cover Chris Paul supposedly leaving the Phoenix Suns. Where might he go? Will there be any effect, direct or ripple, on Portland? Game 3 of the 2023 NBA Finals also gets a once-over, with another lesson drawn for the Trail Blazers as they attempt to build themselves upward in the Western Conference hierarchy.

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