Blazers Land At No. 19 In Grantland's League Pass Rankings

Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe of Grantland.com ranked all 30 NBA teams in terms of watchability on NBA's League Pass. The Blazers came in at No. 19 on the list, ahead of the Atlanta Hawks and behind the Los Angeles Lakers.

Simmons called out Blazer's Edge readers:

Simmons: We inadvertently baited the Portland Soccer Moms with this ranking. I can already feel the 625-post Blazer's Edge thread coming. Just remember, Portland fans: Words hurt.

Lowe had this to say about the fans in Portland:

Lowe: Your blood feud with Blazer's Edge is one of the better ongoing Grantland subplots. I'll say this for Portland fans: I like their particular kind of crazy. It comes from a deep adoration of their only big-four professional team. When a Portland fan accuses you of not having watched all 82 Portland games - hey, no crap, I cover the whole league - you at least know that person has watched all 82 of those suckers. They don't seem angry, they're not conspiracy theorists, and they don't think the national media hates their team. A great fan base.

Lowe goes on to justify the ranking, while Simmons fires up ESPN's Trade Machine for the Blazers:

Lowe: This is a fine ranking for Portland - solid team, appealing style, nice court, and ultimately unspectacular. Continuity matters. These guys have played a ton of minutes together and know each other well.

Simmons: I'd like to see them package $7 million to $13 million of expirings with C.J. McCollum and a first-rounder and get one more impact player. But we're nitpicking. (By the way, they DID offer the max to Hibbert once ... and Indiana might blow up its 2014 team, as we discussed earlier. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.)

Lowe: Robin Lopez is one of those expiring contracts, and one way or the other, Portland is going hard after a center in the 2015 offseason.

Simmons: News flash: A "Hibbert, George Hill and Donald Sloan for McCollum, Lopez and the Wright-Freeland-Robinson expirings" deal works on the Trade Machine.

-- Chris Lucia | bedgecast@gmail.com | Twitter