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Media Day: Focus and Effort will be the Hallmarks of the Season

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2017 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

Media Day 2017 is in the books and the Blazer’s Edge Podcast has the lowdown on a slimmer Jusuf Nurkic, vegan Damian Lillard, impressive Caleb Swanigan and an animated Meyers Leonard. Will this team be the new Bad Boys? Nurk thinks they could be!

David MacKay spent the day at the Moda Center with the Trail Blazers and he drops by the podcast for a full report that includes thoughts about Swanigan, Leonard with much to prove, Damian and C.J. McCollum on what accountability mean, plus a rant about the homogenization of uniforms and a little Melo talk to round it out. Tune in for all this and more.

Highlights

2:45 Front office message from Neil Olshey

4:45 Portland won’t get an All Star bid before 2022

5:40 Front office attitude about a stacked Western Conference

7:25 No partner for a jersey patch yet but could happen during the season

7:45 Statement (tangent) about the Statement jerseys

12:30 Coach Terry Stotts’ thoughts on lineup

15:25 Team will be working not as much on schemes and techniques as on focus and effort

18:10 No beach trip this year, business attitude

19:05 Jusuf Nurkic weight loss but he assures he can still push guys around.

20:45 Portland Bad Boys

22:40 Damian Lillard’s vegan diet

29:15 Meyers Leonard on seeking advice from Wesley Matthews.

35:00 What the vets are saying about the rookies Caleb Swanigan and Zach Collins

37:35 Takeaways from Media Day: confirmed slimmer and energetic Nurk, there will be some tweeks to the offense with Nurkic on the block and the rookies, especially Swanigan, look to be exciting.

References:

Jusuf Nurkic Picked Up The Best, Most Disrespectful Technical Possible

How dream teams are leading to Superteams into today’s NBA

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