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Alright, I'm finally catching up on today's Portland City Council meeting. I can't help but question if the Trail Blazers organization is negotiating in good faith.

This is your reminder that whenever the Blazers organization complains that someone else is wielding something (like a lawsuit) as a weapon, that's called "leverage" and the Blazers probably would like to eliminate that leverage. And they'd probably also be happy to use any such leverage themselves.

It feels like nearly all my favorite things to do, or watch, are being ruined by idiots and/or jerks.

"I don't live in Portland, but I'm going to use this peripherally-related Blazers news story to tell you why I am absolutely sure that Portland sucks as a city."

Note that I don't really bring up the situation of moving the team. Part of the problem (and I really should write about this) is that new ownership is so opaque that we're all just guessing at one of 5-6 different motives going on right now. By default, I assume it's about maximizing return.

I think it's hard to guess from the outside. Silver's job is essentially the PR guy for the owners, and I can't get a feel for how the owners are reacting to any of this.

It was a smart move by the City of Portland to publicly say that they're trying, but the team won't talk to them. While I don't think ownership cares about publicity, it's still bad for them. This allows the city to control the narrative that the organization isn't making even basic efforts.

Quality of camera work, on-camera announcers, graphics, overall product. It's generally very well-regarded among non-Blazers fans.

I find it fascinating how many Blazer fans say "I really don't enjoy our TV broadcasts" while on Reddit, Portland's broadcasts are constantly listed among the best TV coverages in the league.

I want to revisit this. There are a group of fans who, at every Blazers transaction, say "This one is good!" or "Oh I don't like this one". That's completely missing the forest for the trees, which is that the Blazers are pinching every penny in a business where spending can make a real difference.

“Subprime“ offer. Amazing. Sometimes you get a reminder your team isn’t the good guys.

Much like current national news coverage and discussion, the ongoing Blazers situation has devolved into a transactional discussion about each new event happening ("I'm ok with this change!"), and less attention to what's happening with trends in the bigger picture. It's a little frustrating.

After a couple Summer League games, I have to say that I am not a fan of having one free throw instead of two. And I'm even less of a fan of one free throw instead of three. At the minimum, for three-pointers the player should be required to shoot that free throw from the top of the 3-point line.

If you love Private Equity and Venture Capital firms, then Pacific Northwest sports fans, I have great news for you.

Even for Summer League, this Blazers/Suns game seems to be aggressively irrelevant so far.

As we see free agency start to wind down (we're reaching two-way signees and a couple noteworthy holdouts), we're at the point where we can say that Ja Morant was pretty clearly Portland's primary free agency plan. Any further Blazer transactions are because an opportunity opened up.

So Philly just loves all of Portland's back-of-rotation guys, then?

If nothing else, this provides a resolution to the years-old debate among Blazers fans about whether the Orlando Magic wanted to acquire Simons on his previous large contract. They even passed on him now, when he's looking at $6 million per season.

Just in case things go pear-shaped in Boston, this is your reminder that the Blazers own the best and worst of the three 2029 first-round picks from Portland, the Celtics, and Milwaukee.

Two days later, still fully entertained. At least free agency hasn't turned out to be boring.