West Coast Convo
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WCC Trio Works Out with Trailblazers

By Mitch Krmpotich

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On Friday, June 19, three former WCC players worked out with the Portland Trailblazers.  Gonzaga’s Kevin Pangos and Gary Bell Jr. joined Portland’s Thomas van der Mars as well as a few players from other conferences.  This is very exciting since all three players are well known and liked on the west coast already.  Could Portland remain home for van der Mars?  Could Pangos and Bell Jr. take their guard tandem to the NBA?  These are questions that could be answered in the near future.

This news originally came from Peter Socotch at Comcast Sportsnet.  Here is the original article with a detailed list of all of the workout participants.

Pangos had a great tweet that mentioned that Bell Jr., “knew all my moves.”

This is very exciting for Pangos and Bell Jr., who both are expected to at least make an NBA summer league roster.

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Thomas van der Mars had a very productive career at Portland.  He averaged 9.9 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game.  He is also the University of Portland’s leader in blocked shots in a career.  Van der Mars is a player who I always thought was underrated.  He’s 6′ 11″, 235 lbs, and he is a good shooting big man.  The Trailblazers are probably giving van der Mars a serious look since Lamarcus Aldridge is a free agent.  The Blazers would get a heck of a deal if they signed van der Mars.  He could develop his game even more and he would be an inexpensive signing.

The NBA draft is on Thursday, June 25 at 4:00 pm Pacific.  Hopefully there are many names of WCC players called that night.  After the draft there will be many underrated free agent signings that could involve some familiar faces to those of us on the west coast.

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