Around the Beat with Sean Highkin: 'If you put Scoot's attitude and work ethic in Shaedon Sharpe's body, he would be Anthony Edwards'

On the latest edition of the HoopsHype show "Around the Beat," hosts Cyro Asseo and Sam Yip bring you the pulse of the Portland Trail Blazers from someone who covers them closer than almost anyone, Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report . They discuss the tampering suspension that's really a non-story, Hansen Yang 's long runway with a franchise now financially motivated to invest in China, Donovan Clingan 's breakout season, Damian Lillard 's looming return, the Chauncey Billups legal limbo, and what kind of owner Tom Dundon will be for Portland. You can watch the full podcast or check out snippets of the conversation in the transcribed version below the YouTube video.

The tampering fine is a slap on the wrist Timestamp: 00:04:47 – 00:05:39 Sean Highkin: " A $100,000 fine is not very much money for an NBA team. And I'll bet that the two-week suspension without pay probably covers a lot of that fine money anyway. It's a two-week suspension for a couple of guys who aren't even the GM of the team, that kind of tells you how not actually big of a deal it is.

The trip to China to scout Hansen was not a secret. Somebody caught them on Twitter at the time and posted it. I did a story the week of the draft where I talked to Mike Schmitz pretty in-depth about that trip.

The Blazers statement was that they self-reported this violation. " Why Portland's new ownership sees Hansen Yang as a franchise cornerstone Timestamp: 00:08:41 – 00:10:27 SH: "At the press conference to introduce the new ownership group, Andrew Cherng , who co-founded Panda Express with his wife, was asked why he invested in the Blazers. He said he's Chinese, he likes that the Blazers have a Chinese player, and he sees a lot of business opportunities in China because of that.