The Trail Blazers have fallen short of their expectations on the court this season, having posted a 21-31 record to date. The team has also undergone front office and head coaching changes within the last year. However, interim general manager Joe Cronin told Mark Medina of NBA.com that the Blazers don’t plan to blow up their roster and launch a full-fledged rebuild at the trade deadline.
“I don’t think we have the appetite to tear it all the way down,” Cronin said. “We have too many good players and too many ways to get better without taking too big of a step back.”
When I previewed the trade deadline for Northwest teams on Thursday, I wrote that the Blazers’ most likely path would be to hang onto players like Damian Lillard, Anfernee Simons, and Nassir Little while perhaps moving one or more veterans from a group that includes CJ McCollum, Norman Powell, Robert Covington, and Jusuf Nurkic.
In his conversation with Medina, Cronin didn’t confirm or deny shopping specific players, but hinted that Portland would be open to reshaping its roster to have a better chance of competing in 2022/23 and beyond, even if it means taking a bit of a hit in the short term.
“It’s delicate,” Cronin said when asked about the team’s short- and long-term goals. “I think we all take a big-picture approach knowing that one season is a small vacuum of a larger picture. It’s hard. We’re all so competitive that we want to win consistently. Sometimes to do that, you have to take a step back at times. Sometimes you just have to be patient. So, you’re trying to balance deal by deal what accomplishes the overall big-picture goals.”
Here are a few more of the most noteworthy comments Cronin made in his discussion with Medina:
On what message ownership has sent the interim GM about his job status:
“They’ve been very open with me as far as I’ll have an opportunity to keep this job. But there’s going to be a (GM) search. They showed a lot of trust in me by allowing me to make some decisions with staffing and going into this trade deadline with some roster decisions. So, the trust they’ve shown is really I can ask for and it’s a big compliment. We’ll just take it as we go as far as what the job search looks like and what my chances are.”
On Lillard’s recovery from abdominal surgery:
“It’s coming along great. The surgery was a success. That had been bothering him for years and years. It’s a big relief for him to finally address it. The hope that comes with it is knowing it’s a lot better and that this is really going to enhance his game and hopefully prolong his career.
“… We’re going to be patient and make sure he’s fully healed physically and mentally. I think the break for him is really good. These years really ran together the last three. The weight that he carries, that’s a lot. The way he carried through that injury. Physically, we want to make sure he’s good. Mentally, we want to make sure he’s refreshed and ready to go whenever he comes back.”
On whether the Blazers’ place in the standings will influence Lillard’s return date:
“With our whole approach, it’s going to be big-picture. We’re not going to rush him back just to win a few ball games. We’re going to make sure he’s healthy and right and perform for many years, not just this closing season. We’ll address it and look at it. But I don’t want to put any pressure on him. He can come back once he’s fully healed.”
The Blazers aren’t planning to blow up their roster…they are just planning to continue blowing.
McCollum needs to be the first to go because having a backcourt that can’t defend puts a serious ceiling on a team. He is a great offensive player but the team has enough of that from the guard position already.
Blazers have had the same 2 stars for the past decade. They can get out of the first round and that’s about it.
They should blow up/tear down the roster.
Why not do a small trade?
Mavs get:
Norman Powell
Robert Covington
Larry Nance (absorbed using TPE)
Blazers get:
Tim hardaway Jr
Reggie Bullock
Trey Burke or Moses Brown
Thj and Norman Powell Is just more of a swap- with no thj for season and Norman Powell gone, this opens up minutes for the younger guys.
Robert covington will be a free agent and bullock replaces his 3 and D style
Moses brown Is brought in to maybe replace pending free agent nurkic
This deal helps get Blazers under lux tax (saves ~7m), creates a 10.5m trade exception (that they can renounce) and keeps the back court of dame and cj together.
Deal helps dallas by filling the scoring void lost by hardaway. Creates an additional 6 mil in free agency- which helps to resign Brunson and/or finneysmith.
Could flip larry nance for a play making guard as another option
I take it your a Mavs fan, seeing as they would get the 3 best players out of this deal
Negative. This helps my dynasty league though.
Dallas can throw in some picks as well, but I listed all the reasons why it’s a fair trade (IMO) the average fan doesn’t realize how important it is too small market teams to get under lux tax
Well so long as it helps your dynasty league. Seriously though that is a terrible trade from the Blazers side money or not
@david
how does that move the needle for Portland? They already have 2 smallish guards. Why bring in 2 more SG’s? They need athletic wings that can playmake on their own.
Agree, THJr’s contract might be worse than Fourniers.
Well I think the mavs trade was better than the one with clippers. Trade away to get under lux tax
What’s Norman Powell worth? Think the Raps can bring him back with a 2022 FRP, Dragic would be the salary match?
“We have too many good players.” That’s nice. Too bad “good” players don’t win championships…
I get that it’s easy for me to sit here and say blow it up, and that the work involved in doing that is much more complicated, but this middle of the road “we might, we might not” is not the kind of language I expect from an exec. Make a decision and stand by it.
Blow it up. Just do it. This team is 1st, 2nd rd exit otherwise AT BEST.
Guvna Miss Allen probably likes retaining people (i.e., GM Olshey). The time to change the backcourt probably timed out years ago.
The team got too reliant on Lillard.
Olshey should have only drafted guards and traded them to get his bigs! He could have been running the “Guard Academy” (or whatever) still.
Cronin did not sound as confident as HR has portrayed… but he seems a lock… considering all the dust kicked up when he was hired.
So they’ve chosen mediocrity
Well this didn’t age well…
OOPS ………
It’s starting to look like a blow up.
That’s not a blow up that’s a big old stinky fart! With extra cream cheese and chives! You’ve had Mountain Dew Code Red (TM Zion), now try Blazin BH Ranch — the taste of a man panicking about his job, and crumpling under the pressure like a page of particularly bad writing, torn up and shot like a free throw right into the trash.