New Blazers Owner: Franchise Needed To Be Leaner

Tom Dundon, the Trail Blazers’ new majority owner, told Bill Oram of The Oregonian that laying off 70 employees of the franchise last week was mainly due to overstaffing, rather than frugality. Dundon said the organization had twice as many employees as the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, another franchise he owns.

“My experience is that less layers gives people more accountability and they do a better job,” Dundon said. “Then you know that you’re getting a great job done and you don’t end up in the situation where many companies end up, which is everyone’s looking around for somebody else to do it, complaining about what’s fair and not fair. I’ve seen the job done really well with a lot of accountability, no drama and a lot of, honestly, happiness. People are happier when they’re busy and productive. That is the way I think things should be done. And more people just creates more problems, usually. I think Portland just had too many people.”

Dundon has also been criticized for some cost-cutting measures involving the team. They were reportedly the only team not to bring their two-way players on the road for their first-round series; they have begun requiring support staffers to check out of their hotel rooms early in order to avoid incurring late check-out fees; and they reportedly want to pay their next permanent head coach a bargain-basement rate.

However, Dundon insisted he would not pinch pennies when it came to the players.

“This was mostly on the business side,” Dundon said of his budgetary decisions. “The basketball, they’re two separate businesses. Taking care of the players is not… We don’t have a budget for that. It’s whatever it takes to put them in the best position to win. That’s what we’re going to do. The business I’m going to run like you run every other business.”

Here’s more from Oram’s interview:

• On the Portland City Council’s impasse regarding funding for Moda Center renovations (the state has already agreed to contribute $365MM): “I don’t know enough about their process. I know that we came in with an intention to do something that, that could just start moving forward immediately. Because the building is older and we do need to get to work and time never helps deals. And now they have a choice. I would have thought it would be done by now, but they are elected to do their job and they’re going to do whatever they think is right and then we’ll respond to that.”
• On the team’s trade deadline approach: “We were talking during the trade deadline and we had a choice. You could sell off some things for (future assets) or you could try to create the culture where you win. To me, that’s way more important than the stuff that’s out there. The choice we made was to add a piece (Vit Krejci) and try to create the culture of we’re here to win. And a lot of these other things, I don’t think have anything to do with that. I haven’t been in a lot of situations where people don’t think that the relentless pursuit of trying to win (is) an advantage. I’m pretty sure over time that will become obvious.”
• On duplicating the success of the Hurricanes with the Blazers: “Ultimately, you do everything you can to get the best players possible. Create a culture where they taken care of but also pushed. And creating a culture where everybody is doing what’s best for the team. It’s some of the cliche stuff. Great coaching and accountability and standards. I think we’ll be at the top of the league in creating that environment where we get the best out of players and we create a roster full of players that, that are put in the best position to win. And I think that’s replicable.”