Joe Cronin, Portland Trail Blazers General Manager.
I am utterly perplexed. Like Baxter (Anchorman), Joe Cronin had pooped in my fridge and scarfed down the whole wheel of cheese. Forget deck chairs on the Titanic, the Portland Trail Blazers in-season trades are like worrying about smoke alarms at Chornobyl.
Over the last two trade deadlines, Cronin has moved a slew of Trail Blazers around while accomplishing nothing. It’s an impressive feat. As a Knicks fan, I am a connoisseur of ineptitude, and while this isn’t Isiah Thomas/Eddy Curry, it’s still pretty bad.
Portland’s first move was part of a four-team extravaganza. They sent Josh Hart to the Knicks for Cam Reddish and a first round pick. Additionally, Cronin got Matisse Thybulle from Philly by moving around some spare parts.
In a vacuum, that’s not a terrible deal for a rebuilding team. Unfortunately, the Blazers already have Damian Lillard, Jusuf Nurkic, and Jerami Grant in an effort to maximize what’s left of Lillard’s prime.
How does trading a quality rotation player for a late first rounder, a guy who’s so bad offensively that his All-NBA defense can’t get him on the floor, and finally, a bag of magic beans from Duke (Reddish) help the Portland Trail Blazers to do that? But wait, there’s more!
Cronin then turned around and traded Gary Payton II back to Golden State. In return, they got another toolsy failed Knicks forward in Kevin Knox and 5 second round picks. It’s hard to see how these moves are getting the team primed for a deep playoff run.
Or if Payton’s medical history will void the trade, which does neither team any good.
Hart was going to opt-out out of his contract with the Portland Trail Blazers after the season. But he’s the kind of player good teams want. A strong defender, Hart can hit from deep and is a phenomenal teammate. We all saw Dame’s reaction to the trade.
Meanwhile, Thybulle will be a restricted free agent and has never developed a shot. He was down to 12 minutes per game in Philly before the Sixers finally threw in the towel and dealt him. That’s not someone for Portland Trail Blazers fans to get excited about.
In the last 12 months, Portland has traded CJ McCollum, Norman Powell, Robert Covington, Josh Hart, Gary Payton II, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker. In return, they have Justise Winslow, Cam Reddish, Kevin Knox, Keon Johnson, Mattise Thybulle, a Knicks first rounder, and a Bucks 2025 first rounder. Oh, and like 50 second round picks.
Most of the cap space the Portland Trail Blazers created by dealing all those players away was used to resign Anfernee Simons and Jusuf Nurkic. So they went from three quality and two fringe rotation players to Thybulle putting up a blistering 2.7 ppg , Justise Winslow, a few guys who , while better than me, aren’t particularly great at NBA basketball, and one pick that will convey before Lillard is 35. GREAT SUCCESS!!
So what is Portland doing? I’m not sure they even know.
The team made themselves worse in the last year. Their one big acquisition this offseason was Jerami Grant, and he will be a free agent after the season.
While he’s been good in Rip City, do the Portland Trail Blazers want to give him the max deal he’ll want?
With Lillard set to eclipse $50M annually, along with Simons’ and Nurkic’s extensions kicking in, that’s not a great idea. The quartet hasn’t exactly set the league on fire this year, and I’m not demanding an encore.
Lillard has two, maybe three more blasts in the Roman candle of his career, and Portland is nowhere near being a contender. They have too many guys who play the same spots and nobody to play center or power forward.
Portland’s only players with star potential all play the same position and can’t be on the floor at the same time. Oh, and the guy they are building around is a decade older than most of the team, so they’re not even on the same timeline.
Just fantastic work in putting this current group of Blazers together.
The obvious move was to trade Grant and Lillard and build around the kids. Instead, they’re faced with an overpay Grant or let him walk dilemma and the specter of another year of Damian Lillard being wasted.
Philly had a process. The Thunder have a plan. The Portland Trail Blazers, well, who knows? There doesn’t seem to be a coherent strategy to move this franchise forward.
Dame has been everything most star players aren’t in the NBA today, loyal to a city and fan base. A real part of the community and someone who wanted to bring a championship to his city because he cared.
Rip City couldn’t want more from their franchise cornerstone. Unfortunately, the team was never quite good enough, and now we’re here.
Cronin should do the right thing and ask his star where he wants to go, then try to make it happen. Lillard won’t demand a trade, so we should do it for him. Free Dame, it’s the right thing to do.
How do you feel about the Portland Trail Blazers deadline deals this year?