This year marks the fifth anniversary for Portland Trail Blazers General Manager Joe Cronin taking over as lead executive of the basketball side of the franchise. To honor the occasion, we’re taking a look at Cronin’s tenure, the ups and downs of the Trail Blazers for the last half-decade.
We’re in the middle of Cronin’s draft legacy with the Blazers. He received a grade of B+ for drafting Shaedon Sharpe and Jabari Walker in 2022. Scoot Henderson, Kris Murray, and Rayan Rupert earned him a C from
me for his work in 2023. You can find that article here.
2024 NBA Draft
The Blazers limped down the stretch of another tough, rebuilding season. For the third season in a row, Portland would watch a rag-tag group of players help them tank to get the fourth best odds in the NBA Draft: a draft that was panned by several experts as being one of the weakest in memory. The Blazers sent former center, Greg Oden, to represent them at the draft lottery, where the Blazers had a 50% chance of landing a top 4 pick, but as luck would have it, they slid down to the seventh pick again.
This time there was no Lillard to be thinking about. The Blazers also received Golden State’s pick (#14) via Boston in the trade for Jrue Holiday. News broke early on draft night that Portland had made a trade for Washington Wizards forward Deni Avdija. He was a player mostly known only by serious hoop heads, as a former lottery pick whose blossoming talent had toiled in obscurity. Included in that trade was the number 14 pick, Malcolm Brogdon, a 2029 first-round pick (the second best of the three that Portland controls between theirs, Milwaukie, and Boston), and two second-round picks.
As the draft grew near, there was a lot of media talk around potential players who might be taken with the first pick: Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr emerged as the frontrunners. As the draft unfolded, Risacher, Sarr, Reed Sheppard, Stephon Castle, Ron Holland II, and Tidjane Salaun’s names were called before Portland was on the clock. With the 7th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, the Portland Trail Blazers selected Donovan Clingan from the University of Connecticut. The 7’2” center with an aircraft carrier 7’7” wingspan had just come off winning back-to-back National Championships.
DRAFT RESULTS: Round 1, Pick 7: Donovan Clingan
Notables drafted after: Zach Edey, Matus Buzelis, Kel’el Ware, Jaylon Tyson
At his post draft press conference, Joe Cronin talked about scouting Clingan for two years, and hoped that he would have entered the draft the previous year (potentially eying him with the 23rd pick used on Murray). When asked about Clingan’s potential, Cronin responded, “I wouldn’t put a ceiling on him. He’s THAT good.”
After spending his rookie season mainly backing up Deandre Ayton, the runway was cleared for him after he made the All-NBA Rookie Second Team. Ayton, going into the final year of a contract paying him $35M, was waived early last summer when it appeared there wasn’t a trade market for him. The time had come to unleash “Cling Kong” so he could start Dominayton.
This season Clingan has gotten steadily better, and has been playing with a confidence reflective of that. Clingan recently had a stretch of 21 games through December and January, where he made 22 of 61 three pointers, a healthy 36% clip. He’s cooled off since and is shooting 30% from three on the season, however, he’s shown that it’s a developing skill. In the 12 games Clingan has played 30 or more minutes, he’s averaged 14.8 points, 13.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists, with a true shooting percentage at a whopping 71%.
Every statistic is up across the board from his rookie season, with the biggest jump in minutes (19.8 to 27.4) and scoring (6.5 to 11.3). His conditioning to play long minutes was a lingering question coming into the season. Now that he’s pushing 30 minutes a contest, and getting better while doing so, he’s answering the call. His +4.9 net rating is second on the team behind Deni Avdija. He’s approximately tied for being the NBA’s top rebounder.
Defensively, Clingan ranks as the league’s 7th best overall defender and the 10th best rim protector, according to cumulative rankings at craftednba.com. Showing steady offensive growth while quickly establishing himself among the NBA’s elite defenders, takes me back to Cronin’s comment about not putting a ceiling on him. He has continued to ascend before our eyes, stacking tangibles upon intangibles. One could argue that after Avdija, Donovan Clingan is the most important Portland Trail Blazer.
DRAFT GRADE: A
2025 NBA Draft
We witnessed the breakout of Avdija and the growth shown by several other young players that pushed Portland to a 23-18 record for the second half of the season. An important shift became noticeable. The team went from drifting in the wilderness led by vets Simons, Ayton, and Grant, to forging a tougher, defensive-minded identity. The intensely competitive play of Avdija, Clingan, and Toumani Camara began to demand that the rest of the team keep up. The Blazers would fight hard to the finish to end with the 11th best draft odds, and that’s the exact pick they would receive.
The 2025 draft was lauded for being a deep one, with a handful of potential franchise player talents at the top. Several prospect names bounced around Blazers Edge like draft lotto balls. A few favorites began to emerge. Cedric Coward was a super athletic wing with upside, yet he missed most of his sophomore season with a foot injury. Although what he did show on film looked rather explosive. Carter Bryant was another athletic wing with a NBA body as a freshman, who fit the modern 3-and-D model. Frenchman Noa Essengue, who played professionally in Germany, was a lanky 6’10’’ who displayed a variety of interesting skills. 6’8” Russian jumbo point guard Egor Demin was another highly talked about prospect with his Swiss Army Knife skillset.
As the 11th pick was announced, Portland fans heard Coward’s name called. Wow! Did Portland just take a chance on another unproven, yet explosive shooting guard with prototypical size? Fans quickly found out that the Blazers were trading that pick to Memphis for the 16th pick, Orlando’s unprotected 2028 first-round pick, and a couple second-round picks. Five picks to go to see who Memphis is choosing for Cronin at 16.
DRAFT RESULTS: Round 1: Pick 16 Yang Hansen along with a first round pick and two-second round picks in exchange for the draft rights to #11 pick, Cedric Coward.
When Adam Silver stepped to the podium, he announced the pick YANG HANSEN. Yang Hansen? WHO?? What the heck just happened? Reactions were jaw-dropping around the league, with media quickly calling out that Yang was forecasted to be a second-round pick. What was Cronin thinking with this selection? Soon a tweet from a NBA Scout emerged that read “Chinese Jokic.” When looking at Yang’s highlights from the Chinese Basketball Association, you could see he had some nifty footwork and passing chops. You could also tell that he towered over the competition in a league several steps down from the world’s elite. If the Shaedon Sharpe pick was a mystery box, this Yang pick was like getting to the bottom of who built the Pyramids.
At his post-draft presser, Cronin appeared confident to discuss in detail what was quite a two-year scouting mission on Yang. This was not a decision that was made lightly. The front office did their homework and tried to outsmart the room. Their conviction in his talent, whether right or wrong, was admirable. When you’re drafting in the middle of the first round, taking a big upside swing is perfectly ok when you have a decent talent base already. Yang turned heads in Summer League with several nifty passes, a few blocks, some spinaroonies, dipsy-doos, and 3-point shots. Sports social media was abuzz about him now being “a steal” for Portland.
Fast forward to now, and reality has set in. He has a long way to go to catch up to the speed of the NBA. He’s currently a big defensive liability, and the refs have given him the rookie center treatment with their whistles. These short shifts he’s playing are good for his development without overwhelming him. With Donovan Clingan appearing more like the franchise center with each passing day, the Blazers really only need Yang to develop into a rotational big who can give them a solid 18-20 minutes per night. Whether he can get there remains to be seen.
This is a pick that can’t be judged fairly for a couple years. However, it’s also a first round pick the front office has opened themselves up to being side-eyed, especially if players like Coward and Derik Queen blossom into high-end NBA talent. When it comes to Queen, Portland fans have a right to wonder if Joe Cronin was offered the deal by New Orleans that was accepted by Atlanta two picks after Portland’s. Atlanta would get the Pelicans unprotected 2026 draft pick to swap their 13th pick for NOP’s 23rd pick. Atlanta took forward/center Asa Newell at 23, a freshman from Georgia who the Blazers brought in for a workout. The Pelicans currently stand to drop no lower than 5th in June’s upcoming draft, heralded to be another top-heavy one filled with potential superstars. They believed in Queen’s talent so much, they were ok with passing on a possible top pick next year.
According to Pelicans President, Joe Dumars, Portland was in the range of teams they talked to.
“After we drafted at seven (Jeremiah Fears), we started from nine and went all the way until we got a deal… When you identify a player that you think ‘this can be one of the foundations here,’ you go and get him, and that’s what we did.”
If the Blazers held the 11th pick, and had the opportunity to extract a 2026 unprotected pick currently slated to be among the top in a draft ripe with potential franchise changers, this opens up a much larger debate.
I give Cronin a B+ on the trade back to 16 for the assets received, and that aligns with my overall trade grade for him. To be fair, the grade on Yang is an Incomplete as of now. But after seeing the early returns on Coward and Queen, plus a highly desirable unprotected 2026 draft pick traded to a team picking right after you, makes the current grade rough.
DRAFT GRADE: D (deserves a revision in two more seasons)
OVERALL DRAFT 2022-2025 GRADE: B (held together by Clingan and Sharpe, with Murray a decent pick at 23. Scoot and Yang’s future outcomes make this a sliding scale)
What are your thoughts on Portland’s drafts? Hit-and-miss or something more?
Next up: Cronin’s free agency and salary cap management
