Change is inevitable, especially when a team gets a new owner for the first time in 38 years. While Portland Trail Blazers fans may have been hungry for change, there are no guarantees that every new idea will be a good one or will be well received. Chris Mannix for Sports Illustrated reported on a scene in Phoenix that might indicate things won’t be business as usual for an organization that was never been known to be stingy under former owner Paul Allen.
Mannix cites four sources with knowledge
of the situation that “a number” of Blazer staff were observed in their Phoenix hotel lobby on Tuesday afternoon waiting around hours before their bus was scheduled to leave for the Play-In game at Mortgage Matchup Center. Sources indicated that the reason for this was that the staffers were asked to check out before the standard noon checkout time to avoid late checkout fees.
On Tuesday afternoon, a strange scene played out at the Trail Blazers’ Phoenix-area hotel. Onlookers noted people in Blazers gear hanging out in the lobby. According to four sources with knowledge of the situation, a number of staffers were asked to check out of their rooms at noon, hours before the first bus left for the arena. The reason, multiple sources say, was for the team to avoid the cost of a late checkout.
It’s hard not to draw rather quick conclusions from this one reported incident. Is this the first indication of a new penny-pinching era in Rip City? Mannix points out that one of the first things new Blazers owner Tom Dundon implemented in Carolina when he took over the Hurricanes NHL franchise was to eliminate the radio broadcast team, instead simulcasting the local TV broadcast audio, in an effort to cut costs. Of course, it’s only fair to also point out, as Mannix does, that the team’s fortunes on the ice have improved dramatically since Dundon took over.
It’s a pivotal time for the Blazers organization, with many massive decisions looming. The team can’t have an interim head coach forever. Will the club base the decision for a long-term head coach based on finding the best person for the job, or will the pool of possibilities be hard-capped to fit under a certain budget? The decision to continue with current General Manager Joe Cronin or bring in a new GM is also top at the list for a new ownership group.
Roster decisions will also be front-and-center this summer. The Blazers are in a strong position with a young roster in the playoffs for the first time since 2021 and lots of draft capital should they choose to make a splash in the trade market. If you are the worrying sort, there are a lot of nightmare scenarios that involve liquidating assets in an effort to improve the bottom line at the expense of results on the court.
It’s certainly reasonable to look at all available information for signs that might point to what the future of the franchise looks like. The important thing to keep in mind is that we don’t have all of the information, and our assumptions might not be correct. Money doesn’t always equal success. For a smaller-market team, you can’t just copy what other larger and richer franchises do and expect to have the same success. A club like the Trail Blazers need to identify non-obvious ways to find an edge. That’s the exciting thing about bringing in a new ownership group, one led by a man who has found a significant measure of success in another smaller market, albeit in the NHL.
New methods and ideas are at once both terrifying and exciting. We have a long way to go before we draw solid conclusions about the direction in which these new methods and ideas are taking the Blazers, both on and off the court.
