Immediately following the Portland Trail Blazers' season-ending 103-96 Game 6 loss to the Dallas Mavericks, Blazers GM Rich Cho gave his initial year-end assessment following his first season on the job.
"I thought we had a really good season," Cho told Blazersedge. "Only nine teams had better records than us in the league. You have to give Dallas credit. They've won 57 games, they're 2-9 without Dirk [Nowitzki], when Dirk was out. They could have easily had one of the top 2 or 3 best records in the league, if not the best record if Dirk hadn't gotten hurt. I think there's a lot to look forward to."
Despite the team getting bounced in the first round for the third straight season and slipping in the win column for the second straight year, Cho pointed to the team's post-deadline play as reason for optimism. "I think we're definitely on an upward trend... Going into the playoffs we were 10-6 after the trade deadline, after we acquired Gerald, against teams .500 or better. Before the trade deadline, we were 10-18 against teams .500 or better.
"I thought the guys battled and fought a lot of adversity throughout the year and did a great job. Same with the coaches. I think the coaches did a tremendous job."
Asked whether any areas of improvement had revealed themselves during the playoff series, Cho didn't mince words. "We're going to sit down as a group and talk things over. We need some more speed, size and some more depth in general. And some shooting."
One topic he didn't want to touch: Whether or not it will be a busy summer roster-wise.
"I don't want to address that," Cho said. "It's too early."
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