波特兰开拓者拉rry Miller provided an update on the team's search for a new GM by telephone on Monday afternoon. "We have talked to and interviewed some candidates. I'm not going to mention any names but we have interviewed candidates." Miller said he has spoken with "more than four" candidates in a "formal" setting. Owner Paul Allen has not yet been involved in the interview process and Miller would not guarantee that the Blazers will have a full-time GM in place when the season resumes or when free agency opens after the conclusion of the lockout. "That's our hope for sure. I'm not going to put any kind of timeline out there. I'm going to stick with that. I'm not going to lock us into any timeline... I would hope to [hire a GM before the free agency period] but we are prepared in the event that we don't. I think [Acting GM] Chad [Buchanan] and the rest of the team there have continued to work on preparing us for that so once free agency does open up we're going to be ready for it whether we have a GM in place or we don't have a permanent GM in place. We feel confident that Chad and the team will have us ready for that in the event that there's not a GM in place at that point." More quoteshere. -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com |Twitter