Holiday Praises Trail Blazers, Brogdon Indicates He’s Staying

Quite a few players have passed onto and off of thePortland Trail Blazers’ roster in the last week, since they traded Damian Lillard to theMilwaukee Bucks. Today two of them offered reflections on the front office in Portland, speaking in complimentary terms.

The Blazers initially acquired guard Jrue Holiday from the Bucks in the Lillard deal. Holiday never reported, as Portland’s intentions were to trade him to a contender in return for draft picks and younger players. Jared Weiss, who covers theCelticsfor The Athletic,tweeted todaythat Holiday appreciated the work of Trail Blazers General Manager Joe Cronin, and especially his communication skills, during the transition period:

Jrue Holiday on Blazers working with him on trade: “Portland blessed me. Joe Cronin did a great job of communicating with me on how I wanted to proceed…Working with him was very easy, very seamless, and made all of this possible.”

Meanwhile Casey Holdahl of the Trail Blazersindicates thatMalcolm Brogdon, one of the players the Celtics sent in return for Holiday, plans to stay in Portland despite rumors that the Blazers will also deal him for draft picks.

“They want me here, I want to be here. There’s a lot of misleading information out there about they need to trade me or I want to go… I’m embracing being here.” — Malcolm Brogdon

The Blazers are currently in the midst of fall training camp in Santa Barbara, California. Their first preseason game comes Thursday, October 12th against thePhoenix Suns.