Blazers Staff, Owner Aligned to Reset Expectations on Lillard Trade

Portland Trail BlazersTraining Camp, 2023 in Santa Barbara is an odd affair. For the first time since 2012, the Blazers are without franchise cornerstone Damian Lillard, recently traded to theMilwaukee Bucks. This creates a different, somewhat more muted, atmosphere than is the norm.

Washington Post writer Ben Golliver visited training camp this week, gathering impressions and quotes from Portland’s decision-makers in the wake of the Lillard deal. Hisarticle offers interesting insightinto the organizational mind shift that accompanied a summer of change throughout the franchise.

Golliver draws heavily from Trail Blazers General Manager Joe Cronin, the man at the center of the move and the extended drama that preceded it. One of the more interesting takes was Cronin’s comments on being omitted from Lillard’s goodbye letter to Portland, which referenced multiple Trail Blazers employees:

“[Lillard] and I went through it this summer,” Cronin said. “It wasn’t always amicable and perfect. To be omitted from that [letter], I didn’t take as anything more than it being a hard summer that we had both gone through. I wasn’t one to be thanked at that moment. … Our directions didn’t line up. Things didn’t work out. We had pure intentions in our desire to build a winner around him. We were just unable to pull it off. I don’t think that was a lie. We just couldn’t get it done.”

Golliver also chronicles the organizational evolving as the summer wound on with no trade appearing on the horizon. Trail Blazers President Dewayne Hankins references a staff meeting with owner Jody Allen where Allen reset expectations for the organization:

Blazers President Dewayne Hankins recalled Allen putting an end to the mounting questions during a Zoom call in early September: “We really need to move on. We’ve got great young talent. We’re not like other rebuilding teams who don’t have a strong core of young players. It’s time to turn the page.”

Golliver also affirms Cronin’s enthusiasm for newly-drafted guard Scoot Henderson, Henderson’s own approach to the game, and much more.