Damian Lillard walked into the NBA as a grizzled veteran.

The moment he stepped foot in Portland, he was ready to lead and impart wisdom on his teammates.

He’s always had the utmost confidence in himself, and he’s used that excess confidence to embolden those around him. 

“I’m not surprised by it,” Lillard said at the news conference following his Rookie of the Year selection. “That’s not meant to be a cocky statement. But I’m not surprised by it at all because I put the work in to put myself in this position.”

Now thirteen years into his NBA career, he’s only refined his leadership skills.

Those will come in handy soon, as the Blazers have traded for the callow yet phenomenal Ja Morant, giving Lillard his tallest task yet.

Ja Morant Brings a Boatload of Baggage

The Blazers paid possibly the lowest-ever price for a 26-year-old two-time All-Star and Second-Team All-NBA player. Trading away Jerami Grant and Kris Murray was an exchange of bad money for worse money.

The reason it was so low is twofold: on-court issues and off-court issues.

The on-court issues, from injuries to playstyle to fit, are their own puzzle for Micah Nori, Morant and the Blazers’ training staff to deal with. However, the on-court journey won’t get off the ground without the off-court problems disappearing for good.

From 2022-2023, Morant:

• Threatened the Head of Security at a Memphis Mall
• Punched a 17-year-old and flashed a gun at said 17-year-old
• Was spotted riding in an SUV that pointed a laser at the Pacers team bus
• Flashed a gun on Instagram Live, twice, the second one resulting in a 25-game suspension

Morant lit his and the Grizzlies’ 2023-24 season on fire with his antics.

The 2024-25 season went alright for Morant and Memphis — the Thunder swept the No. 8-seeded Grizzlies en route to the NBA title.

But towards the end of that campaign, Morant’s disagreements with Head Coach Taylor Jenkins’ offensive schemes caused a rift in the franchise. The Grizzlies unprecedentedly fired Jenkins with a handful of games left in the regular season.  

Morant continued to mire himself in controversy last season with poor play and spats with teammates and coaches.

“According to them, probably don’t play me, honestly,” Morant said to reporters when asked what could have been done differently in a loss against the Lakers. “That’s basically what the message was. It’s cool.”

While in London, Morant and Vince Williams were caught in a verbal altercation on the court during shootaround. Williams tried to take the squabble to the locker room, but Morant arrogantly refused.

Guns, threats, beefs, feelings of belittlement — these are the debts that Ja Morant must pay off. He needs to prove he is a kind, willing-to-learn, mature man and, above all, a team player.

That is the baseline for improvement; injuries and inefficiencies on the basketball court can be forgiven if Morant reforms his character. But with a long way to go to reclaim his posture in the NBA, he’ll need some help.

Damian Lillard’s Leadership Worked on Carmelo Anthony

Before the Blazers traded for Morant, on his podcast, “7PM in Brooklyn”, Carmelo Anthony said that Ja needed to go somewhere that’s already centered around culture and discipline.

“He needs help in the sense of a community on a team,” Anthony said. “This is where vets come in at…that’s the [stuff] he needs.”

Thankfully for Ja, just ask Anthony — there’s no better leader in the NBA than Lillard.

“Dame’s at the top for me,” Anthony told Yahoo Sports during the NBA bubble in 2020. “I’ve never played with someone who lifted his team on the court with his play and as a leader. He genuinely cares for his teammates. What he’s been able to do is amazing. He’s the top guy I’ve played with.” 

Anthony didn’t just watch Dame’s leadership rectify a player’s career from afar — he lived it. 

In 2018, a lackluster season as the supposed third star with the Oklahoma City Thunder forced General Manager Sam Presti to pay off the rest of Carmelo Anthony’s contract, turning him into a free agent that summer. The Houston Rockets scooped him up, but after just 10 games, the two parties mutually agreed to part ways. Anthony was teamless for the rest of that year.

Twelve games into the start of the 2019 season, the Blazers signed Anthony to a non-guaranteed deal. He immediately clicked with the team.

A big reason why was Lillard’s forward approach to making Anthony feel comfortable.

Two weeks into Anthony’s time with the Blazers, Lillard invited Anthony to his house for Thanksgiving. “Anthony, new to the city, didn’t have any family in town. He decided to take Lillard up on the offer,” Chris Haynes said in his article.

“That was Dame’s way of embracing him into the family and into the Trail Blazer family,” Lillard’s uncle, Oscar Johnson, said to Haynes.

Thanks to Lillard, Carmelo Anthony put together three more NBA seasons — two in Portland and one with the Lakers. Without Dame, it’s safe to say Anthony’s career would’ve ended a lot sadder.

Lillard Has Tamed Even the Hottest of Heads

All Blazer fans, and most NBA fans, know Jusuf Nurkic to be a surly guy.

The Bosnian Beast started his NBA career with the Nuggets. He showed promise in Denver, and at one point there was a plan for him and Jokic to start together. Eventually, Jokic’s talents took precedence. Nurkic’s discontent with the playing-time situation forced the Nuggets to attach a first-round draft pick to Nurkic in order for the Blazers to onboard him at the 2017 trade deadline.

In one of the few slam-dunk trades Neil Olshey made, Nurkic fit with the Blazers like a glove. 

Why? Two reasons.

The first was their glaring need for a center upgrade, as they had started Mason Plumlee for each of the first 54 games that season.

The second? Lillard.

“Damian Lillard is the best thing that has happened to me in my life,” Nurkic said a mere nine months after the Blazers traded for him. 

Lillard was willing to be honest with Nurkic from the jump. He told Nurkic the truth; he told him things he needed to hear.

“The first thing I remember him saying is: ‘We don’t make excuses here, man,’’’ Nurkic said. “I was like, ‘Yeah, I need that.’’’ 

The relationship grew quickly from a mentor-mentee dynamic to a brotherhood.

“That’s my little-big brother,” Lillard said in a postgame interview in 2018.

“It’s all about love, man,” Nurkic responded.

The two share a bond that endures to this day.

After the Blazers traded Nurkic away in 2023, Nurkic trudged through tumultuous tenures with the Suns and Hornets. At one point, he told reporters that he and then Suns Head Coach Mike Budenholzer “didn’t have a relationship.”

This summer, Nurkic lauded Lillard’s leadership qualities in a podcast interview: 

“We had that great mindset, starting with Damian Lillard, who was a real leader. He led by example. I don’t know how to explain it in the best way, but whatever he wanted others to do, that’s how it was. He could be loud, but he always led by example, whether in practice or on the plane — the guy was never late.”

Morant Has a Lot of Work to Do. Thankfully, Lillard Loves to Work

Lillard will take Morant under his wing when he touches down in Portland; that much is clear.

It’s hard to imagine Morant won’t find shelter there, at least at first. Lillard is a deity in Rip City. It would spell disaster if Morant tried to cross him or give him a cold shoulder.

But the Ja Morant reclamation project won’t be judged based on how this summer goes, no matter how many Instagram posts Morant, Lillard, or the Blazers post.

Wins and losses will determine whether this works. The Blazers are an up-and-coming team with a coach on a one-year deal. Morant might not need to fit perfectly right away, but Portland will need to win right away.

The Blazers won’t thrive if Morant doesn’t learn to reshape his game. He’s been a terrible shooter and off-ball player. He thrives in transition, which can be utilized, but so does Deni, and Shaedon, and Scoot.

In the halfcourt, Lillard will be the lead ballhandler and primary option. Morant will get his opportunities, but he can’t be a cone hiding in the corner when it’s not his turn.

And if he wants to coexist, to start and finish games alongside Lillard, Morant will have to become a better defender. He will need to work harder than his opponents to make up for his physical limitations. He will need to focus more diligently than he ever has before.

That journey starts in the gym. It starts tomorrow. If Morant can put in the hours, align his attitude, and be willing to do what is asked of him, this can work out.

Thankfully for him, he has the NBA’s hardest worker and greatest leader there to help.

The post If Anyone Can Fix Ja Morant, It’s Damian Lillard appeared first on The Lead.

In a short time, the NBA has learned that Tom Dundon is an unconventional person.

He broke the seal when he stepped in as owner and, while the Blazers were in the playoffs, started asking various college coaches whether they’d coach in the NBA for the cheapest current-day head coaching salary anyone had ever heard of.

Undermining current head coach Tiago Splitter along the way, the league’s unspoken rules frowned upon his antics. Sprinkle in a few misguided decisions to leave players at home and replace T-shirts with towels, then drizzle it all with strong-armed stadium renovation tactics, and you’ve got quite a nice “screw this guy” sundae. 

Then, well after the Spurs bounced the Blazers from the playoffs, he took a two-week vacation.

Okay, vacation might not be the right word; Dundon was spending time with his other franchise, the Carolina Hurricanes, while they completed a Stanley Cup Finals run.

No one in their right mind would skip those games and those moments for, well, anything, really. However, hiring replacements for the more than 70 people you fired weeks prior would have been one of the better reasons. Solidifying a head coach for your team who’s known they needed to do so since October would have been another.

But, at this point, one could conjecture that waiting was actually part of Dundon’s plan.

That’s because on Tuesday, after every other head coaching gig had finally been filled — thanks to the Mavericks being able to land national champion Dusty May and the Bulls providing a requisite salary for Splitter (absolving Dundon of that burden) — the Blazers hired Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori as their head coach.

Micah Nori Is a Great Hire By the Blazers

Let’s be clear — Micah Nori is a great hire. He’s been linked to high-profile openings in the past, and in this current cycle, including in Dallas and Chicago (according to The Stein Line). He brings decades of assistant coaching experience, lead assistant experience, and recent postseason success.

By all accounts, he’s charismatic, respectful, and beloved by his peers. 

A lot of the same could be said for Splitter. But Nori has been a coach for much longer, and Splitter’s on-camera presence isn’t quite as strong as Nori’s.

It was only a matter of time before someone gave Nori a head coaching gig. Some Timberwolves fans were even secretly hoping they’d swap Nori for Chris Finch.

For whatever reason, it didn’t happen last year. Then every other role filled up this cycle, except for one.

And before we all knew it, Dundon’s plan had worked to perfection.

Was This Tom Dundon’s Plan All Along?

Leverage is something Tom Dundon seems to be a master of. He’s currently wielding its powers against the Portland City Council.

Which is why it would be foolish to think that leverage didn’t play a role in how Micah Nori’s contract details shook out.

As reported by The Athletic’s Jason Quick, Nori agreed to a truly unprecedented coaching offer, signing a one-year deal with team options for each of the next two seasons.

Team options are common, but one-year deals for coaches are not.

For Nori to surrender that much control to the Blazers must mean he’s willing to live by Dundon’s standards — to put his neck on the line and prove himself through results. 

It’s a completely new line of thinking for the Portland Trail Blazers, who most recently gave their even-more-win-now roster to a significantly-more-unproven Chauncey Billups on a four-year contract. That worked out terribly.

Blazers Fans Don’t Have to Feel Proud, But They Should Be Excited

What Tom Dundon did was manipulate the situation. He gambled that a guy like Nori would be waiting around at the end of the coaching search, knowing he’d be salivating to take that next step (Knicks assistant coach Chris Jent fit this profile to a tee as well), and he’d give him that lowest-ball offer he was searching for. 

He got Micah Nori on a discount.

If the Blazers ascend in the coming seasons, then, similar to what happened with Rod Brind’Amour in Carolina, the chemistry between Nori and Portland should smooth out any disrespect and tension created by these maneuvers. 

If the Blazers lose and quickly let Nori go, it will further erode Dundon’s credibility and leverage. He’ll have to repeat this same process, but candidates will see through his tricks. He’ll either have to choose from a lesser crop or finally cough up bigger salaries. 

The way Dundon went about it was unconventional, and all it did was keep more money in his pockets.

But Nori was a more-than-viable candidate from even before Chauncey Billups was arrested. This was truly a home run hire — it just comes with a bit of stank and evil, which is something Portland is going to have to get used to. 

The post Tom Dundon Further Reveals Cutthroat Nature With Micah Nori Hire appeared first on The Lead.

The Portland Trail Blazers just experienced one of the more confusing seasons in recent memory.

The Allen Estate agreed to sell the team to its new majority owner, Tom Dundon, last offseason. The FBI arrested Chauncey Billups on the second day of the regular season. Tiago Splitter, whom the team had hired just months prior, was elevated to interim head coach, a title he held for the entire year. The team sale went final in March, and Dundon speedran a PR nightmare in April.

Every one of the Blazers’ guards, including Scoot Henderson, who tore his hamstring two weeks before the season started, missed significant time. The two-way 20-year-old Sidy Cissoko started 26 games. By multiple accounts, at various stops, they were among the five most injured teams.

But through the turmoil, a young, largely unproven squad turned into a weathered, seasoned core. Deni Avdija became an All-Star. Toumani Camara drew more offensive fouls than anyone in history. The team made the Play-In, won the Play-In, and stole a road playoff victory over the Western Conference champions.

Now Tiago Splitter is gone, off to the Chicago Bulls. Fans are still waiting for the team to name its next head coach. Reports have come out that Portland is interested in trading for both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jaylen Brown.

It might be a busy offseason for the Blazers in many regards, but as far as the NBA Draft goes, it will likely be quiet.

Blazers Draft Picks:

• None

Blazers Draft Needs: 

Because of a trade made back in 2021, the Blazers had to send their 2026 first-round pick to the Chicago Bulls. That means, without a second-rounder either, Portland has zero draft picks in the 2026 NBA Draft.

The team could use fresh young talent as much as the next. Trading into the draft isn’t out of the question; new ownership seems aggressive enough to make a big splash, by all accounts. The Yang Hansen selection from last season was proof that if this front office really likes a prospect, they will stick their neck out to get him.

The Blazers’ biggest need is three-point shooting. They were the third-worst three-point-shooting team last season, despite shooting the third most threes. Any player they trade into the draft to get should undoubtedly be able to light it up from distance.

Blazers Draft Targets:

Cameron Carr — G/F — Baylor

If there’s anyone the Blazers decide to pay a first-round price for in a trade to go and get, it has to be Carr.

The 6-foot-5 wing has range from distance, length to defend with, and the shooting splits to prove how good his jumper looks. He torched the NBA Draft Combine scrimmage, and he would be a perfect fit as a shoot-first wing on the Blazers.

The problem is that many teams could use a player like Carr, so Portland would have to give up a hefty package to get to a spot where they could take him.

Trevon Brazile — F — Arkansas

In all likelihood, if the Blazers are going to add a player from this draft class, it’s going to be via an undrafted signing, like they did with Caleb Love last year.

If no one takes Trevon Brazile in the 2026 NBA Draft, he would fit the mold of previous Cronin-era draft choices, which are size, athleticism and potential.

Brazile is a freak athlete with a nearly 7-foot-4 wingspan who can shoot a little bit from deep. He seems to lack a natural feel for the game and a championship-level motor, but it’s rare to be able to snag an undrafted player of his caliber of athleticism. He could be worth a flier for Portland. 

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Tyler Bilodeau — F — UCLA

The Blazers need shooting, and Tyler Bilodeau can really shoot the ball. 

Bilodeau shot 43.8% from distance on 3.6 attempts per game during his two seasons at UCLA and was a 50/40/80 player overall. His lack of foot speed and athleticism will undoubtedly make defense a challenge for him, no matter where he goes, but anyone who can shoot the ball as well as Bilodeau deserves a chance in the NBA. If no one else takes him, look for Portland to sign him to a two-way contract.

The post Portland Trail Blazers 2026 NBA Draft Preview appeared first on The Lead.

On Thursday, at the Blazers’ end-of-season interviews, General Manager Joe Cronin shared that he had presented a trade to the owner-in-waiting, Tom Dundon, at the trade deadline, to which Dundon gave the green light.

According to Cronin, that trade would have:

• Launched Portland into the “Tax” close to the first apron
• Saved the other team a bunch of money
• Given Portland a “nice, young asset”
• Forced Dundon to write a check for $20 million because of the taxes

Those four pieces of information are more than enough to make a guess as to who Cronin was targeting at the 2026 deadline. Based on the details Cronin shared and utilizing the internet to learn about the NBA’s luxury tax penalties, the player who would have been the centerpiece of this deal is crystal clear.

Clue 1: Would Have Saved the Other Team a Bunch of Money

The first thing to look at is the teams that were over the luxury tax heading into the trade deadline by more than $5 million, which would have constituted them being saved “a bunch of money” by going through with a salary-dump-style trade. Those teams are:

• Magic ($5.5 million over)
• Clippers ($6.7 million)
• Rockets ($6.8 million)
• Lakers ($6.9 million)
• 76ers ($7.0 million)
• Celtics ($12 million)
• Timberwolves ($14.6 million)
• Mavericks ($16.8 million) 
• Warriors ($19.2 million)
• Knicks ($19.8 million)
• Cavaliers ($40.7 million)

These are our starting list of teams we will work from.

From there, there are a few we can eliminate based on the assumption that the team in this trade was focused on their finances, which would not have been the case for some bona fide contenders (or teams that believe they’re competing, at least). 

That eliminates the Knicks and Cavaliers. James Dolan is all in on the Knicks winning the title this year, and Dan Gilbert, clearly, does not care how much he has to spend to try and win a title.

Clue 2: Portland Would Have Received a Nice Young Asset

The team Portland is trading with in this scenario would have supposedly traded a young player to the Blazers. That eliminates a few teams.

The Clippers were the oldest team ever before bringing in young players. The Mavericks are trying to pivot to a Cooper Flagg timeline and offloaded AD.

That cuts the list down to seven teams.

Clues 3 & 4: Portland Would Have Pushed Up Against 1st Apron and Paid $20 Million

This final clue lets us project that whatever nice, young asset Portland received would have been roughly $7 million more than whatever Portland shipped out. 

Why $7 million? Because first, the Blazers currently have $7,094,491 of room before they hit the 1st Apron; that figure was slightly different, but only negligibly, before the Vit Krecji trade. 

Second, that $7 million figure matches the $20 million penalty that Dundon would have had to pay for going over the tax line. 

So, if a team does not have a “nice, young asset” who is making at least $7 million per year, then they are eliminated.

Which Teams Don’t Have Young, Tradable Assets?

That gets rid of:

• Timberwolves — the Wolves were not getting rid of anyone in the core rotation, and their young pieces are all on inexpensive contracts
• Celtics — unless it was us getting Anfernee back, they only have young players on small contracts
• Lakers — Jake LaRavia comes close to the price at a $6mil AAV, and maybe counts as a nice, young asset, but hard to believe that we’d be willing to pay $20 million for LaRavia. Furthermore, L.A. dipped under the tax by trading away Gabe Vincent, who is surely not a young asset. The Lakers want to stay young in general.
• Rockets — Adding Reed Sheppard would have made little sense for Portland, and it would have made even less sense for Houston to move Sheppard just to save money when they have been devoid of a PG all season and were pushing for a title with KD. The rest of the pieces don’t fit the bill
• Magic — Anthony Black works for the formula; however, even though the Magic struggled throughout the year, there’s no way they were willing to give up one of their good players just to save some money, even if the Blazers offered them every pick they possibly could. They just traded away their future for Desmond Bane

Who Is Left in the Blazers’ Trade?

What we’re left with are the Warriors and the 76ers.

The Warriors make sense because with Butler tearing his ACL, dumping expensive players to save some money and re-positioning themselves for next season could have been on the table.

The 76ers make a ton of sense because they actually enacted one of these trades with the Thunder in the form of Jared McCain. However, McCain, when it comes to this scenario, was on too cheap a contract.

That leaves three potential players that fit the bill:

• Quentin Grimes – 76ers
• Moses Moody – Warriors
• Jonathan Kuminga – Warriors

Giving Cronin credit, it’s hard to believe that he would have thought trading for Kuminga, who can’t shoot, would have made any logical sense for the Blazers to trade for. Portland already has plenty of athletic wings who can’t shoot.

Moses Moody would have been a pretty solid pickup for the Blazers in a trade. He can shoot and defend, and he’s on a really team-friendly contract. Too team-friendly for the Warriors, who have been dying for consistent play from their role players, to want to move on from.

The Blazers Almost Traded for Quentin Grimes

This leaves us with Quentin Grimes, which makes perfect sense.

The 76ers offloaded salaries to save money at the 2026 trade deadline. They dumped McCain’s $4.4 million contract and Eric Gordon’s $3.6 million contract for a total dump of $8 million. Grimes is making $8.7 million this year.

Quentin Grimes makes a ton of sense for the Blazers. He can shoot, which was a need that Cronin not only admitted to in the same press conference from Thursday, but was one the Blazers addressed in the form of Krecji. 

Grimes is a good player, but as he’s on the final year of his deal, he likely wasn’t worth a whole lot on the trade market, nothing the Blazers couldn’t pay, certainly. The 76ers were clearly trying to move one of him or McCain, given that they have a dynamic young starting backcourt in Tyrese Maxey and VJ Edgecombe.

Grimes is also a nice, young asset, given that he’s only 25 years old.

What likely ended up happening (speculating) is that the Blazers had put an offer for Grimes on the table with the 76ers. However, the Thunder, with their chest of draft assets, came over the top of that offer, giving the 76ers a first-round pick and a few second-round picks, opting to snag McCain instead of Grimes, because McCain is on a cheaper contract.

Would This Have Been a Good Trade for the Blazers?

It’s impossible to truly say whether the deal would have been good for Portland, given there’s no knowledge of just how many draft assets the Blazers gave up.

However, since Portland was able to make it all the way to the No. 7 seed without Grimes, and since Grimes is an unrestricted free agent who could walk for nothing this offseason, it’s safe to say that the Blazers accomplished all they could without Grimes anyway, and it’s probably for the best that they saved some draft capital for another day.

The post Blazers’ GM Joe Cronin Hints at Trade Deadline Move…What Was It? appeared first on The Lead.

In the Rip City Rising Ownership Group’s introductory press conference, majority owner Tom Dundon said, in reference to rumors about him moving the team, “You’re welcome to write what you want because if we get attention for the Portland Trail Blazers, I appreciate it.”

Dundon must be extremely grateful then for all the headlines his antics have generated since taking over the team.

The list of spending-related cuts Tom Dundon has amassed in less than a month, since he took over the Blazers, is lengthy, to say the least. NBA fans typically pay no mind to hotel checkouts, masseuses, or even whether or not two-way players are on the bench during the playoffs.

But because he enacted multiple of these frugal measures at once, while the team is in the middle of a dream playoff appearance — its first in five seasons — Dundon has created a perfect media storm of disgrace.

Not only are news stories rampant, but the jokes are top-of-the-line as well.

Through this mess, Dundon has turned himself into an early villain. Blazer fans’ disdain for his shenanigans is running rampant in chats and comment sections.

Thankfully, as the team keeps winning, that disdain has not spilled out onto the court. In fact, it’s actually united the Blazers fanbase in a way.

Portland Gear Appeases Tom Dundon’s T-Shirt Travesty

Of the list of cost-cutting measures, nothing has irked sports fans, not just Blazer fans, more than when President Dewayne Hankins came out publicly and said that the team would not be providing attendees free t-shirts for Game 3 of their series against the Spurs.

In response to the vitriol on Twitter, minority owner Sheel Tyle, perceived in the early stages of ownership as the “good cop” to Dundon’s “bad cop”, alluded to a different giveaway that fans will receive.

Friday night will determine whether or not the new gift will live up to the mighty standard of a t-shirt. However, one company has decided it would not stand idle and watch a cohort of excited Blazer fans be deprived of a t-shirt.

Portland Gear, a now-national brand founded by Portland native Marcus Harvey, has taken on the challenge of providing fans who can show proof of a ticket to Game 3 with a free shirt. 

“I love Portland,” said Harvey when asked why he wanted to enact this giveaway. “I’ve just been a Blazer fan and a Rip City fan my whole life and, I don’t know, [it’s] a little moment to show some love to the city that helped make us.”

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While Harvey could only make a few hundred shirts, not enough for the nearly 20,000 people who will be in attendance, his ability to capitalize on the opportunity Blazers ownership opened was met with resounding praise and admiration.

Fans lined up outside the Portland Gear store in downtown Portland as early as 7:30 am to be one of the 200 to receive a shirt.

“They Love Me, They Love Me Not” – Tiago Splitter

Despite being thrown into the fire from the second game of the season on, bringing Portland to the playoffs and now into a tied series against the Spurs, Tom Dundon has reportedly been searching the market for potential head coaches, including ones who would take abnormally minuscule salaries.

While the news reports have caused a frenzy in media circles, what Dundon is doing is exactly what Blazer fans were begging for not even two months ago. 

Blazer fans did not regard Tiago Splitter as a good head coach over the course of this year. All over social media, they blamed him for several losses and asked for the Blazers to move on from him at the end of the season.

Now, it’s blasphemous to think that he hasn’t earned an opportunity to coach the team moving forward.

The Blazers’ end-of-season success has obviously been the biggest help to his credibility, but by undermining this playoff run, Dundon has galvanized the Blazers’ fanbase into Splitter’s good graces. 

The thought of trading Splitter in for a less experienced coach on a pennies-on-the-dollar salary is ludicrous. Whether it’s through purposeful positioning or accidental ignorance, Dundon has made Splitter the de facto best option for next season, and Blazer fans are now behind the Brazilian through and through.

Splitter has dispelled any notion that Dundon’s antics have crept into the locker room. If anything, it’s likely strengthened their bond. The players have dedicated themselves to each other and to Splitter all season. There is very little doubt that they won’t fight tooth and nail to keep him with the team next season.

If Tom Dundon is the villain in this story, Tiago Splitter can become the hero.

Blazer Fans Wanted Jody Allen Gone and Got Their Wish

The only thing that Blazer fans agreed on when it came to the team’s previous owner, Jody Allen, who took over for her brother Paul Allen and ran the team for seven years, was the fact that she lived in the shadows.

Her lethargy spilled over into the fanbase. In a stretch of years mired by purposeful tanking and the pushing out of franchise pillar Damian Lillard, culminating in an FBI raid at the house of Chauncey Billups, no one really knew what to think about the Blazers. 

Four years of tanking had left the franchise in a boring state. The casual Blazer fan didn’t really exist. The only ones consistently watching the team were diehards.

In comes Tom Dundon, and a wave of excitement pours over the fanbase.

“We finally have an owner who CARES,” some said. “This guy wants to WIN,” said others. “Look at how good the Carolina Hurricanes are,” everyone noted.

Now, just a few short weeks later, fans are seeing the dark side of Dundon’s no-waste ways. While few fans want to see their billionaire owner slash spending on the margins, what’s undeniable is that everyone is talking about him.

The Portland Trail Blazers have been a part of very few headlines the past four years. It’s always an uphill battle to keep the lone team in the Pacific Northwest relevant, and their standing in the league had done them no favors on that front. 

Now? They’re a hot commodity in the headlines and on podcasts. It isn’t for the right reasons, but just ask Tom Dundon — he’ll tell you that doesn’t matter. What matters is winning, and right now the Blazers are doing that too.

We Are All Allies in the Fight Against Tom Dundon

Thanks to Tom Dundon, Blazer fans, for the first time in a long time, have things they can all agree on.

We all want t-shirts. We all want Tiago Splitter (if the alternative is the Saint Louis University coach). We all want Caleb Love on the bench. We all want late checkouts.

If the team shows Dundon on the jumbotron during Game 3, fans will likely boo him. Less than four weeks into his tenure, that’s the reality Dundon has created.

But unlike the murmuring boos that Chauncey Billups received throughout his career, these will be fun, fresh, laughable boos. Boos everyone will understand. Boos that everyone can get behind.

Dundon has made it clear in his stints as an owner, with both Portland and Carolina, that winning trumps everything. He said in his introductory press conference that he cares about being liked, but that it’s “lower on the list of things he cares about.”

If Tom Dundon ends up being the scapegoat that galvanizes Rip City and re-ignites this fanbase, which has been dormant for half a decade, so long as the team is winning, my guess is he’ll wear that badge with pride.

The post Is Tom Dundon the Villain Portland Trail Blazers Fans Need? appeared first on The Lead.

Trade season in the NBA is heating up as the Feb. 5 trade deadline approaches. 

On Sunday, the Atlanta Hawks sent Vit Krejci to the Portland Trail Blazers for Duop Reath and two future second-round picks. The initial reaction to this trade is confusion from the Hawks’ perspective. However, if you really think about it, this trade makes sense for all parties involved.

Trail Blazers Get an Upgrade

For the Trail Blazers, Krejci solves a big problem and is on a cheap deal. They rank dead last in the NBA in three-point percentage (33.6%) despite ranking third in the league in attempts per game (41.7 3PA). On the season, Krejci is shooting 42.3% from three on a career-high 5.2 attempts per game. 

The best part of the trade for Portland is the fact that Krejci is on a league-minimum salary ($2.3 million). He is also under contract next season ($2.6 million) and has a club option worth $3 million for the 2027-2028 season. 

Simply put, the Trail Blazers are getting a very usable player at a very reasonable price. Krejci had an incredible stretch for Atlanta earlier in the season. During a four-game road trip from Nov. 10 to Nov. 16, Krejci shot 18-28 from three-point range (64.3%) and averaged 16.5 points per game.  

The best game Krejci played this season was against the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 10. He scored 28 points and made eight threes in 10 attempts to lead the Hawks to a win. 

Hawks Had No Room

With how well Krejci was playing this season for the Hawks, it may come as a surprise that Atlanta moved him. The addition of Corey Kispert congested the wing rotation for the Hawks. Combine that with Zaccharie Risacher returning to the lineup recently, and Head Coach Quin Snyder was becoming unable to find minutes for Krejci. Luke Kennard has also been playing well as of late, so Snyder has preferred to play him more.

The reality is that Krejci, Kennard, and Kispert all have similar archetypes—great shooters who aren’t great at defense. Unlike Portland, the Hawks haven’t had a problem with shooting this season. Atlanta ranks seventh in three-point percentage (37.2%) and eighth in three-pointers made per game (14.5).

Over his last five games, Krejci has played just 11.2 minutes per game compared to his season average of 22.3 minutes per game. He has also been struggling to shoot the basketball. Over his last 10 games, Krejci is shooting 37% from the field and 25% from three.

The problem is that Krejci doesn’t provide much value on the court outside of his three-point shooting. When he has a cold stretch, it is hard to find him minutes—especially when there are two other players at his position with similar archetypes.   

Building For the Future

Hawks General Manager Onsi Saleh has been very big on “optionality.” While this trade doesn’t save the Hawks money, they are already under the luxury tax. In the trade, Atlanta gained their own 2027 second-round pick back, along with a New York Knicks 2030 second-round pick, per Jake Fischer.

Although it hasn’t happened yet, the Hawks could waive Reath. Unfortunately, he suffered a foot injury and required season-ending surgery. Given that he is already on an expiring deal, Atlanta can free up a roster spot by waiving him. 

With this trade, the Hawks now possess seven second-round picks. Atlanta is also in a great position financially, with plenty of roster flexibility. Ever since the Dejounte Murray trade in 2022, the Hawks have been able to recoup assets and reset the future of the franchise.

Everyone is Happy

In the end, both organizations will walk away from this deal as winners. Portland gets a wing shooter they desperately need, and Atlanta gets two draft picks to stack assets. Krejci also goes to a team where he is needed and will see plenty of playing time. The unfortunate part of the deal is that Reath will likely never contribute to the Hawks.

It may not be the biggest trade ever, but it makes sense for both teams. Atlanta is making deals with their future beyond this season in mind. While they feel strong about their core, the Hawks’ roster is not in a position to be a championship-caliber team in the Eastern Conference. As for the Trail Blazers, shooting will always carry value in the NBA, and they got a great one for cheap that will have an immediate impact.    

The post The Atlanta Hawks Trading Vit Krejci Makes Sense appeared first on The Lead.

Dear Giannis Antetokounmpo,

If there really is an offer on the table, and all that stands between you and starting a new chapter of your career with the Trail Blazers is your desire to play in Portland, then hear me out.

There are indeed things that the city of Portland cannot give you. 

Portland cannot get any closer to Greece. I’m sure that being near your home country, family and the people you are closest with is extremely important in your decision. Portland also cannot provide a year-round warm climate akin to Athens (although I’m sure you’ll find the early fall and late spring months to be extremely pleasant in the Pacific Northwest).

But what Portland lacks in regional accessibility, it makes up for in atmosphere.

For all the glory that Milwaukee and Wisconsin showered you with for delivering them a championship in 2021, that’s coming from a place where football is king. 

Portland is wholeheartedly and undeniably a basketball town. The City of Roses has no other competition for its prestige. Winning a title in Portland is an accomplishment that will never be trounced.

And that pedigree goes beyond the city of Portland and the state of Oregon. A nationally acclaimed little brother to its counterpart, Seattle, Portland is often scoffed at and passed aside within its own little part of the country. But Portland has the one thing that Seattle covets most: an NBA team. Bring a title to Portland, and you’ll forever go down as the Pacific Northwest’s greatest athlete.

Portland cares for its players, its celebrities, and anyone who hails from our state. Just ask Channing Frye, Robin Lopez, and, of course, your former teammate and friend, Damian Lillard, why they came back to PDX. Even if it is far from Athens, it can serve as another home.

The talent on the roster, the fit with the team, the basketball reasons why the Trail Blazers do or don’t make sense are all things you know more about than I. 

But what I do know, what I can guarantee you, is that no other city in the NBA will cherish you in your quest for another championship more than Rip City.

Sincerely,

Portland Trail Blazer Fans

The post Dear Giannis Antetokounmpo, Sincerely, Portland Trail Blazers Fans appeared first on The Lead.

This series of articles takes five shots at predicting trades that will go down at the 2025-26 NBA trade deadline. The second one has the Lakers and Blazers swapping role players to address each of their respective biggest needs: defense and shooting.

POR Gets:

Rui Hachimura

LAL Gets:

Robert Williams III

Kris Murray

POR 2027 2nd

ATL 2027 2nd

MIN 2027 2nd

Why Trading for Rui Hachimura Makes Sense for the Blazers

Ask any Blazers fan, and they will tell you that the team’s biggest weakness is their three-point shooting. Portland has pieced together a .500 record despite having the second-worst three-point shooting percentage in the league. 

Deni Avdija has turned into a full-fledged star, and his game is built on drive and kick opportunities — he’s averaging more than 20 drives and 2.7 assists off those drives per game. A stationary shooter such as Hachimura, who is shooting over 40% this season, to roam the arc and knock down catch-and-shoot threes is exactly the release valve that Avdija and the Blazers are looking for to round out their depth chart.

https://twitter.com/HiddenNBA/status/1982092441663754395

Robert Williams III and Kris Murray have both been very valuable to Portland this season. Williams has been necessary as a backup big while Yang Hansen learns how to do just about everything necessary to be an NBA player, all the way down to speaking the English language. However, the front office likely feels that Yang is more a part of the future than Williams; if they didn’t believe in the Chinese prospect, they wouldn’t have taken such a big swing in drafting him.

Murray has started numerous times in the absence of other wing options who missed time due to injury. While he is a stout defender, he is not a good shooter by any stretch of the imagination. His role and skills are also duplicative to those of Rayan Rupert, who has been a step below Murray in terms of production, but is four years younger. 

Blazers Roster Is Full

Portland is also looking to open up two roster spots for two-way breakout role players Caleb Love and Sidy Cissoko. This trade would cover one of those openings. 

The Blazers currently have four second-round picks in 2027, and with a roster that’s already full, they won’t need many, if any, of them. The Lakers could likely ask for a fourth pick and get it if they want. 

Why Trading for Robert Williams III and Kris Murray Makes Sense for the Lakers

The Lakers are a very poor defensive team right now, and that’s been the case for the majority of the season. Swapping out a shoot-first wing for a defense-first wing would help shore up their biggest weakness, even if Murray is a flawed player. 

Williams has been healthy this season, and while his track record for injuries is not good by any means, he at least is showing he can put together a successful season if rested properly. He also brings a defensive focus to the roster and would be a welcome sight for JJ Redick, who has no doubt been frustrated with the bloody-minded frontcourt duo of Deandre Ayton and Jaxson Hayes. 

Lakers Need Draft Capital

But perhaps the biggest prize of this trade for the Lakers would be the bevy of second-round draft picks. The Lakers currently hold just six draft selections through 2032. They have just one in the next two seasons — their own 2026 first-round pick.

The Lakers very likely will look towards free agency over the next two seasons to rebuild their roster. They have LeBron’s pricy contract coming off the books after this season, along with three other medium-sized contracts that are set to expire (Hachimura’s included). 

Chasing players in free agency is a viable strategy for the Lakers, who are obviously a desired market, but it’s an expensive one. Add in the impending Reaves extension, and the money left for role players to round out the roster will shrink rapidly.

Hitting on second-round draft picks is the best way to fill out those 10th-15th man spots, and if they turn into high-quality players, they pair extremely well with superstars for roster construction. The Lakers will not be able to go very far without drafting some usable players, and they need draft picks to do so.

The amount of assets Portland could give Los Angeles for a player that helps them really only on the side of the ball they’re already good at would benefit them in the long run. 

Why This Trade Won’t Happen

The Blazers need Hachimura’s shooting talent, but not too much more so than the Lakers, who are the seventh-worst three-point shooting team themselves. Letting him go for a wing who doesn’t really do anything better than Jarred Vanderbilt would be difficult to reconcile. 

While Robert Williams has played regularly this season, he is a fragile player. The market for him might still be weak. 

The Lakers do need second-round picks, but there’s likely to be plenty of teams around the league who could offer a chest of second-round picks and would like to do so for a 40+% three-point shooter. 

Lastly, the Blazers and Lakers don’t trade with one another. The rival franchises have only ever done so twice in their histories, with the last one coming in 1980.

The post What If the Blazers Trade Robert Williams to Lakers for Rui Hachimura? appeared first on The Lead.

Yes, the Blazers are extremely shorthanded; they’ve lost three point guards and one of their 20-point-per-game scorers to injury. However, that does not excuse the lack of execution and poor play from the healthy players who did suit up tonight, especially the ones who are supposed to be the future of this franchise.

The Blazers had a chance to pull off a 21-point comeback against the Pistons. Cade Cunningham, the current favorite to win the Clutch Player of the Year award, fouled out with 8:30 left to go. Portland even held a one-point lead.

But collectively, Portland’s young core choked. They let a Cade-less Pistons team swipe an avalanche of momentum from their grasp. With the help of the Blazers, Detroit showed Rip City why they’ve only lost six games all year.

Did Shaedon Sharpe Play Well?

Shaedon Sharpe was masterful when shooting the basketball inside the arc tonight. Turn around mid-range shots, baseline pull-ups, transition dunks, acrobatic layups with a kiss of the glass — he had it all. 

He also added five steals, which was the only saving grace for the fact that he had eight turnovers.

Eight! 

No two were bigger than the two at the end of the game. Ausar Thompson picked his pocket for a free dunk to bring the lead back to three points for Detroit. And then, in dire need of a bucket, Shaedon stepped back and onto the sideline in front of the Pistons’ bench.

Deni Avdija Needs to Fix the Foul Fixation

Watching Deni Avdija, it feels like his incessant desire to get fouled is starting to affect his play. It doesn’t help that when he kicks the ball out to someone that, more likely than not, they’re a sub-30-percent three-point shooter, but Deni has struggled finishing on his drives. Through nine games in December, he’s shot above 50% on twos just three times. Against Detroit, he couldn’t figure out when to shoot or when to pass and looked extremely uncomfortable doing both.

Free throws are his biggest offensive weapon, and he’s been great at them for the most part. He secured three huge trips to the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, but missed the front end each time. It’s not the first time he’s held the Blazers back at the stripe in a tight contest.

Deni was playing great defense at the end of the game, though. No moment was more indicative of that than when he locked up Tobias Harris and forced him into a side-step three-point look as the shot clock was expiring. He even got a small piece of the ball on the shot…but the ref called it a foul.

Tiago Splitter used his second and final coach’s challenge to successfully overturn the ruling. However, on this missed shot attempt, even though the ball landed in Clingan’s hands, the refs ruled not only that there was no imminent possession for Portland, but also that the shot clock would reset. The Pistons would win the ensuing jump ball and score two more points, wasting a full 17 seconds in the process.

Sidy Cissoko Shines Bright

Sidy Cissoko was Portland’s brightest player against the Pistons. In a game in which the Blazers lost by eight points, he was a +11 in 27 minutes. He finished with 16 points thanks to his 10-of-13 performance at the free-throw line. 

Blazers Not a Winning Team Yet

This Blazer team is playing at a severe talent disadvantage nearly every night with how many key players are hurt for them. That makes the jobs of everyone who is talented much harder. 

But in a coin flip game, when it was four of Portland’s regular starters out on the court, aided by a two-way player having one of the best two-way games of his career, up against a team without their go-to clutch scorer, at home, the Blazers need to find a way to pull out a win; there’s no other way around it. 

The post Blazers Do Hard Part in Pistons Comeback, Choke Game Away appeared first on The Lead.

No, the Blazers should not trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo.

The Portland Trail Blazers are not one player away from being title favorites, even if that player is Giannis.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are on pace to be the best NBA team of all time. Even if Portland were to add Giannis to its roster, the Thunder’s best player would be better than the Blazers’. So would their second-best player, as well as their third-best player — all the way down to the end of the bench.

Adding Giannis would catapult Portland into the upper-Western-Conference discussions, sure. But that theoretical squad would be dependent on a roster of young players with zero playoff experience, a Damian Lillard who is coming off an Achilles tear, and a Jrue Holiday who has played in half of the Blazers’ 22 games this season.

And that’s ignoring the fact that to make the trade feasible, the Blazers would have to give up Jerami Grant, at least one of their young, budding prospects, and likely one other role player. That thins out Portland’s depth drastically.

The Blazers have far too many boxes to check and milestones to complete before they can consider themselves one move away — even if that one move is adding Giannis Antetokounmpo. The correct path to title contention is to build a strong foundation and wait.

However…

Just because the Blazers shouldn’t trade FOR Giannis doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t try to involve themselves in the Giannis trade.

Get In There and Make It About You, Portland

As part of the Damian Lillard trade to Milwaukee back in 2023, the Blazers own the rights to a pick swap with the Bucks in 2028 and 2030, and currently own the best and worst of the Bucks’, Celtics’ and Blazers’ picks in 2029 (the middle pick belongs to Washington as part of the Deni Avdija trade).

That means Portland owns Milwaukee’s destiny from 2028-2030. If the Bucks want that back, they’re going to have to give Joe Cronin a phone call.

The Blazers can be the middleman of a blockbuster deal, administering the necessary draft capital in return for a roster upgrade from a team that isn’t Milwaukee.

Last offseason, when the Giannis trade rumors were doing warmup stretches on the sideline, Antetokounmpo reportedly signaled that he would like to be traded to the Knicks. 

The issue with that deal is that the Knicks have little to no draft assets or young prospects to deal out. The Nets own their future, and their roster is made to win now. 

Enter Portland. 

The Blazers could include Milwaukee’s draft picks to get a Giannis to New York deal over the finish line. In return, Portland could upgrade its Sixth Man of the Year candidate, Jerami Grant, to a young, All-NBA-defense-team candidate and champion in OG Anunoby.

The math works out if Milwaukee is willing to accept Karl-Anthony Towns in the deal:

New York would upgrade Towns for Giannis without sacrificing their depth. The Bucks would get their future back and what’s left of the Knicks’, and the Blazers get a younger, better wing option to pair with their growing team.

Does Giannis Fit With the Blazers?

Ultimately, if the Giannis deal is on the table at a reasonable price, it’s almost impossible to really say no. The Blazers are likely welcoming a new owner before the 2026 offseason commences; who knows what Tom Dundon wants to do? 

Pairing Antetokounmpo with the rising Deni Avdija would make one of, if not the best, duos in the NBA. The size and power the two would bring night in and night out would be daunting. Opponents would leave the Moda Center battered and bruised with the two blasting through the painting to the rim for 48 minutes. 

Avdija can shoot the three well, so the spacing isn’t atrocious, but their games do overlap in similarities; the Blazers would make the free-throw line their playground.

It’s a promising strategy, and one that would give them a chance for a deep playoff run. 

But in the end, a potential rental on a 32-year-old superstar who has only become more injured as time has gone on is a massive risk.

And even if it were to hit just right, that wouldn’t make the Blazers the favorites in the West.

Portland, like every other team in the NBA, has to make a series of great moves over the next few years and hope the Thunder’s hot streak cools off in the worst way.

The post Should the Trail Blazers Trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo? appeared first on The Lead.