Blazers worst offseason move: Overall handling of the Damian Lillard situation
The Blazers worst offseason moves listed above, particularly waiving Trendon Watford and signing Jerami Grant, made more sense if the Blazers were indeed set on building a contender around Lillard. Instead, the Blazers did exactly what they’ve repeatedly done in the past – trying to toe the line between two roster timelines. They drafted Scoot Henderson at pick No. 3 and signed Jerami Grant to a massive contract.
The decision to keep the pick and select Henderson to rebuild was likely the right move and the Blazers’ most realistic path to winning another championship. The knock on Cronin’s handling of the Lillard situation isn’t Portland’s ultimate decision to rebuild – it’s that they were so adamant that they were going all in with their chips and willing to trade young assets to get there.
This is what Joe Cronin said at the trade deadline.
— Aaron J. Fentress (@AaronJFentress) July 2, 2023
He did not follow through. And maybe for good reason. Moving forward with young talent is not a bad move.
However, that does ZERO for Lillard. He was 100% in the right to ask out.
Now, send him to his choice destination. pic.twitter.com/FRahbVDWsm
“We’re going to be ridiculously aggressive… we feel extremely obligated to put a great roster around Damian Lillard… we’ve had many conversations about how important it is for us to do right by Damian, and we plan to do that.”
Had they decided to go the rebuilding route earlier, it would have been more manageable and factored into previous moves. It was the underlying issue that contributed to the other Blazers’ worst moves this offseason.
Not only that, but it did Damian Lillard wrong by repeatedly going on record to say that the team would get him help. Lillard has been so loyal to the Blazers’ franchise when many other superstars would’ve left a long time ago and is arguably their best player of all time. He deserved more transparency throughout this entire process.