While the Portland Trail Blazers' offseason moves don't add up from a roster construction standpoint for a rebuilding team, they make much more sense when considering that the franchise is up for sale.
After signing Blake Wesley, Portland now has all 15 roster spots accounted for, with just one two-way deal remaining. Here is a breakdown of their roster moves this summer:
Out: Jabari Walker, Dalano Banton, Deandre Ayton, and Anfernee Simons.
In: Yang Hansen, Jrue Holiday, Damian Lillard, and Wesley.
Blazers' impending sale may be driving Joe Cronin's offseason decisions
The subtractions from Portland's roster weren't surprising. Walker and Banton were free agents and fringe rotational players, while Ayton and Simons were on expiring deals and in the way of Donovan Clingan and Scoot Henderson -- two recent top ten picks that Portland needed to make more of a priority.
However, they contradicted that with their puzzling additions. Hansen now makes Clingan's future in Portland murkier, while Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard (when healthy) are going to make it more difficult for Henderson to earn a starting role.
John Hollinger of The Athletic went in-depth on Lillard's return to Portland, Hansen being the talk of summer league, and how this all fits into the scheme of things for a Blazers franchise that is up for sale. He brings up a key point surrounding how the Blazers' impending sale is impacting Joe Cronin's roster decision-making.
"If you're one of those people who likes to plot out multi-layered conspiracies with charts and arrows, there's also plenty of room for that type of thinking. Between the impending sale of the team, the Lillard move, and the surprise selection of Chinese center Yang Hansen in the first round of June's draft, a lot of the conversation in Vegas was about whether the Blazers are making purely basketball decisions right now. How much does the optics for a potential buyer influence the basketball choices?"
Just look at the data from the Blazers' first summer league game, where they recorded 5.2 million viewers in China. For context, generational prospect Cooper Flagg's debut drew 1.1 million American viewers.
The NBA is a global game, and Portland is adapting with more international players on their roster than any other team. That, combined with Lillard's return, is making the Blazers much more relevant in the basketball world. Whether or not these moves are in the best interest of their long-term outlook is a valid question. But for Cronin and the Blazers, that may not matter as much as fans would hope. After all, the NBA is a business, and the Blazers have clearly made business decisions this summer.