The Portland Trail Blazers overlooked a poor roster fit to buy low on a talented yet polarizing star in Ja Morant. This surprising trade signals a shift in their trade approach under new owner Tom Dundon: acquiring distressed assets, stockpiling talent, and figuring out how they all best fit together later.
It's hard to argue with the results after seeing Dundon's Carolina Hurricanes recently win the Stanley Cup. Still, it's fair to wonder how effectively this will translate to the NBA, a league that, by Dundon's own admission, he's still trying to figure out.
It's not too far off from what GM Joe Cronin was already doing throughout this Blazers rebuild. For instance, they took a first-round draft flyer on Yang Hansen just one year after landing their center of the future, Donovan Clingan. But it also felt as though this recent playoff appearance and Dundon's winning mentality were a turning point in this rebuild.
Trail Blazers continue to prioritize the future
With so much talk about Portland being a wild-card team to watch for a team having expressed interest in several stars this summer, it feels pretty underwhelming to come away with Morant. He was the one star no teams seemed to have really wanted, hence the fact that they viewed it as good value not to have to sacrifice draft capital.
Still, the fact that the Blazers are seemingly still in stockpiling assets mode rather than prioritizing roster fit shows that they continue to play the long game. In the scheme of things, that's far better than the alternative of new-owner syndrome, making an aggressive all-in move that sets the franchise back for years to come.
We're still seeing the aftermath of Mat Ishbia's blockbuster Kevin Durant deal that backfired in Phoenix. They've done a relatively good job of climbing out of that hole, but essentially remain in no man's land with no true shot at contention.
Had Giannis Antetokounmpo been willing to commit long-term to staying here, that would be one thing, but Portland was at least self-aware enough to know they likely weren't just a Jaylen Brown piece away from competing with the likes of the Spurs and Thunder in the West.
It's disappointing for Damian Lillard's closing window, as the Blazers front office has essentially admitted they are continuing to prioritize the future through their conservative moves.
But if this team wants to maximize its shot at actually winning it all, it's in their best interest to continue playing the long game. They are well positioned for their young core to reach its prime just as those valuable Milwaukee Bucks picks will convey. That's going to be their true window of opportunity to contend, and that's when an all-in move makes more sense.
In the meantime, Lillard and Blazers fans will have to remain patient with a roster that doesn't make much sense on paper, setting up for what should be an entertaining but confusing season.
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