Trail Blazers new owner Tom Dundon has made headlines for all the wrong reasons during his initial stint in Portland, particularly for his controversial cost-cutting measures. Those reports are certainly concerning to varying degrees, from fans not receiving shirts at home playoff games to timely hotel checkouts to two-way signings not being allowed to travel to San Antonio.
Those seemingly small things compound over time and could even negatively impact Portland's ability to either convince players to come or retain current players. When you're not a glamour market or a historic franchise, you have to excel at these small things to give yourselves an advantage elsewhere. That's something teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs have done well, for instance.
At the same time, Dundon deserves the benefit of the doubt before fans are too quick to judge. We've seen the success he's had turning around the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes, and if similar success comes to the Blazers, these relatively minor headlines won't matter in the scheme of things.
Tom Dundon still has a chance to change the narrative
The worst one was not allowing the two-way players to travel, as Portland was the only playoff team that made that decision. It was hard to see Caleb Love in particular being left out after the regular-season contributions he's made. However, general manager Joe Cronin took the blame for that messy situation at the Blazers ' end-of-season exit interview. For what it's worth, that decision was also reversed in Game 5, when those two-way players finally traveled with the team to San Antonio.
More generally, Cronin made it clear that he didn't agree with the narrative being created surrounding Dundon's stubbornness.
"Seeing those reports and some of those things, for me it was somewhat disturbing because I've gotten the opportunity to know Tom Dundon really, really well these last nine, 10 months, and it's just not an accurate depiction of what his goals are," Cronin said.
That should be reassuring for Blazers fans who are understandably concerned with who is really taking over this franchise. I'd approach it with cautious optimism for now, but I do think the dust will eventually settle.
One rumor that has absolutely gotten out of control is Dundon's low-ball offers for Portland's next head coach. They should've waited until the Blazers postseason concluded, as it was a disservice to the job Tiago Splitter has done to conduct the search right when he has this team back into the playoffs. But in terms of price, Cronin said he wasn't concerned that Dundon would be willing or able to hit the necessary number to land the right person for the job.
While these cost-cutting measures are annoying and even concerning, Blazers fans haven't had the chance to see how this plays out in full. Cronin added that Dundon will "spend when it touches the players and the players are always gonna be supported."
Maybe we can find a better balance in willingness to spend on the margins going forward. There's more to a successfully run franchise than just the players on the roster. But at least the Blazers are going to invest in their players. That's how non-glamour markets succeed. And that's how Portland will gain an advantage in this new Dundon era, despite the controversial start.
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