The Portland Trail Blazers have been pretty quiet this offseason. Yes, they landed a star name in Ja Morant, but they've played it safe this summer in terms of assets surrendered.
It's reminiscent of what new owner Tom Dundon said at his introductory press conference: there wasn't one set direction this offseason was going to go.
"If it [a big splash] doesn't exist, you have to find pieces to continue to get better and decide if you can get good enough to win a championship or if you have to take a step back. Joe [Cronin] and I have talked about this a lot. There's no one way this is going to go for sure,"Â he said.
"If we get a star, we have a chance to win. If we can't find a star, we add pieces and hope things develop. If that doesn't work, we try again with a new plan. There are equal chances for all those things to happen."
That's why we ultimately gave the Blazers offseason grade a B. It was polarizing and surprising in that they landed Ja Morant specifically -- a trade candidate not previously linked to Portland in trade rumors.
But in general, the fact that they took on this buy-low reclamation project like Morant was hinted at. Not only in Dundon's comments during this press conference, but also through his actions as he took a similar roster-building approach to the NHL Carolina Hurricanes.
Blazers are playing the long game with a buy-low trade for Ja Morant
Perhaps the best thing about Portland's summer comes from this part of Dundon's quote: "decide if you can get good enough to win a championship."
They ultimately determined that an all-in move for a superstar would unnecessarily risk what is currently a promising future. There'd be far too many question marks:
Does this player even want to be here? What does the contract situation look like? Does this run the risk of a one-year rental like Giannis Antetokounmpo or a potentially disgruntled star like Jaylen Brown? Those are the type of questions Portland has to consider, which proves they are at a roster-building disadvantage.
Then, they have to determine whether said star is enough to put them into the same conversation as the Oklahoma City Thunder or San Antonio Spurs. Even a star good enough to put Portland into the secondary tier with teams like the Denver Nuggets or Minnesota Timberwolves would be an impressive feat.
They're giving themselves a puncher's chance to win in the short term but ultimately are continuing to play the long game by retaining their future assets, including those Bucks picks acquired in the Damian Lillard trade.
Blazers enter a transitional season as Damian Lillard's window starts closing
I wouldn't necessarily consider Morant a star considering we haven't seen that version of him in a while, so it does seem as though Portland is leaning towards this Dundon phase: "if we can't find a star, we add pieces and hope things develop."
That's the middle of the plans. Not good enough to win now, but still experimenting to see what needs to be iterated. That's also what we call a transitional season.
Portland finished with 42 wins last year, and it seems reasonable to expect them to be hovering around the play-in tournament yet again this year. They may have gotten better, but they've also gotten a far messier roster to sort out in a Western Conference that is going to be much deeper this season for a number of reasons, such as tanking, injuries, etc.
By holding onto their future assets, the Blazers essentially prioritized their young core over the veterans in their two-timeline approach. Though the 36-year-old Lillard may be joining what could be the the most talented team he's had in Portland, it's still going to be a transitional season. Portland didn't make aggressive enough moves to suggest otherwise.
Lillard has a player option after this season, and while it's expected he'll finish his career in Portland, his closing window and the Blazers' young core may not overlap for long. This team still feels a few years away from making serious noise in the West, barring a more aggressive trade.
Again, that will come down to whether Portland deems that aggressive trade the missing piece to contention. Otherwise, they'll continue to play this long game at the detriment to Lillard's chances at that first ring, the only thing missing from what is already a Hall of Fame career for an NBA Top 75 player.
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