The NBA trade market is open for business and one team in particular would like you to know that it is jarringly open to offers. The Portland Trail Blazers might not have issued a news release saying as much, yet when your starting center misses a game due to too much ice, the telltale signs of rebuilding apathy have set in.
Deandre Ayton was unable to participate in the Blazers’ win against the Brooklyn Nets because he couldn’t navigate the ice around his house. Now, there are some backwoods neighborhoods in the Rose City, the U.S. is in the middle of a deep freeze and Domin-Ayton is from the Bahamas. It could’ve been an honest mistake that is in no way correctable via a phone call to the team, asking for a ride from one of the dozens of employees who were able to make it to the Moda Center.
It’s also unsurprising because as long as Rip City is losing, GM Joe Cronin is happy. Player development, coaching, trying, even showing up — it’s all optional as long as it results in more draft assets and an indefinite reign over the front office. There’s not one player on the roster who isn’t performing like he’s ready to be dealt.
The issue with that is the team traded Damian Lillard for quarters on the dollar, and has since moved at least one real quarter (Jrue Holiday) for dimes and nickels. When was the last time Portland “won” a deal? They own their pick and the Warriors’ top-four protected pick (via Boston) in this year’s draft, but then have to wait until 2029 to use the first-rounders they received from Milwaukee and Boston. While there are a couple of pipedream pick swaps with the Bucks in 2028 and 2030, and Portland has all of their own first-round selections, it’s nothing compared to other franchises that did what Cronin is trying to do.
Assuming Jerami Grant, Malcolm Brogdon, Matisse Thybulle or Ayton will fetch actual returns also assumes those players are performing like desirable assets. They’re all discounted because Chauncey Billups isn’t getting sh*t out of them.
It’s anyone’s guess as to who’s going to dress, how much they’re playing, or what the game plan is. Top-three selection Scoot Henderson sees 20 to 35 minutes per night, most of which he roams aimlessly and chucks up bricks. Shaedon Sharpe, arguably Portland’s No. 1 asset, spent the first portion of the season getting 30 to 38 minutes per game because Anfernee Simons was hurt, but now only cracks 25 when Simons sits.
Sharpe is currently injured, and I’m sure he’ll be encouraged to take all the time he needs. No hurry. You’re a capable hooper, and “scoring points” goes against the wishes of the staff and front office.
Billups isn’t winning or developing talent, and his relationship with Cronin appears to be the only thing keeping him employed. The GM doesn’t want to admit wrongdoing because that’s more evidence he’s a fraud who only got the job due to Neil Olshey’s cancellation.
Someone has (alleged interim) owner Jody Allen’s ear and convinced her this is what a reset is supposed to look like. Portland lost a game by 62 points a week ago, it was the fifth-largest margin of victory in NBA history.
None of this is normal, and neither is Ayton taking a WFH day because he didn’t shovel his driveway and couldn’t walk to a location that an Uber can get to. Un-f*cking-real.
