Before one of the signature wins of the Portland Trail Blazers’ unexpected, absurd and, yes, entertaining run of success, I had a conversation with Joe Cronin about the ambiguities of this tanking team that suddenly can’t stop winning.
Is the general manager motivated to make it stop as dreams of winning the lottery and drafting Cooper Flagg flutter away?
“I’m not going to sacrifice our development to lose ballgames,” he told me.
That’s fair. Admirable even.
The problem right now is that the Blazers are neither losing games nor winning on the strength of their development. In fact, they’re sacrificing their development to win ballgames.
So, I cringe with every Jerami Grant dunk.
I sigh with every Anfernee Simons three-pointer.
And I groan with every Deandre Ayton double-double.
What is it all for, other than a welcome dopamine hit of victory?
On Monday, the Blazers held on for a 121-119 overtime victory over the Phoenix Suns that was perhaps the most compelling effort of the season. For the second consecutive game, they outplayed a Suns lineup featuring Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal.
Ayton, Simons and Grant played every minute of overtime to secure the win. Ayton and Simons each played 42 minutes of the 50-minute contest. Grant played 41. That trio scored all 14 of the Blazers’ points in overtime.
In contrast, Shaedon Sharpe played only 19 minutes and not at all after the 5:49 mark of the fourth quarter.
Scoot Henderson outperformed Simons in his 22 minutes, scoring 15 points to go with six assists (Simons shot just 4 of 16 for 13 points), but Henderson logged only 32 seconds over three shifts after checking out with 2:31 left in the fourth.
Donovan Clingan played all of 10 minutes as Ayton stayed hot, posting a monstrous 25 points and 20 rebounds.
It was an exhilarating victory. But it wasn’t development.
I am mindful that the trade deadline is less than two days away and that the Blazers could be showcasing their veterans in hopes of unlocking a trade that moves one or more of the out-of-place veterans out of Portland.
But if that is the goal, then why are the Blazers not also showcasing their most tradable veteran, Robert Williams III? Especially if Cronin is insistent on receiving a first-round draft pick — a price tag that others in the league see as unreasonably high — then shouldn’t the Blazers attempt to show that Williams can stay on the court?
The contradictions point to a lack of organizational cohesion and alignment that simply can’t exist within a rebuilding franchise.
The Blazers want their tank and to eat it, too.
Make no mistake: The Blazers intended to be among the league’s worst teams this year. That was the goal, plan and strategy. But after last season featured two of the three 60-point losses the franchise history has ever seen, they didn’t want to totally humiliate themselves in the process.
That led to Cronin building a roster just competent enough to compete when motivated (see: Deni Avdija).
And Chauncey Billups is coaching to win.
The fourth-year Blazers coach is nearing the end of his contract. The Blazers hold a team option for next season, but it is rare in the NBA that a coach will return for his option year without some security beyond it.
He knows that riding his been-there, done-that veterans gives him the best chance to prove to the NBA that he is a capable head coach. And it’s working.
He is coaching for his next job rather than the one he has, and I don’t even blame him for it.
That is why it felt like the Blazers and Billups were at a breaking point last summer, but the front office — and more likely, ownership — was not ready to address the percolating issue.
So my plea to the Blazers is that they either commit to Billups or cut him loose and find a replacement that will ride or die with the players of the future. The Blazers could have let Henderson and Sharpe play the final two minutes of regulation alongside Avdija and Toumani Camara on Monday night and lived with the results.
They could have thrown Clingan into the fire. Winning is terrific as long as it’s the young players who are driving it.
Now, there is of course more than one kind of development. And, yes, giving young players free rein to make mistakes can have consequences.
Something the Blazers are doing in the shadows is surely working. Henderson has made major strides over the last month, notably in his three-point shooting. He has knocked down 46.2% of his threes over his last 12 games going into Tuesday’s matchup with Indiana.
His numbers since Christmas compare favorably with those of Amen Thompson, the ascendent second-year Houston guard who went one spot after Henderson in the 2023 draft, even if Thompson rates higher on the intangible eye test.
While the Blazers are developing Henderson, Sharpe and Clingan piece by piece, and with the kind of tough love that has accompanied Sharpe’s move to the bench, their placeholders are limiting the future by carrying the team to eight wins in their last nine games.
Winning the lottery is not the only path to success in the NBA, and investing too heavily in that strategy is a gamble, too. Even if the Blazers don’t make any moves by Thursday’s deadline, they will be in position to clear significant cap space in summer 2026 when Ayton, Simons and Williams are scheduled to come off the books.
That’s valuable in its own right.
But what will the Blazers do after the deadline? Will they continue to lean on their veterans to make a longshot run at the play-in, thus limiting opportunities for their young core?
Or will they flip the script and let the kids play, hoping to pick up some ping-pong balls in a lottery push that may be even more unlikely?
It’s an impossible position of the Blazers’ own creation, one that has already shown that development is not everyone’s top priority.
— Bill Oram is the sports columnist at The Oregonian/OregonLive.
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