{"id":745319,"date":"2026-05-27T13:03:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/745319\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T13:03:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:03:28","slug":"tom-dundon-on-cutting-70-portland-trail-blazers-employees-more-people-just-creates-more-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/745319\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Dundon On Cutting 70 Portland Trail Blazers Employees: \u201cMore People Just Creates More Problems\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since purchasing the Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> in late March, new owner Tom Dundon<\/a> has implemented some interesting business practices<\/a>. Most of these actions could be justified as \u201cbusiness decisions,\u201d but it is evident that these moves have hurt his reputation as a franchise owner.<\/p>\n

Aside from his previously ill-received decisions, Tom Dundon recently took things a step further by letting go of over 70 Portland Trail Blazers employees. While this aligns with his aggressive cost-cutting approach<\/a>, Dundon justified his actions during a recent interview with The Oregonian\u2019s Bill Oram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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While drawing attention to his experience as the owner of the NHL\u2019s Carolina Hurricanes, Dundon stated:<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have twice as many people as we have in Carolina, and my experience is that less layers gives people more accountability and they do a better job. Then you know that you\u2019re getting a great job done and you don\u2019t end up in the situation where many companies end up, which is everyone\u2019s looking around for somebody else to do it, complaining about what\u2019s fair and not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

On paper, it is difficult to argue with Dundon\u2019s approach, primarily due to how effective it has been for the Carolina Hurricanes. After nine consecutive years of missing the playoffs, the Hurricanes earned their first playoff berth in 2018, Dundon\u2019s first year as the new franchise owner, and have consistently appeared in the playoffs since.<\/p>\n

Given that it is difficult to dispute the results, Dundon\u2019s methods seem valid. However, the Blazers\u2019 owner built upon this, adding:<\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople are happier when they\u2019re busy and productive. That is the way I think things should be done. And more people just create more problems, usually. I think Portland just had too many people. \u00a0I just asked them to look at it, and I think they came to the same conclusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

From refusing to send two-way players on the road to denying fans playoff shirts, Tom Dundon\u2019s tenure has had a rough start. While the new owner remains set in his ways<\/a>, he is also brutally aware of how business and basketball are separate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was mostly on the business side. The basketball, they\u2019re two separate businesses,\u201d he noted. \u201cTaking care of the players is not\u2026 We don\u2019t have a budget for that. It\u2019s whatever it takes to put them in the best position to win. That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do. The business I\u2019m going to run is like you run every other business.\u201d<\/p>\n

While his approach is criticized, it is evident that Tom Dundon is committed to winning. Given that the Blazers made their first playoff appearance in five years this season, it can be argued that Dundon may be on the right track.<\/p>\n

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Portland is undergoing some massive organizational changes. While Dundon is currently facing tremendous scrutiny, the Blazers\u2019 owner doesn\u2019t seem too concerned with this noise.<\/p>\n

Currently, Portland\u2019s first offseason priority will be finding a head coach to replace Tiago Splitter<\/a>. While Splitter remains in the race alongside former Blazers head coach Terry Stotts<\/a> and former Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd<\/a>, Dundon\u2019s unwillingness to pay the league-average salary may limit the number of interested candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since purchasing the Portland Trail Blazers in late March, new owner Tom Dundon has implemented some interesting business…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":745320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,34788,7861,149,91797,6,687,471,3967,4498,39242,1617],"class_list":["post-745319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-portland-trail-blazers","tag-basketball","tag-blazers","tag-business-decisions","tag-carolina-hurricanes","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-franchise-owner","tag-nba","tag-portland","tag-portland-trail-blazers","tag-portlandtrailblazers","tag-the-blazers","tag-tom-dundon","tag-trail-blazers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116646681239693510","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=745319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/745320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=745319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=745319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=745319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}