New Portland owner Tom Dundon’s penny-pinching ways talk of league, he does not care

On the court, the Portland Trail Blazers are impressing with their athleticism and play in their first-round series against San Antonio — there is a real path forward for this team to be a threat in the West.

However, in league circles, it’s the Trail Blazers moves off the court that have everyone taking — and mocking — the franchise. Specifically, reports of penny-pinching by new owner Tom Dundon. While more rumors are swirling around the league than we have room to discuss here, there are a few of these incidents that have become public:

Advertisement

•Portland was the only team not to bring their two-way players on the road for their first-round playoff series, something first reported by Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report. Traditionally, those players are considered part of the team — Caleb Love played 49 games for the Trail Blazers this season — even if they are not on the active playoff roster.
• The Trail Blazers shrunk the size of their traveling party for road trips, which included the team photographer and digital reporter not making trips.
• Portland made support staff check out of their hotel rooms early and wait nearly four hours in the lobby of a hotel to avoid late check-out fees. That included the team masseuse, who had nowhere to set up and work on players, reports Jason Quick of The Athletic.

However, the big rumor has been that they are trying to hire a coach on the cheap. As one source told NBC Sports, Portland is trying to hire an NBA coach on a mid-major coach’s salary. There were reports that Dundon spoke to multiple college coaches and was reportedly trying to hire a coach for about $1.5 million a season, well below the roughly $4 million average starting salary for an NBA coach (the league average for a coach is closer to $7 million). Tiago Splitter has done an admirable job after being forced to take on the head coaching job one game into the season, following Chauncey Billups’ arrest as part of a federal gambling probe. In a move that breaks with NBA etiquette, Dundon has searched fairly publicly for a new coach while Splitter still has the job.

This is the one area…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/portland-owner-tom-dundons-penny-183630439.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-04-22 18:36:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.