Trail Blazers Exit Interviews: Joe Cronin Speaks, Tiago Splitter's Future, Tom Dundon's Ownership

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]In today's show, the Trailblazers address the media for the final time of the 2025-26 season. What did Joe Cronin, Thiago Splitter, and the Blazers players have to say about the team's future?

[00:00:11]Welcome Locked on Blazers. Let's get into it.

[00:00:19]You are Locked On Trailblazers, your daily Portland Trailblazers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network.

[00:00:26]Your team every day.

[00:00:30]What's up world? It's your past first point guard and trailblazers reporter Mike Richmond. In today's show, we're talking talking exit interviews.

[00:00:40]Blazers for the final time this season.

[00:00:43]The final time to wrap up the 2025 2026 season. Address the media formally before heading into the off season and the great unknown. We will get into everything that happened at exit interviews where Joe Cronin, Thiago Splitter, and a collection of the Blazers players, um their their movers and shakers addressed the media at the practice facility on Thursday morning.

[00:01:05]um you know, previewing, you know, looking into the offseason over the last couple days as we've got into the show.

[00:01:10]Let's talk about the biggest decisions facing this team. And that's what I want to start with is the coaching decision, but we'll still talk about uh the Tom Dundan era and um some basketball stuff along the way. Although I think the questions are big enough um in front of the Blazers that what happens on the court in the fall still remains uh relatively unknown. But there's some stuff we'll address that's actually basketball related. We're going to go start a little bit higher up or I guess more deeper into the front office and into the coaching coaching room. Uh to kick this one off, let's talk about the biggest decision facing them. They don't they need a head coach. They need a head coach. Um done uh Joe Cronin uh speaking to the media for the first time in seven months. He came out of came out of hiding um for the first time in seven months to address the media. Um you know, nothing's really happened since then. His coach got arrested and he made a trade and the Blazers made the playoffs. Typically, he would have only addressed the media one other time publicly. He chose not to do that, and he certainly didn't address the team after um a sort of franchise shattering arrest to his head coach on the second, you know, second day of the NBA season.

[00:02:12]Um so, we hadn't heard from Joe Cronin in a while and he had a lot to to to address. He spoke for about 25 minutes.

[00:02:19]Um and and the you know, the biggest question is like what is the future of the coaching staff? There's other big ones, right? But but you know, Chanty Phillips ain't walking through that door. Um, I don't I don't know exactly know what his future is, so I'm not even going to try to land a joke on that one, but like Thiago Splitter is was an acting head coach all year. Um, it sounds like when the Blazers hire someone, they might hire someone with a tag interim head coach because of the Chanty Bilip situation is not um resolved, but that'll only be a technicality. What's not a technicality is that to retain Thiago Splitter, they would have to give him a contract just like anyone else.

[00:02:54]And when asked about Thiago Splitter, Joe Cronin said that Thiago quote is a candidate. Thiago is a candidate. The current the good direct quote is the current status is Thiago is a candidate for the position, but we're also looking around at other candidates.

[00:03:10]Splitter mentioned that he had, you know, said, I I've already told you guys that I want to be here. Um he said he's going to sit down with um with Joe and sit down with Tom. and he kind of pushed back a little bit against some of the reporting about how um cheap the Blazers uh particularly under specifically Tom Dundon's era of the Blazers which began uh at the beginning of April. Um I guess it started March 31st if we want to get technical but he kind of pushed back on on some of um the reporting saying that it was clickbaits or exaggerations. Um uh he he used clickbaits plural. I liked that. Um, and Cronin was asked specifically about like, are you going to pay a coach a market a fair market contract? Because there's been a lot of reporting from several outlets both locally here and also at the national level with with um Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports that the Blazers are looking to pay a coach like just way below the typical market salary, like you know, a million to a million and a half dollars, which is about like, you know, roughly 25% of the average coach. Um, and certainly some coaches make north of $10 million a year. So, uh, the highest level coaches make, uh, say 10x that that amount of money. Um, Cronin offered the following. He said, "We're going to pay the coach based on some sort of some sort of level of shared risk." Let me try that one more time. We're going to pay the coach based on some sort of level of shared risk. If it's a first-time coach who comes with a lot of risk and doesn't have a market that we have to necessarily compete in, it'll be one number. If the coach we're talking to is a 15-year vet and a future Hall of Famer, it's going to be a completely different number. And Tom isn't going to flinch at either of those scenarios. We're going to be very open-minded to what types of people we interview and would potentially bring in. And I'm not concerned about that number at all.

[00:04:49]That ain't exactly rejecting the reporting. What that is echoing something was that was reported in the athletics citing a team source um saying that the that the the reporting around the uh the coaching the coaching salary figures was totally false and that Dundon would um Dundon would pay for anyone but that Dundon if obviously some coaches would cost more and some coaches would cost less. This seems to be the company line. Um Joe Cronin just said it into a microphone, but that isn't that isn't really rejecting the like, you know, I think one 1 million to one and a half million is a low enough figure to think that that is probably hyper hyperbolic to where they actually land because quite frankly, I don't know that you can I don't know that you can pay someone that little money and coach an NBA team.

[00:05:34]So, it'll be false. It'll it'll be effectively false because you literally you literally could not employ someone at that number. Um, but if the coach if if it's a first-time coach who comes with a lot of risk and doesn't have a market that we necessarily have to compete in, it'll be one number. They would be willing to hire a coach that comes with a lot of risk and is a non-competitive in a non-competitive market. So, basically, a coach that that no one else in the league would hire that comes with a lot of inherent risk because they're extremely green and and new to the job. Does that sound like a team that is like wants to compete for top dollar for maybe the most important hire you can make?

[00:06:10]Unbelievable stuff. Unbelievable. That isn't for a minute pushing back against the reporting. Um, based on some sort of level of shared risk. Now, if they do hire a veteran coach, right? If they do hire, let's they're not going to hire Steve Kerr, so we'll use him as an example. Um, they hire do hire Steve Kerr and they pay him $15 million a year. I will happily go back on this podcast. I'll revisit uh May 1st's podcast and be like, "You sure were giggling a lot, doofus." Um, but like this follows a trend and it was a trend throughout this entire presser from Joe Cronin where he kind of pushed back on the logic of Tom Dundan is cheap and the reporting around him is hyperbolic and it's what what Thiago Splitter call it clickbaits and exaggerations. Um, and then within that sort of push back, I'm not concerned about the number at all. If you only read that part, sure that's great. That's a real strong stance. But the beginning of just it this just suggests yes the Blazers absolutely are considering candidates at the lowest possible bottom of the barrel number. Um I don't think and let me be 100% clear about this 100% clear. I don't think paying a coach a little bit of money because I don't want to be I I don't myself want to be um contradicting my own my own passwords. I I I don't want to be hypocritical in my evaluation here because I I I mentioned this before and I do truly believe it's that the bet they're making if they are really lowballing a coach and we'll see what we'll see what it is, right? is that the most important thing you can do is have talent in the NBA and that there isn't that much difference between say like the eighth best coach and the 24th best coach in the league and that if if you get someone who lands in that sort of broad category and you also happen to pay them very little money, you are um you're hitting the market inefficiency, right?

[00:08:02]And I think that is um I understand that bet in terms of the logic that Tom Dundan would be making and I don't even think I disagree with it necessarily, but it is um it's following a certain trend.

[00:08:15]So while and and I again in terms of um my hypocritical sort of analysis here and I'm making sure that I I I avoid um being a hypocrite as much as I can although I do talk into a microphone a lot and sometimes I'm going to uh say things two ways but I but I want to be as careful as I can here and and and respect my past opinions because I still hold them in the in the present.

[00:08:38]For months now I have said that Thiago Splitter has earned himself an interview. Not that he's earned himself the job. my reasoning is to earn himself an interview. And that's where that's where we're at right now, right? That's where we're at. We're at the end of April. We're heading into the offseason.

[00:08:50]And Splitter says he's they're going to talk they're, you know, he's going to talk with Tom Dun. He's going to talk with Joe Cron. And they're going to figure out if there's a future for these two team two parties together. I guess three parties, but really like currently employed by the team, hoping to be employed by the team. Splitter and the Portland Trailblazers, I would guess, are the the way to describe those two parties. And like shoot, if they really wanted to have Thiago Splitter be the coach, he'd already be the coach, right?

[00:09:13]they would have offered him the a contract commiserate with um the market and the rest of the uh you know and his peers who have similar jobs across the league and he would be the head he would have a you know a multi-year deal deal as a head coach he would have it Tom Dunn's been in charge for uh nominally since the end of March um and like factually since the beginning of the season he's been in charge right um Joe Cron admitted that like he's got to know him really well over the nine or 10 months um when he spoke to the WAMIT week around the all-star break. He said that he had spoken to him one time. He said that on the record one time they talked on the record into the microphone today. He said he's got to know him really well over the last 9 10 months.

[00:09:50]Um you tell me which one you believe. Uh I'm going to believe the one that he said off the cuff here. Uh but like you know if they wanted if they wanted Splitter Dundons's had a chance to press the go button on that for for you know for all season long. Um but they haven't. And you would assume one of the reasons they haven't is the compensation aspect of it, right? because that's what they're still trying to figure out with Splitter. How much do they pay him and for how long and who else can they bring in? Now, you know, Taylor Jenkins off the board, uh Mike Malone off the board.

[00:10:19]You don't have to hire a retread. You can hire someone totally brand new. And I don't think there's inherently anything wrong with hiring a brand new head coach. But if you are indeed trying to pull from this one bucket that is firsttime coach who comes with a lot of risk and doesn't have a market that we have to necessarily compete in. Oh my goodness. If you're trying to pull from that bucket um certainly you are limiting the level of experience you're going to hire from. And Splitter quite frankly has more experience and more success than what that particular phrase suggests that uh if that is a type of candidate that they're interested in.

[00:10:53]And I'll mind you, the Blazers are going to be very open-minded when it comes to uh which coach they can lowball. Uh speaking of cheapness, uh Joe Cronin didn't do much to thwart that when he discussed the coaching um if you are willing to read closely and listen closely to his quotes. And he certainly didn't do it when talking about Tom Dundan specifically as someone who is unwilling to spend money. Although he gave it his best shot. Let's talk about that in the second segment. Join me there, won't you?

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[00:13:58]Tom Dundan has earned a reputation in his brief time in head of the Trailblazers. bad reputation as someone who doesn't like to spend any money. But if you hear Joe Cronin tell it, that's not true. Cronin, when asked specifically about that, said that seeing those reports and some of those things, this is a direct quote. Seeing those reports and some of those things for me it was somewhat disturbing because I've gotten the opportunity to know Tom Dundan really really well the last 9 10 months and it's not it's just not an accurate depiction of what his goals are. Yes, we're going to run things more efficiently in terms of being economically responsible in terms of having a disciplined less is more mentality. Wait. Okay, stop. We don't need to We do not need to do any more.

[00:14:45]We do not need to do any more lying. You just said it right there, Joe. I'm going to I'm just going to go ahead and pause you right there and we're going to we're going to run that back real quick.

[00:14:54]Let me read that one to you again. Yes, we're going to run things more efficiently in terms of being economically responsible in terms of having a disciplined less is more mentality. That is the language of someone who is going to be cheap.

[00:15:09]Someone who is going to be cheap.

[00:15:12]They're going to be economically responsible in terms of having a disciplined less is more mentality. What on earth is that type of start to a um to an era of Blazers basketball?

[00:15:24]My goodness, how could you possibly think that that is a positive? It might not be a negative, right? It might not be a negative. It might not matter if you lowball a coach like I mentioned in the first segment. I've mentioned for weeks now on the show, right? That actually might not matter. it it talent wins and Dundan as I' I've I've said a bunch let me let me not get too far ahead of myself it might not matter but I I don't think you could possibly paint run things more efficiently in terms of being more e being economically responsible in terms of having a disciplined less is more mentality. I don't know how you could possibly look at a billion-dollar basketball team on the rise and think, "Yeah, if they just do le if they just have a disciplined less is more mentality and spend a lot less money and they're more economically responsible and run things more efficiently, that's exactly the ticket."

[00:16:15]That is some real venture capitalist investment class nonsense.

[00:16:22]But, and I've said this a bunch and I'll say it and and Joe Cronin echoed the sentiment and this is not what to worry about here is is is important because you don't want to get caught up turning everything into Joe into Tom Dunin is cheap. There's the specific ways that being cheap could bite them, but on the court is not one of them. I have said many many times in the show, I've been saying it for, you know, since even even in my preview of Tom what Dundon would be like as an owner couple months ago, right? is that spending on players, spending on salaries has was never my concern. For one, there are freaking rules. There's a salary floor and a tax line, right? There's basically a band that every team, you know, 80% of the league spends in the same 10 or 15% band. Everybody is in there, right? Um, you know, some teams push over uh push over the the salary cap. Most teams push over the salary cap, but they, you know, fall shy of the tax line. That's almost every single team in the league. Um, four teams pay the tax this year, I believe. Right. It's like, and everyone's over the salary floor. That's that's baked in. That's baked in. I'm not worried about him spending on salaries. But Cronin pushed back and he said there's there's certain situations that nobody would know about because I haven't said it and he wouldn't say it's he being uh being Tom Dundan there. But I've seen a lot of instances where he was willing to throw big money on the table in order to support this team in order to put it on the floor in order to put it on the floor in order to make us a winner.

[00:17:51]He mentioned that at the trade deadline there were several trades that that came up and one of them that came up quote we would have gotten a nice young asset and he would have had to write he again would be would be Tom Dundan here. We being the Blazers would have would have had gotten an we would have gotten a nice young asset and he Tom Dundan would have had to write a check for $20 million because he would have inherited that tax bill. Again, Dundan like speaking very directly with Joe Cronin at the trade line. Very obviously very involved um for for several months before he took control um despite maybe uh some of Cronin's previous public posturing and his only public comments over the last seven months on the record. Um, and then the the kicker here from from uh from Cronin says, again talking about Tom Dundan, he's going to spend when it touches the players and the players are always going to be supported. Now, they're not going to be supported with a coach that makes a bunch of money that which doesn't make you think that they're going to be supported with say a robust coaching staff that fills them out. And uh he mentioned that Tom that Tom Dundon was uh you know had had was buying a hyperaric chamber and he was going to send that to the practice facility. Um as if spending money on the practice facility is some sort of magic that uh only very generous owners do. This is a competitive this is a competitive world and I've as I've said for as I've said for months you know several weeks in the show probably six six seven weeks since I've we've been talking a lot about Tom Dundan is that it's the it's the ancillary spending. It's the uncapp spending. So, it's it's coaches and scouting and medical staff and quality of life for players. And speaking of that quality of life for players, the two-way guys didn't travel to the first two games of the Blazers playoff series.

[00:19:35]It became a whole national headline uh because they're the only team in the league to not travel their guys. Uh you're talking about saving something like $10,000, right? And that's the high end. You're talking about putting three dudes in a luxury hotel room for four nights in San Antonio, I believe, would have been the way it worked. Maybe five.

[00:19:54]Let's call five nights. Three guys in five nights in a luxury hotel room in San Antonio with some PDM along the way.

[00:20:01]How much money you think that is? I think it's $15,000. Let's be really generous. $15,000. That's that's the kind of cost they're cutting. It's um it's not a good look. But but Joe Cronin fell on the sword. He said when when asked specifically about that, he said, "That's on me." It was more of a miscommunication on my end. We've talked about doing some traveling party reductions. Next year, we'll run a little lighter. I just assumed that meant in that meant including them, and I didn't double check. Let's run that back again. So, next year, they're going to travel with fewer people. We've talked about doing some traveling party reductions. Next year, we'll run a little lighter.

[00:20:34]They're already planning to take fewer people on the road. This is the quality of life stuff. This is the ancillary spending. This is actually the mark of a cheap owner. I'm not worried about the player salaries. And quite frankly, if if this was Joe Cronin's attempt to push back and say actually Tom Dunan is ready to spend and he's this he's really all about winning, he might be and they might win. Quite frankly, he's been very successful in in in uh the NHL. I don't think the NHL and the NBA are particularly similar businesses in terms of how they work in terms of player p player power and all of those things.

[00:21:07]It's very different. It's very different in in my view. Um, and it might work, but this it all of the stuff reported about Tom Dundan cutting costs has just been confirmed right here on the record by the GM with anyone with eyes to see it and ears to hear it. You can you can go listen to the listen to the interview. Um, and then Cronin continued, "We fixed that mistake. We brought those guys to San Antonio for game five. Congratulations."

[00:21:33]That was more on me for not communicating properly. Um, yeah, it's just outrageous. Good for Joe Cronin for taking the bullet on that one. And it's what you do when your boss says you have to cut costs and you're saying, "How do we cut like how do I get this budget lower?" Okay, just leave Jason Kent at home. It's like leave Caleb Love and Chris Young Bloodood behind or we're going to get in trouble for spending this dude's $12,000.

[00:21:58]Um yeah, in any in any case, speaking of that big trade, uh the the $20 million uh luxury tax bill because the Blazers would have gotten a nice young asset.

[00:22:07]Um, that's an interesting onc court impact. And let's talk a little bit about that. The onc court stuff and some comments from the Blazers players. I do think Cronin's comments about ownership and how they operate are the biggest, most telling things. It's why that's the first 20 minutes of the show, but there's some other onc court stuff that we'll get to. Plus, um, I'm going to make roughly 150 more podcasts before the season starts, so we got plenty of time to talk about things that happen on the court. Join me in that third segment, won't you?

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[00:25:04]All right. Still a pass versus first point guard. I'm still Mike Richmond.

[00:25:07]Still listen to Locks on Blazers. I mentioned the big splash uh in the in the Discord channel. Shout out to my everydayers who have joined the everyday club and are chatting up with me. Um my speculation in there was that it was it it sounds like it could be Jiren Jackson Jr. you know, that kind of fits the bill. Nice young players, 26. Um, expensive. So, and and part of that quote was that it was save the other team a bunch of money and it would cost the Blazers a bunch of money. And the and the Grizzlies were getting cheaper, right? They're tearing it down. They're going to be one of the only teams in the West that's like truly intentionally bad next season just in time for the change in the tanking rules. Um, but like I don't know if it's Jiren Jackson Jr. or or who whom it could be. Could it be Trey Murphy? I don't know. It it could be anyone. uh speculate at your own um speculate at your own leisure. But in any case, um that kind of fits what Dundan had previously said in his public comments is that he's probably, you know, he if those opportunities present themselves, he will is probably going to be more aggressive than most in pursuing them. I think at a later date we'll talk about kind of the pitfalls of that, but I think that's sort of one of the challenges for the Blazers is like they do have a bunch of draft picks to trade and they do have, you know, some big money bigger money contracts in in Drew Holiday and Jeremy Grant to make that work. they've got, you know, Shaden Sharp or Scoot Henderson to kind of make um sweeten the deal with some young upside players like they they could if if a good player is available, not just Jiannis Takmpo, but the sort of Jiren Jackson class of the world, guys who are like, you know, sort of borderline all-stars but not guaranteed all-stars each year, the Blazers do have the ammo to go acquire those. And I think in generally speaking, new ownership often in sports and the NBA in particular likes it is not uncommon to see new owners kind of make that big swing. But Joe Cronin talked about it basically.

[00:27:01]He's like it's got to be at the right price point. They don't want to mortgage the future, which is the right thing to say, but I do trust that to be honest.

[00:27:05]Like I honestly like I've been critical of some of Joe's comments here, but not because I don't think they're he's telling the truth. I think he is telling the truth. you listen like um you know I I I think parsing some of those words he's like he's he's telling you exactly what the deal is. Yeah. Yeah. They're going to travel less people on the team play next year and they're going to have a less is more mentality. They're going to run things more efficiently in terms of being economically responsible. Run things more efficiently in terms of being economically responsible is like truly heinous corporate speak for um everyone's about to get fired. Um it's just uh I've worked at some places that have been um one place in particular that's kind of on the way out. Uh and uh there's just a vibe when they stop spending money. Um it's uh the Blades aren't going anywhere and I don't think they're moving or anything like that um or or going to collapse. But um it'll be interesting to the level of that they go that route. But again, I don't think it'll be on players. don't think this is a thing about um about player salaries.

[00:28:11]I think it's whether they can if you know they have the ammunition to pull off a big trade and if they're willing to do that then they would have to be an expensive roster and and um part of the calculation where if they were to make that trade is how good are they? because if they are probably, you know, championship good, maybe Tom Dundan does dip his toe into the tax for a second and like really put his money where his uh basketball court is. But like um what is you know what is the appetite based on how good a trade would be? I think that's sort of what you're balancing there, right? But but Cronin said like if none of those opportunities, the big splash opportunities are available, then they'll be content doing smaller things.

[00:28:46]confidence quote confident that our talent base is strong and that the addition of Dame that's Damen Lillard the internal development fine-tuning some of these skill set deficiencies we have we can take a nice step whether we make a big splash or not Cronin mentioned that shooting was an obvious need seems like every offseason he says shooting is an obvious need and they don't quite upgrade the shooting um uh they tried for Very he just didn't make shots when he was here Damen Lord is a certified shooter um Jeremy Grant remember how to shoot this year and was pretty good at it Tuman, he has uh when he's good, when he's on, he's really on.

[00:29:19]When he's off, he's really off. But for overall throughout the year, he was ended up being an above average shooter.

[00:29:24]So, like they have it on the roster.

[00:29:26]They just need to be able to put it on the court in a ways that functionally they can be their best version of themselves. Um, yeah. I I I think like what what uh sort of that path there for Cronin that he's describing is like if they can't make a big splash, don't expect, you know, um they would be comfortable in a world where they're pretty similar to next year um because they feel like Dame is an upgrade and that if they can probably tweak around the edges cuz they like what they have.

[00:29:53]That's the kind of thing you typically say um at this point, but I think in the past Cronin has used more aggressive language and needing to upgrade. So, I I tend to believe him that um this could be based on who they have to trade and the assets they have to trade and where they are as a team. I could believe that this is a relatively quiet summer. I could also believe that they make some sort of huge seismic seismic trade.

[00:30:15]Speaking of Encourt stuff though, uh I thought Splitter had some really interesting comments. Um you know, he might not be the coach next year, but he was really reflective about his own shortcomings, saying that basically like what he realized in the playoffs is that the team was missing like a set offense.

[00:30:28]He was just he said he was missing like organized offense and like um you know that they they're missing real structure and that they kind of their their philosophy was you know get guys in the mixer. So they didn't have like this one ball dominant guy be on Denny. So the idea and even Denny at the beginning of the year maybe didn't wasn't obviously that. So their their sort of style was going to be that they were going to gain advantages and then like you know use those advantages, drive, kick and just like keep play advantage basketball once they got ahead by playing with speed like you know it broke down the defense by playing with speed you know keep uh keep that advantage and just play random. And he said that when he got to the playoffs they felt he felt like you know what um we we should we should have had more structure. I thought that was a very um interesting self-reflective comment. He also mentioned that basically he kind of made that comment to one of his assistant coaches and assistant coaches says, you know, we need to make the playoffs first. Like we have to play to our strengths first. We got to play with what we have before we worried about uh that organized offense and less random. But I thought that was an interesting comment from uh from uh Splitter because I think it was absolutely true. There was a bunch of other comments from players and we'll probably get to them as we go through our player reviews starting next week.

[00:31:36]But um you know I think one of the things that stood out to me was the sort of refrain that uh the Blazers were happy with what they accomplished this season but maybe not um satisfied with how it ended. Um I thought Matis Thyel probably put it into words better than anyone else on the team probably because he's um a very eloquent speaker. Um certainly u more so much more so than many of his teammates. um and just he's he does he doesn't love to do media but um he's a great talker when he gets in front of a microphone because he's very uh thoughtful and nuanced um and he has a a a great way of just sort of um he's eloquent guy um and and and what what said was that you know he feels like they overachieved based on outside expectations but they left with the feeling they had more to give and I thought that was reflected a bunch of places I thought basically Denny said as much and and and Don Mcllingan said as much um it's like that they you know while they had a good year and they're proud of what they accomplish accomplished kind of left the playoffs feeling like they had more to give and Drew Holidayiday said said had a similar um had a similar comments. Um the Blazers also they had in they had introduced um the box award that was given to the after victories given to the best defensive player and you put your name in the box and then at the end there was going to be an award for who had their name in the box the most and Tumati Kamar was presented with that award. It was a big crystal basketball.

[00:32:52]There was there's social media videos of him receiving at at the practice facility. Um, I thought uh a fitting a fitting sort of if that's the final thing Splitter does, you know, there's a some social med social social media video of him addressing the team after they lost to San Antonio after game five and then presenting Tummani with that silver basketball. It speaks to the kind of um first year run that Splitter had.

[00:33:14]They won 42 games. They made the playoffs. They kind of got soberly dispatched from the playoffs. And along the way, he got a lot out of a lot of guys doing a during a bumpy year of injuries. And part of it was the sort of X's and O's stuff and kind of getting getting the the sum to be greater than its parts um during, you know, long stretches playing two-way guys like Cable Love and City So. And some of it is the soft skills like the things like introducing the box and getting guys to not let go of the rope in December when things were looking rough. like um I thought that was those two videos with Blaze I posted on social media over the last couple days really speak to the splitter experience. I have no idea if he'll be back. I maintain and have maintained he deserves a real interview, but he also deserves a real interview with a real offer at a real competitive price. And whether the Blazers are only willing to go up to a certain number for certain levels of coaches, uh we shall see. I think what we learned from exit interviews is that as the Blazers go into the summer, a lot of the reporting about Tom Dundan's approach seems to be very very specifically confirmed by the GM into the microphone on Thursday if you're willing to listen to it. However, all of that ancillary spending stuff is not basketball talent. And again, the way we will end up judging Tom Dundan, I mean, you might just dislike him if he's a little bit of a sirly character, but the way that I don't know, 91 12% of fans will end up judging Tom the Tom Dundan era is whether the Blazers win or not, whether they're good, if they're if they're good on the court. And I don't think even all of the suggestion about cheap stuff, it does not it does not immediately create a bad basketball team. It might create a weird environment. It might create an unappealing place to work. Um, but like those are for the non-players, right?

[00:34:58]Um, so I I think while my while quite frankly the Blazers probably set out to thwart some of the ideas that that they have a cheap new owner, I think basically they confirmed exactly everything you possibly could believe.

[00:35:10]But what they didn't confirm and what we don't know yet is what are the answers to the biggest decisions they have to make. Both Rob Williams and the team talked about wanting to him to be back and part of the future, but what does that look like? But what is the team willing to pay? What does Rob prioritize? Um, you know, does he want to play for a team that's a little bit closer? Does he prioritize, you know, multiple years and what are the Blazers going out multiple years? What are they willing to like? Those those questions will be answered. And again, those questions I don't think will be impacted necessarily by um the a potentially costcutting owner.

[00:35:45]The onc court stuff still is intriguing and interesting and not necessarily kaput because of this approach. But how this approach affects the larger ecosystem or I guess speculated approach confirmed speculation largely confirmed approach um how it how affects the team moving forward I think is a fascinating thing to watch and certainly that's what we'll do um all summer long here on this particular program. Uh that's going to do it for today's show. Next week we'll start our player previews. We'll do probably three of them next or player uh season reviews. player season reviews, looking back on how they performed uh next season and what their role could be moving forward with the team, plus revisiting my uh best and worst case scenarios for every player that was on the roster at the beginning of the season. Player reviews start next week.

[00:36:29]Um, plus we'll follow all the news for you. That's what we do. Locked on Blazers 5 days a week wherever you get podcasts, also on YouTube. I appreciate you listening. I will talk to you soon.