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I'm told that Portland, back at the February trade deadline, was prepared to sacrifice up to four years of first-round draft capital in an Antetokounmpo trade … even without knowing for sure that Antetokounmpo would commit to an extension. It is strongly believed that the Blazers are no longer willing to go to such lengths — since it has been conveyed to them that getting such an extension signed is considered unlikely — and that perceived retreat has only fueled the notion that Miami and Boston have little current company at the forefront of these sweepstakes.
Joel Lorenzi: Tiago Splitter on why things didn't work out in Portland: "I want to leave that behind."
Tiago Splitter: Portland, These have been great months, and I felt truly welcomed by the city from day one. Thank you to everyone in the organization for your daily dedication and support from day 1. Thank you to the fans for all the love and encouragement. Thank you for the opportunity to be part of this journey. To the players, thank you for your commitment and hard work every day. It was a privilege to work alongside you. See you guys. Thank you, Tiago
Marc Stein: "The working presumption when you talk to people around the league is that the Bucks instead of keeping Jaylen Brown for themselves would rather move him for assets to get younger and really start over, because remember, so many of Milwaukee's picks are out the door when they made the Damian Lillard trade. So that is another reason why you hear a lot about Portland, because obviously the Bucks would love to get Portland involved in this thing as one of the facilitating teams, so maybe the Bucks get back one of the picks that they used to get Lillard there."
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Heat Central: “At this point the only two teams that I’ve really heard are actively pursuing Giannis with deals and some type of framework that the Bucks are at least entertaining, are Miami with Ware, Herro, future draft capital, other draft prospects. Then Portland, where the Blazers still own all of MIL’s draft capital” — @JakeLFischer on Giannis rumors
According to NBA insider Shams Charania, Portland would still be willing to pursue Antetokounmpo even if he refused to commit to a long-term extension before a trade was completed. “I’m pretty sure that Portland would do a couple players, starters, and a first-round pick for Giannis, no matter the risk-reward,” per Charania. “You just go get Giannis. But the price is not going to be that this go around. It’s not going to be a couple rotational players and a first-round pick.”
Jusuf Nurkic: And what happened in the end, Connelly didn't even want to hear about Portland. And now, in a sense, he's telling me that, "No way, we have to go East," this and that... I said, "You have to trust me on this, give me a chance," you know, "give me a chance to make something happen," you know? And in the end, it really happens like that. I go to Portland.
It’s clear from our conversation that Dundon was caught off-guard by the criticism over his early decisions in Portland, which included replacing free T-shirts for fans at home playoff games with towels and, in an unprecedented-for-the-NBA move, not traveling with its two-way players to San Antonio for the start of the first round. (Dundon later apologized for the latter.) But, in reflecting on what he would do differently, he only expressed regret about the timing. “If there were little changes that I thought were going to get out, that were going to create drama in the middle of the (NBA) playoffs, I wouldn’t have done it,” he said. “That was the main thing.”
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How do you reconcile the success you’ve had in Raleigh, and the way people feel about your tenure there, with the way you’re viewed in Portland? Having proof of concept in one place but people are still highly skeptical in the other? Tom Dundon: The world tends to want to highlight or look for problems. I don’t know if that’s more pronounced in Portland or not. Clearly, I’m doing stuff and people have that perception of me. It would be crazy if I didn’t think about what my role in it is. But it is strange to think that I was able to figure out how to build a bunch of successful businesses, employ thousands and thousands of people, and then buy a hockey team, have some success and then the going-in assumption is different than the way I see it. I have to think about why that’s happened. Maybe it’s human nature to want to focus on the wrong thing sometimes. And that’s something I can’t do anything about.
But it does seem like it’s more challenging. At least in Raleigh, it’s felt like maybe more of the essential people were rowing in the same direction than it feels in Portland. Tom Dundon: It seems like Portland’s more political. It’s more emotional. It’s a more emotional subject. North Carolina has a fund to bring sporting events to the state. There’s a lot of businesses moving in, they’re lowering their income tax. They’re doing a lot of things. They’re in a different place in terms of economic development. There was a different philosophy. When I first got (to Portland), it was (suggested) they need a new arena. And I looked at it and said, “Well, the only way they could do a new arena is if they raise taxes. And I don’t think they should raise taxes.” It would be counterintuitive to raise taxes in a place that, for us to be successful, we need the business climate to improve. We don’t want to be part of that problem. I think you know, but the Trail Blazers are last in sponsorship. That’s a big part of the controllable revenue for a basketball team. We’ve got to try to solve that business problem. You’ve got to have companies, companies have to thrive and want to grow, and we’ve got to help them grow by participating in our brand with these companies. If we did a new building and had to raise taxes to build it, we wouldn’t be part of that solution.
There is a belief in some corners of the league that Atlanta, Houston and Portland all have legitimate trade interest in Jaylen Brown. Which is something to file away if you're looking for participants that might be interested in joining an eventual multi-team Antetokounmpo trade construction.
Quietly, the Trail Blazers also interviewed Hawks assistant coach Bryan Bailey for Portland’s head coaching position, league sources told HoopsHype. Bailey has been an assistant coach for Quin Snyder with the Hawks and the Utah Jazz. He was also an assistant coach for Jazz coach Will Hardy.