Blazers GM Reveals Rebuild Plans Ahead of Trade Deadline

February 04, 2022


It's been a tough season for the Portland Trail Blazers, to say the least. It began with rumors swirling around the future of Damian Lillard; the team has been underperforming, to the tune of 10 games under .500; and Lillard is currently out for the foreseeable future after undergoing abdominal surgery. 

Rumors have suggested the team is ready to 'blow it all up', and trade anything not nailed down. But interim GM Joe Cronin has now set the record straight about the team's plans ahead of the trade deadline, and moving forward:

I don’t think we have the appetite to tear it all the way down. We have too many good players and too many ways to get better without taking too big of a step back.

With two emerging stars in Anfernee Simons and Nassir Little, along with Lillard—assuming he's staying—the Blazers have a nice little core to build around. 

Cronin told Mark Medina of nba.com that, when looking at roster moves—both at the trade deadline and in the future—it's important to keep the "big picture" in mind. “It’s delicate. I think we all take a big-picture approach knowing that one season is a small vacuum of a larger picture... We’re all so competitive that we want to win consistently. Sometimes to do that, you have to take a step back at times. Sometimes you just have to be patient. So, you’re trying to balance deal by deal what accomplishes the overall big-picture goals.”

Two players poised to be moved by next week's deadline would seem to be Robert Covington—one of the most likely players in the league to be moved—and longtime backcourt partner of Dame, CJ McCollum, who's been called "an ideal trade piece" by at least one Western Conference team. 

Photo Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports



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