The Trail Blazers are looking at the men making basketball decisions for the Cavaliers and Clippers for their front office.
Don’t laugh — if the criteria for the job is getting along with a pain-in-the-butt owner who injects himself into basketball decisions at bad times, front office people coming out of Cavalier and Clipper organizations should have a leg up on the competition.
The new report comes from Marc Stein of ESPN.
Those are the latest names on a list that includes former Warriors GM Chris Mullin, Spurs assistant GM Dennis Lindsey and Oklahoma City front office guy Troy Weaver. Reports have Weaver and Griffin have interviewed for the position already.
Griffin was almost hired by the Denver Nuggets a year ago but the two sides could not agree to a contract. Olshey moved up to the GM spot for the Clippers when Mike Dunleavy was let go there.
The Trail Blazers have fired two well respected general managers — Kevin Pritchard and Rich Cho — the last two summers. While the official statements say otherwise, reports are those firings were basically due to personality differences with owner Paul Allen. Portland’s former director of scouting Chad Buchanan has run the ship while the search for a new GM has taken place.
Portland is taking its time on the search, but they can do that during the lockout without much fear.