Eventually, the Portland Trail Blazers will need a general manager to tell Paul Allen everything is great figure out how to rebuild this team and win fast.
But with the lockout dragging on, that time is not now.
The Blazers have already reset their search to replace Rich Cho once and now the search will be put on hold, according to Joe Freeman of the Oregonian. Here are a series of tweets from him.According to an NBA source with knowledge of the Trail Blazers’ thinking, the team has decided to “pause” their search for a new GM.
“To go out and spend a bunch of money on a high-paying GM job doesn’t make sense right now,” the source said... “With what has happened the last week or so (in the lockout), it made a lot of sense to put the search on pause.”
If you’re looking for the positive spin, not spending money on a GM means the franchise can keep on more people in the organization as they try to get through the lockout. A lockout that hardline Blazers owner Paul Allen has helped drag out, but let’s not go there.
Portland has let go of two respected GMs — Kevin Pritchard and Cho — after the last two seasons, making some candidates hesitant. The Blazers also denied reaching out to Mavs GM Donnie Nelson or Utah GM Kevin O’Conner. I would say you can reach out to someone via back channels and not formally talk to them, but really that is moot. The pause button has been hit.