12:30pm: The extension is now official, the Trail Blazers announced in a press release.
“Joe has demonstrated leadership and vision during his time as General Manager, and I’m excited to see him continue building the foundation for a long-term, winning team,” said Jody Allen, chair of the Portland Trail Blazers. “We are all thrilled with the team’s forward momentum and excited for the future of Trail Blazers basketball.”
12:15pm: General manager Joe Cronin has agreed to a multiyear contract extension with the Trail Blazers, reports Shams Charania of ESPN.
While the Blazers will be selecting in the lottery for the fourth straight season under Cronin, they have already won 14 more games (35) than last season with three games left on their schedule. Portland has gone 22-16 since January 19, Charania notes, led by a strong defense.
Cronin joined the organization as a basketball operations intern in 2006, having been with the team for 19 years.
He was promoted to assistant general manager in 2021, then replaced former head of basketball operations Neil Olshey as interim GM in December of that year. Cronin was given the permanent GM job in May 2022, after the ’21/22 campaign ended.
According to Charania, Cronin signed a four-year contract in May 2022. Given that he just agreed to a multiyear extension, his deal should now run through at least 2028.
Cronin has made several trades and draft picks since he became GM, most notably trading away Damian Lillard in a 2023 deal that brought back Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara and multiple draft assets. He also traded for Deni Avdija — who has been on a tear of late — last summer.
Over the past three drafts, the Blazers have selected Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson and Donovan Clingan with their three lottery picks. They are currently projected to have the ninth-best odds of landing the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft.
Ouch, sincerest apologies Portland Fans
Why exactly? What has he done that was an obvious mistake and/or poor decision making as the GM?
How much time you have ?
Besides not trading Jerami Grant
All the time in the world. Now do you have actual reasons why they shouldn’t have extended him?
I understand why they didn’t want to make him a lame duck, but I don’t think his track record is solid enough for a multi-year.
Avdija trade worked out well, and Camara was a sneaky good find, but Henderson and Sharpe have left much to be desired, while Simons and Grant were inexplicably held onto at peak trade value IMO
~ The Dame botch, it was painful to watch and evident to most the path to take and when to take it. We discussed it for years in here . Say it aint Joe tho decided he wanted it to be a Jungle Safari and ended up walking into a Lions mouth in the end
~ Jerami Grant: Terrifying
~ Rob Willams and Thybull casually just peeling in a small empires net worth to never play for them
~ The fact they have a 4th year in a row lottery team having to use Neo like Matrix moves to avoid the tax line every year still puzzles everyone daily
~ Oh and your still in that same mess next year as nobody falls off the ledger
~ The actual desire to want to pay Ayton 35 M in 2025 is alarming
If he can somehow find a taker for Jerami Grant without giving up his 1st round assets, then they might have something building. Having Ayton and Grant on the same team is reckless roster management.
He’s the AKME of the Western Conference.
Well he’s almost done digging out of the years of piss poor decisions made by Olshey.
There were several players where foundation was laid during the trade deadline that hopefully will pay off during the summer.
Now if Grant and Ayton are on the roster come this fall, then it’s a different conversation.
How can a guy managing an awful team get this long of an extension when the team still isn’t any good after 4 years?
Does Chauncey get extended too?
Or does this just solidy the GM’s power to fire him, since a prospective new head coach can see the GM has stability?
They have a sniff of a play-in and they call it accomplishment …… the bar is this low.
The roster is expensive, a future of Avdija, Sharpe, Scoot, Clingan won’t scare anyone.
Cronin’s actual GM record
2025 SEASON
Acquire Deni Avdija for Malcolm Brogdon (expiring) + Bub Carrington (14th), 1x FRP, 2x SRP
Draft Donovan Clingan (8th)
Trade Tyler Kolek (34th) for 3 future SRPs
Reasonable price for Avdija, and they drafted center of future w/ Clingan (4th in BPG despite only 20 MPG).
2024 SEASON
Draft Scoot Henderson (3rd)
Draft Kris Murray (23rd)
Draft Rayan Rupert (43rd)
Re-sign Jerami Grant (5Y / 160)
Sign Matisse Thybulle (3Y / 33M)
TRADE: Damian Lillard, Jusuf Nurkic, Nassir Little, Keon Johnson for Jrue Holiday, DeAndre Ayton, Toumani Camara, 3x FRPs from MIL
TRADE: Jrue Holiday for Malcolm Brogdon, Robert Williams, 2024 FRP (Bub Carrington), 2029 FRP
TRADE: Acquire Dalano Banton in salary dump (highly protected SRP)
The Bucks FRPs are among the best draft assets in the NBA as they will convey by the time Giannis is declined/gone.
You may note the Blazers used the Jrue portion of the Lillard return to acquire Avdija the following year.
Criticisms of Ayton fall on deaf ears to me considering the Blazers were already paying Nurkic and he isn’t even rotation-caliber anymore. Ayton is overpaid but he is still starting caliber.
Thybulle’s contract is fine for a 2x All-Defense guy, basically Isaac Okoro money.
Grant is the one blemish and might have been partly to appease Dame prior to his trade request. The idea was being able to trade him later, but Grant fell off a cliff this season which throws a major wrench into that.
2023 SEASON
Draft Shaedon Sharpe (8th)
Draft Jabari Walker (57th)
Re-sign Jusuf Nurkic
Re-sign Anfernee Simons
Sign Gary Payton II
Acquire Jerami Grant for 1x FRP, 2x SRP
Trade: Josh Hart, 2x SRP
Acquire: Matisse Thybulle, Cam Reddish, 2023 FRP (Kris Murray)
Trade: Gary Payton II
Acquire: Kevin Knox, 5x SRPs (Rayan Rupert)
2022 SEASON (Cronin takes over December 1st, 2021 w/ the team 11-11)
Trade Norm Powell + Robert Covington for Eric Bledsoe (salary dump), Justise Winslow, Keon Johnson, SRP
Trade: CJ McCollum, Larry Nance, Tony Snell
Acquire: Josh Hart, Joe Ingles (Salary Dump), 1x FRP, 3x SRP (Jabari Walker)
TLDR Cronin has been fine, the Blazers have a lot of incoming draft capital and he inherited a tire fire pretender from Olshey. The Blazers also have a lame-duck owner in Jody Allen and he’s had to work within the constraints of that.