The Portland Way: How Joe Cronin and Company Continue to Blaze a Trail of Effective Roster Building
In 2023, the Portland Trail Blazers, fresh off their worst back-to-back win totals since 2006–2007, executed a long overdue trade of their franchise icon, Damian Lillard, to the Milwaukee Bucks, in exchange for Jrue Holiday and DeAndre Ayton in a three-team blockbuster that ruptured the league, in tandem.
General manager Joe Cronin responded to Lillard’s trade request before ultimately sending him east, being upfront about his relationship with the former All-NBA guard, seven-time All-Star and franchise leader in points and three-pointers made.
Cronin, in totalitly, referenced the difficulty of the front office’s negotiations with Lillard, who spent 11 seasons as a Trail Blazer before asking out of Rip City, and summarized the era through his transactions in his first few seasons as the city’s general manager.
It was a rocky beginning to Cronin’s career with the Blazers’ brass, for sure.
[And to that extent], I do feel like I failed Dame.” said Cronin at a Las Vegas Summer League press conference on July 1st, 2023.
A rocky start, indeed, is what Cronin retrospectively experienced in the 2022 offseason, trading away CJ McCollum, Norman Powell and Nickiel Alexander-Walker in three separate deals, none of which yielded the competitive capital that warrants their departure a half-decade later.
The significant draft capital acquired in the McCollum deal turned into a pair of first-rounders, with high-octave draft picks never conveying or becoming long-term assets for the Blazers. However, the provided cap flexibility allowed for Portland to bring in Jerami Grant following an All-Star caliber season with the Detroit Pistons.
Grant, now 32, is Portland’s longest-tenured player, averaging over 14 points per game in each of his last four seasons.
Since the Lillard trade, though, Cronin has learned from his mistakes. Rupturing player relationships doesn’t coincide with his efficiency as a general manager, and if can avoid the former, it allows for maneuverability in offseason and trade deadline deals, most of which Cronin has absolutely nailed, and turned the Trail Blazers into a Western Conference playoff hopeful without needing seasons of tank-heavy seasons.
With the third pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, Cronin took Scoot Henderson, a high-impact guard prospect who has seen improvement in one facet or another in each of his past three seasons with the Blazers, evolving into an untouchable asset for Portland’s backcourt.
Cronin, in 2024, dealt Jrue Holiday to Boston before suiting up for a single game, reeling in Robert Williams, Malcolm Brogdon and the 14th pick in the NBA Draft. The latter two were traded for a certain NBA All-Star in Deni Avdija, the new face of Portland’s franchise after a career-season in red and white in 2025–26.
Avdija’s second season with the Trail Blazers saw a near-eight point increase in his PPG, shooting 46% from the field on 16 shots per game, the most of any Blazer last season.
Still, on draft night, Cronin executed on selecting Donovan Clingan who, in a fairly weak 2024 draft class, has stood out as the year’s best big-man selection and signals a change in rim pressure from previous seasons of former offensive-heavy centers Jusuf Nurkic and Zach Collins, neither of which made a massive impact on paint protection like Clingan already has.
Finally, in the past year, Cronin has brought back Holiday from the Celtics in exchange for Anfernee Simons, who had quietly drifted away from Portland’s list of invaluable assets, re-signed Lillard on a long-term deal while he rehabs a torn Achillies and traded for Memphis Grizzlies’ All-Star guard Ja Morant.
All of this without giving up a single draft pick, for what it’s worth! And Cronin has been wildly successful in the draft, too!
During the Blazers’ introductory press conference on Sept. 30, 2025, players detailed the dexterity of the roster, while discussing a seemingly brand-new “fast-paced” offensive system instilled by Billups and Splitter. Specifically, third-year guard Scoot Henderson, working off a lingering torn hamstring recovery pace, referenced his role within Portland’s sparky offense.
“The way we’re playing this year is going to be a lot faster. We always talked about how we wanted to play fast, but there was never really any construction around it, so we were [just] free-roaming a little bit. But I feel like this year with [St. Andrews] and Tiago and [Billups] as the head of the snake, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, a lot of unexpected cuts, and I’m gonna be able to know where everybody’s at. We’re all gonna be moving in unison.”
But, executing this in the regular season proved to be more superfluous in nature. The Blazers were 14th in cut frequency, but were 26th in the entire league in points per possession in the aforementioned playstyle. Through five postseason games for Portland, they attacked through cutting at the lowest-percentile among all playoff teams (4.1%)
They were the worst team in all of basketball in off-screen points. They were bottom-half of the league in pick-and-roll possessions through the ball handler AND the roll man, post-up, spot up, hand off and pretty much every type of offensive initiation conjured by NBA.com.
The Blazers led basketball in steals allowed. They allowed the most points off turnovers among all playoff teams as well. On paper, Rip City’s offensive season was dismal, and it’s difficult to extract a positive crystal from their cave of muddy, watery excess.
Which begs the question: what became the catalyst for Portland’s steady playoff run? Well, it’s covering opponents with their defense, a staple in their consistency, game-by-game.
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Before discussing this, however, let’s get a closer vision into Nori’s history as an assistant, and where the numbers poke the tops of their heads out, primarily.
Nori served as the top assistant with the Minnesota Timberwolves under head coach Chris Finch before receiving head coach offers a couple years ago.
On Nori’s departure from Minnesota in favor of the Portland head coach position, Finch said, “He has such a deep foundation, understands all angles of this job … He’s elite in his relationship-building, and I know he’ll fit right in in a situation where it’s really promising. I think it’s gonna be a perfect match.”
And Finch is certainly right. Coinciding with the Timberwolves’ acquisition of All-NBA center and former Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, Minnesota has dominated in their defensive effort each and every season of Nori’s assistance. Through the last four seasons of Timberwolf regular-season basketball, they have finished the year 8th, 6th, 1st and 10th in decremental fashion since the 2025–26 season.
Through a defensive modem designed to wire through their turnover-forcing wings in Toumani Camara, Grant and Kris Murray, the Blazers spent a majority of their defensive identity limiting handoffs and ball-handler opportunities, plugging their way into passing lanes to prelude an unconfident offensive possession.
And yet, these numbers don’t exactly look eye-popping, either! Portland was not top-half of the league in limiting handoffs and PnR setups with guards, and were even less successful at preventing spot-up shooters from getting their three-balls off.
To look at Splitter’s defensive scheme last season, one of which that will certainly depart in favor of Nori, we have to understand what made the Timberwolves’ defensive click so well. For two, it helps to have a ranging wing and a solid, defensive rim protector with size. The direct comparisons between Camara and Jaden McDaniels, as well as Clingan and Gobert, won’t be identical, but give a rational illustration of the type of efficient system that could be sought after from Nori.
Rebuilding the Timberwolves with the puzzle pieces left behind from the Blazers’ staff seems to be the most ideal operation for Nori, especially considering the perceived uncomfortability clause nestled inside of his contract details. As reported from Sam Amick, Micah Nori only has a single guaranteed season (2026–27) within his deal, followed by a pair of team options with pay contingencies relative to the team’s performance during his tenure, making him the lowest paid head coach in all of basketball.
While there isn’t internalized pressure within the Trail Blazers’ organization, as perceived as an outside viewer, it feels like there are two sides of a chalk-drawn line in Oregon: making back-to-back postseasons for the first time since Lillard’s departure or regressing without a lasered direction.
And making the playoffs, even in a dynamically stacked Western Conference, is within reach for Portland.
To close this evaluation, let’s do some digging into Portland’s depth chart, and how they plan to manage these minutes in a crowded backcourt.
With the guard room blurred with Lillard, Morant, Henderson, Holiday and Sharpe all likely expecting a high volume of appearances within the Blazers’ minutes distribution, some tough cuts will be forced to be made from Nori, without a doubt.
The Athletic’s Jason Quick revealed that Portland believes in all five co-existing, even with all four minus Sharpe being primary ball handlers, in one way or another.
“The Blazers believe the four guards can co-exist, in large part because the team believes Holiday can alleviate the redundancy.
In 2026, the Blazers ran 20 different lineups, but their most successful was a lineup where Henderson and Holiday shared the starting role, winning five of seven games. With Sharpe and Holiday in the backcourt, the team went 7–8, less than .500 without two ball handlers.
You know what this mirrors? In Lillard’s final season with the Blazers, their most effective lineup in terms of winning percentage was a Lillard-Simons-Hart-Grant-Nurkic lineup that played nearly half the season together, winning 18 of 33 games. Not a single other lineup won more than three.
A Blazers’ two-guard lineup works, obviously, but two ball handlers feels dicey, for sure. Especially considering Portland was 29th in the NBA in AST/TO ratio last season, what’s the appeal of two players bringing the ball up?
Well, with Avdija likely aiding as the tertiary ball handler, if his successes play into next season, it could force either Lillard or Sharpe to refine their play styles into catch-and-shoot-ish players, which would immensely benefit the offensive spacing of Portland’s system. Combine that with Morant or Holiday (depending on the night), and the Blazers have about as fluid of an offense as could be imagined from Nori and company.
It leaves Holiday, a deteriorating asset due to his contract and age combination, and Henderson, knocked to the bench after consecutive seasons of missing months at a time due to injury, leading a packed guard unit, where both players can pick up the slack without fail.
All four are capable of quality backcourt play, and Portland knows this. They wouldn’t have acquired Morant if they didn’t believe in their construction.
And now, with all eyes off of Cronin and onto Nori, the five-guard supershelf, a healthy Damian Lillard and the developmental seasons of Clingan and Camara coming to a close, a reinvigorated thirst for the playoffs will tip off in a few seasons. And expectations are just as high. Just ask Nori.
We’re going to play smart for 48-plus and we will play together for 48-plus.”
Paul Czarnecki is the former Editor-In-Chief and Sports Editor of UCCS’ student newspaper, the Scribe. Czarnecki’s coverage credits include in-stadium coverage of Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, in addition to 50+ articles providing in-depth analysis of the 2024 and 2025 NFL Drafts and more than 20 articles discussing draft prospects in the 2024 NBA Draft.
