How Tom Dundon Could Poison The Well Of The Portland Trail Blazers

Tom Dundon has owned the Portland Trail Blazers for less than a month, and has already upended the organization. (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images)

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Tom Dundon has owned the Portland Trail Blazers for less than 30 days. Without clearly showing why penny pinching moves will translate into luring the best talent to a small market, he risks alienating not just fans, but free agents on the court and off.

Dundon and his group of investors purchased the Blazers for a reported $4.25 billion. Accumulating his wealth through subprime car loans and accused of predatory lending, Dundon is a break from two prior cornerstone ownership groups of the Blazers in Harry Glickman and Paul Allen. Where both wanted their touches on the club, neither decided that going bargain-basement shopping was the best route to do business.

Dundon has been framed as “cheap” due to cost-cutting measures. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has said that Dundon “knows what he’s doing.”

“People are starting to say he’s not willing to spend the money,” Silver said. “You gotta remember, this is a guy who just won a bidding war, call it $4.5 billion to buy a team, and they’re calling him cheap. It just can’t be.”

Frugal or unconventional might be the kindest way to describe Dundon.

There were several events during the postseason that were not entirely Dundon’s fault that played into his “cheap” narrative, not all of which were entirely his fault. There was limited travel for support staff; the team and staff was notified the night before arriving in Phoenix that they had to check out of hotel early forcing them to hang in a in a ballroom; stopped offering free T-shirts to fans, although they is not entirely on Dundon. That was notably in the playoffs when other teams normally do, and; excluded two-way players from traveling with the team during the playoffs. Although on the latter, Dundon said he “made a mistake” saying he did so based on what he knows about the NHL, which ignores picking up the phone and asking the league how these things function in the NBA.

It’s not like he’s gone down this route before. When he purchased the Carolina Hurricanes, he notably let the radio broadcast team go, which featured Hall of Fame and long-time radio announcer Chuck Kaiton, in favor of airing a simulcast of the TV broadcast audio in 2018 when Kaiton wouldn’t take an 80% pay cut to stay with the team. One would hope Dundon wouldn’t attempt that in Portland, but if so, there’s the precedent.

Dundon is a man focused on the hustle. He expects his staff to hustle as he does. As a Sports Business Journal feature story outlined, Dundon learned to like money from an early age.

“I always wanted to have money if I didn’t have it,” Dundon recalled. “It’s always been enjoyable to me to figure out how to make money.”

Since the changes in Portland, he blown off his detractors.

“The Hurricanes, since I bought the team, have the first or second-best record in the league,” Dundon said to the Oregonian. “So, I’m just not going to waste $100MM, just because somebody wants to write an article calling me cheap. I’m just not going to do it. And so, it’s hard because I don’t think about a budget when it comes to the playing team and how to make sure we win. Some of the stuff that was blamed on money is actually not 100% true.”

There have been other owners across the pro sports landscape who have gone in and tossed over the tables. Notably, Jim Crane after he purchased the Houston Astros. Crane made it clear that ripping the roster down to the axels and investing more in analytics was something he saw would lead to success and mirrored his efforts around how the St. Louis Cardinals functioned. He was lambasted for the moves but ultimately proved wise given the Astros incredible run.

Dundon will say his track record with the Hurricanes will show he can do the same with the Blazers.

It’s more likely he poisons the well if his methods permeate his entire ownership tenure.

The penny pinching doesn’t exactly translate with the NBA, a players’ league and one where market size to elevate brand is difficult in Portland. Damian Lillard proved it could be done, but luring free agents to a small market with the cuts that affect players’ quality time with the club make it difficult as a destination.

To add, it’s been rumored that Dunton is going to go on the cheap for a new head coach, offering in the neighborhood of $1.5 million a year, which would rank at the bottom of the league’s head coach pay scale. Add that as one more reason for key player talent to avoid Portland.

And there are changes raising eyebrows with the Blazers’ fanbase, one of the most loyal in the league. On Tuesday, as many as 70 employees on the business side were laid off, including digital reporter Casey Holdahl.

“These changes impacted talented people who have helped shape the Trail Blazers over many years,” Dewayne Hankins, Portland Trail Blazers President of Business Operations, said in a statement. “We are deeply grateful for their contributions, their leadership and the care they showed every day for our team, our fans and the Portland community.”

Dundon can say that the Blazers have bloat, but if the high number of layoffs in the front office is true, you’re moving well past cutting fat and into bone compared to other NBA organizations.

And that leads to a core problem: who wants to work in a front office under those conditions, and how does that translate to the fan experience? As Dundon has shown during the playoffs, maybe the fan experience isn’t a priority.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what Dundon’s game plan is, even if he’s been poor at communicating it the right way to fans who don’t follow what he’s done with the Hurricanes: winning cures everything.

In the near term, that means trades. Or maybe it’s not just the near term, but the overall way of roster building.

Rumors have circulated that a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo favors the Blazers given draft picks out of the Damian Lillard trade for 2028-30, and the fact that Giannis has played with Lillard and Jrue Holiday. If that were pulled off, it would mark a significant early prize for Dundon and prove to the fans that all the penny pinching is easy to push aside if it doesn’t affect improving the team. But, it’s not a given that a star of Antetokounmpo’s caliber is headed to Portland, and more than one sees the chances as a dark horse.

So, there’s a duality playing out with Dundon. He’ll point to the success of the Hurricanes and say that the track record and methods have proven their worth. The other is thinking that just because something works in the NHL doesn’t mean that it works in the NBA, and burning down the house and fanbase along the way isn’t the greatest way to start off. After all, the Blazers have been spoiled with incredible ownership for over 50 years, even if the fans maybe didn’t know it at the time.

The problem is, will Dundon push away talent, both on and off the court? The well isn’t poisoned… yet. After all, he’s only had 30 days to upend the Blazers.