The Portland Trail Blazers made a potential franchise-changing move on Tuesday that should please Damian Lillard.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Portland promoted interim GM Joe Cronin to GM:
ESPN Sources: The Portland Trail Blazers are promoting Joe Cronin to general manager with a four-year contract. Cronin, interim GM since December, takes over franchise at a pivotal offseason and has vowed to continue building around Damian Lillard.
The Damian Lillard aspect of the news makes it very interesting. Lillard has been a trade rumor favorite over the years. Basketball fans see a superstar player on a dwindling team and automatically place his name on the trade block. But Lillard has expressed a desire to remain a Trail Blazer for the long run. Unless his stance changes, it looks as if Portland is willing to build around him.
Joe Cronin takes over at a crucial time for the Trail Blazers franchise. They traded Lillard's co-star CJ McCollum during the season and their current organizational strategy is fairly unclear. A full-fledged rebuild would require dealing Lillard away, but right now the plan appears to be to build around the star point guard.
There have been reports that Portland will be active on the free agent market this offseason. Bulls star Zach LaVine's name was just linked to the Trail Blazers as a possible target, while Jerami Grant is a popular target target.
Trail Blazers fans are surely hopeful for the future with Damian Lillard likely staying put. Joe Cronin could become a Portland hero if he builds a contender over the offseason as well.
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