Trail Blazers reportedly cutting costs on player travel, hotel checkouts in Tom Dundon’s first month as owner

The Portland Trail Blazers are back in the playoffs for the first time in five years, and they’re taking a noticeably different approach to the postseason.

The Blazers’ two-way players didn’t fly with the team to San Antonio for the start of its first-round series against the Spurs, a head-turning cost-cutting measure that was first reported by The Rose Garden Report’s Sean Highkin. Even though two-way players — who are on contracts that allow them to split time between the NBA and the G League — aren’t eligible to play in the NBA postseason, it’s customary that they make playoff trips with their NBA teams. After all, two-way players from the other seven playoff road teams this past weekend traveled to games, per ESPN.

That’s not the only discrepancy between this year’s Blazers and other postseason teams. When Portland will host Game 3 and Game 4 of its series versus the Spurs, the Moda Center won’t be colored with festive playoff T-shirts. In Game 1, the Spurs’ notably illustrated an eye-popping turquoise, pink and orange pattern that paid homage to the team’s old logo and to the Fiesta San Antonio festival that takes place annually in April.

After Blazers president Dewayne Hankins announced the no-shirt decision, fan frustration was palpable, leading new Blazers co-owner Sheel Tyle to post on X in response that the team will be “doing something else.”

While that change may or may not be a money saver, it’s easy to understand why people are Portland are growing increasingly suspicious of an organization that’s reportedly been quick to slash expenses since a group led by Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon purchased the Blazers for $4.25 billion, a sale the NBA approved on March 30.

Dundon is a 54-year-old Texas billionaire who thrived in the auto loan business, has collected pickleball assets and, as mentioned above, also owns the NHL’s Hurricanes. He bought the Hurricanes in 2017 and, according to a Tuesday report from The Athletic’s Jason Quick, swiftly cut costs, even firing team broadcasters and dedicating fewer resources toward coaching staff salaries.

Since, though, Carolina has emerged as a force to be reckoned with — this season marked the team’s eighth straight with a postseason appearance, and three of those trips have resulted in an Eastern Conference finals appearance.

“I think he thinks this is just the beginning,” an anonymous team source told The Athletic. “I think he thinks this is just what taking over franchises is, where you have to change things. He said he went through a lot of rough times in Carolina … but ultimately all people care about now is winning. So what I think is accurate is him being cheap as it relates to stuff that in his mind does not impact player performance.”

The Athletic’s report Tuesday outlined a culture shock in Portland, where Blazers personnel were treated lavishly under the ownership of the late Paul Allen, who co-founded Microsoft and owned the franchise from 1988 until his death in 2018. His sister, Jody, carried the torch in the subsequent years.

But now, with Dundon at the helm, the Blazers are reportedly operating with frugality, even at the expense of optics.

Last week, a Sports Illustrated report from Chris Mannix detailed how Blazers staffers were asked to check out of their Phoenix-area hotel rooms hours before the first team bus left for Mortgage Matchup Center, where the Blazers later beat the Suns in a play-in tournament game that secured Portland the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference playoffs.

This was all reportedly by design, so that the Portland would steer clear of late-checkout fees. In The Athletic’s report, it noted early checkouts were required of all traveling party members, except the team’s players and coaches, and that it was an order from Dundon.

Is this approach bleeding into the coaching search?

What made the Blazers ending their playoff drought in a jam-packed West particularly remarkable this season was the fact that they did so under interim head coach Tiago Splitter, a 41-year-old former NBA center who’s been filling in for Chauncey Billups.

Billups, a Basketball Hall of Famer, has been on leave from the league in the wake of his arrest in an FBI gambling probe.

Splitter guided Portland to a winning record and a spot in the playoffs and, recently, has had to additionally navigate a stream of rumors surrounding the position he currently occupies, as head-coaching search reports have mounted, per The Athletic. An NBA team searching for a coach while it’s currently in the postseason is a practice that deviates from the norm and can come with scrutiny.

While an anonymous team source reportedly told The Athletic that Splitter is “is going to be the leading candidate,” the Blazers have had contact with several other candidates, a list that reportedly has included Saint Louis head coach Josh Schertz, Iowa head coach Ben McCollum, former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone and former New York Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau.

“Of all the things reported on Tom, the one thing that is not true is the coaching thing, that he is trying to get someone for $1 million to 1.5 million,” an anonymous team source reportedly told The Athletic. “It’s just not true. He’s talked to everybody, and of course, some coaches he talks to would be less expensive than others. The goal is to find the best person.”

To Dundon, winning is paramount. Tending to his image apparently isn’t of equal priority.

“In the list of things I care about, it’s lower,” Dundon said, when asked at his introductory Blazers news conference if he cared if he was liked, according to Front Office Sports.

“I don’t think anybody who says ‘they don’t care what people think’ is telling the truth. But I think I care more about my character than my reputation. … If we need to make a decision that’s best for the Portland Trail Blazers, I’m gonna make those decisions. It doesn’t mean I’m gonna love doing it.”