Joe Cronin Press Conference | 2024 NBA Trade Deadline | Portland Trail Blazers

Joe Cronin Press Conference | 2024 NBA Trade Deadline | Portland Trail Blazers

Take the question okay thank you for coming um I don’t have anything specific to talk about we just thought it was a good idea a good time to connect every trade deadline whether we’re Super Active or not very active just get a little time here so um quick review of the trade deadline

Uh very content with how it went um like the way the team is playing we’ve been extremely active and transactional the last two years wanted to give these guys a chance to settle in gel connect um otherwise floor is open happy to talk about whatever you all want to did that

Mindset made it make it more difficult for someone to prize someone from you and did you get offers that were somewhat attractive but just not good enough yeah I received lots of offers I think it did make it somewhat more difficult to pry from us because we are

Happy with who we have and where we’re at so of course we always want to be opportunistic and you know not just be thorough in this market but have a great feel for what our options are and what’s available and you know in any transaction you’re just evaluating

Whether this is a good move for you or not and all the discussions we had this time around we chose to pass on them can you elaborate on you say you’re happy with where we’re at where are you guys um individually um seen a lot of positive things throughout our roster

You know we’ve got we I don’t have a ton of time here but very happy with the overall growth of our young guys with the quality sustainable play that our veterans have provided um happy with some surprises we’ve gotten you know guys that were under the radar before

The season Tani Kamara dap those kind of guys and also happy with how all these individuals are connecting as a group I think I think going into the season we knew there was going to be a lot of ups and downs we were going to play well in

Spurts and we were going to play poorly in spurts and I think we’ve seen that but in totality I like where we’re headed especially I would say the last three weeks coming off of that tough road trip where uh we got beat pretty badly very often I really like how our

Team responded um since then and you know that’s what we’re pointing to is the the positives what are we capable of what are the good moments what can we build from how can we get more consistent in that higher end level of play Joe what are your goals for the

Rest of the season M keep getting better day by day um it’s was our approach going into it nothing’s really changed we have a lot of individual development and team development to go through and you know we have some really young talented capable guys that we’re seeing

Good growth from just got to keep doing that and at the same time we’ve got to learn to play together we’ve got to still get better defining and establishing our style of play how do you feel um the season has gone for scoot so far this development yeah it’s gone well

Um shaky star early on which was to be expected you know for a 19-year-old coming in and running an offense and I love how he’s navigated that and especially lately I think we’ve seen some really explosive moments from him and games from him and series of games

From him and that’s what we’re building off of like get past the mistakes show what you’re capable of and keep growing from that um you know running running an NBA team you know from the point guard spot is hard and I think scoots navigated that really well

Joe since since December 3rd 2021 do you feel like you’ve done a good job yes I really like where we’re positioned I like where we’re headed I like what we’re capable of I like our team I like our staff I like our organization I think we’re well on our way to good

Things in the future going back to scoot for a second is this this might be more of a chuny question than a u question but is the plan for him at least going forward in the immediate future for him to keep coming off the bench mhm it’s more of a

Chy question I think for chy it’s a it’s a feel thing and I TR his field like he’s going to look and see how the team’s going see how see who’s available on a nightly basis you know that kind of can change things maybe he starts in

Spurts maybe he closes more games you know it depends on who’s available but I want I want to trust Chon’s field I think he’s doing a really good job of empowering him and developing him yet at the same time protecting him not putting him in situations that will make him

Overly vulnerable even though we want him to experience those moments in order to get better but generally speaking um I really like the way Chon’s handled scoots development the same as I really liked how he handled Shaden development the year prior Joe you know speaking of

Chony you know I think you said at the end of last season that he’s kind of come in and changed quite a few things I mean can you give any specifics about what do you think johon is changing in his two and a half years well it’s funny I mean I think

About it even in my own job you learned so much in those first couple of years you know the phrase you don’t know what you don’t know is used overly used probably but it’s true I think there’s things that just surprise you that you weren’t expecting or that you don’t have

Time to address like there’s so much like building like with your staff and the things that you’re going through you like you spent so much time on that developing your staff and just getting all that sorted out and then getting into the intricacies of the game or the

Intricacies of leadership and I think you just learn and sometimes you have to make a mistake to learn that’s what I’ve learned in my job is I’ve learned more from my mistakes probably than the things that have gone well but for Chanty I’ve seen so much growth in not

Just his leadership and how he’s interacting with players and the way he communicates but also in you know his decision making his strategy his schemes like we’re seeing tremendous growth I’m really happy with where we’re at Jo back to scoot what Joe going back to scoot what’s your evaluation him playing with

Simons right now and how much more do you need to see to get a proper evaluation um I think we to see a lot more I think they’re still figuring each other out you know they’re both guys who are better on the ball than off of it

And I think they’ve got to learn to play with each other and we expect that from all of our players like learn how to play with other good players like be a basketball player and I think we’ve seen tremendous growth from scoot in being

Both on and off the ball off the ball is one of the things that’s been one of the most positive developments I think is he’s getting really good out of a catch whether he’s just shooting the ball or whether he’s attacking on that single side making a play so and that’s what I

Want to see right now is become a holistic player you know we’ll get into the intricacies and we’ll maximize what they do best but right now just become a player Joe leading up to the deadline is it fair to say that the CBA the implications of it dictated a lot or how

Little action there was coming into this deadline I think teams definitely are adjusting accordingly we’re seeing perhaps some conservatives being teams being conservative being unwilling to take on certain salary ranges or certain salary lengths we’re seeing um teams covet draft picks more than we probably did in the previous I would say

Five years where you know we saw a lot of picks being thrown around so I think teams are getting a little more protective um I think the new CBA is still freezing the league to some extent where we’re still just kind of looking around trying to figure out the exact

Implications of these new roles and learning on the fly as we go so I think all of those to some extent um will hinder movement how much if any has that affected how you guys are planning on not only right now but kind of your runway for the next 18 months yeah I

Mean you’re talking like new CBA and the changes yeah I mean a lot of that and it was heavy on our consciousness throughout the the summer and all the deals we made it’s you know how can you manage your cap effectively and also what are you looking for as far as what

Are you valuing more contracts or picks or both or you know some combination of all different things and I obviously we’ve done a little bit of each and I think that’s what we valued like we definitely knew we had to restock pile our picks which I feel like we’ve done a

Good job of but at the same time we wanted to add some players to this roster too some guys who were on good contracts that were you know very manageable for our cap that we could continue to add to this roster do you do you have any kind of

Rough timeline for how many more years you’re kind of going to do this kind of early stage of rebuild before you start looking at maybe being more competitive for the playoffs you have kind of a timeline on mhm um not yet I know we want to continue to grow continue to

Progress we don’t want to take any more steps back and that was part of our Approach at this trade deadline like I would say we were looking more to acquire a guy than get off of a guy but at the same time I don’t want to speed

It up too much I want to give these guys a chance to grow and develop and um you know not not overly swing here in order to chase a playoff spot that’s unrealistic or a playoff spot that’s going to get us thumped right away I want to make sure this is a quality

Build that is very sustainable so were were you guys active in targeting some players and were you more interested in acquiring players even for your players as opposed to picks do you have some many young players yeah um it always depends on the deal like you know if there’s Great Value We’ll

Add picks if it’s great value We’ll add players I would say but generally speaking the deals we were pursuing were more player oriented like can we find a guy that provides immediate and long-term help and is there is there proper value there I want to ask you also about um

Deandre’s development within the new culture and new system how’s how’s that going your perspective um it’s going well I think we’re learning each other still and I think you’ve started to see some progress in that like DeAndre is so talented um it took us a while to figure

Out how to get him the ball in the right places how to effectively utilize him defensively and we’re still learning and there’s still a long ways to go but I’m encouraged by from what we saw in October versus what we’ve seen in late January just his uh his overall impact

His overall effectiveness where we’re getting him his touches um how we’re using him defensively how we’re keeping him engaged I like where we’re headed with that um but it was a it was complicated adjusting to DeAndre like finding him finding ways to get him proper touches mhm

Trail Blazers General Manager Joe Cronin meets the media after the 2024 NBA Trade Deadline.

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