Trail Blazers GM Joe Cronin takes blame for 2-way players initially not traveling in playoffs: 'That was on me'

Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon (left) and general manager Joe Cronin (right) are hoping to return the Blazers to contender status in the Western Conference. (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images)

(Soobum Im via Getty Images)

Game 5 is when the Blazers’ season came to a close, as they bowed out of the playoffs to the No. 2 seeded Spurs after returning to the postseason for the first time since 2021. Interim head coach Tiago Splitter helped Portland end its four-year playoff drought.

Splitter took over for Chauncey Billups after the first game of the 2025-26 season. Billups, a Basketball Hall of Famer, was arrested in an FBI gambling probe this fall. In his absence, Splitter piloted the Blazers to 42 wins, plus another in the play-in tournament that secured them the No. 7 seed in the West.

Even so, the full-time job hasn’t been given to the 41-year-old Brazilian native, who played seven seasons in the NBA as a center prior to embarking on his coaching career. As he guided the Blazers into the postseason, reports swirled about who else Portland’s been considering at the head-coaching position.

So what is Splitter’s status?

“The current status is Tiago is a candidate for the position, but we're also looking around at other candidates,” Cronin said. “We decided early on we were going to cast a wide net and get to know a lot of different coaches and analyze and evaluate them in relation to Tiago.

“And timeline-wise, we don't have a timeline pinned down. We just want to keep meeting people and keep talking to people and having a really thorough process.”

Cronin was peppered with a few questions about the Billups situation. He said he couldn’t comment on it at the moment and that there are no updates he can provide right now. Billups has pleaded not guilty to multiple charges and remains on leave from the NBA.

There’s been more just uncertainty about whom Portland will hire to lead the team next season.

‘A lot of the reports on budget out there were a little misleading’

There have also been reports that the Blazers aren’t willing to pay top dollar for a head coach under Dundon.

“A lot of the reports on budget out there were a little misleading,” Cronin said. “Have talked to Tom a lot about this. We're going to pay the coach based on some sort of level of shared risk. If it's a first-time coach who comes with a lot of risk and doesn't have a market that we have to necessarily compete in, it'll be one number.

“If the coach we're talking to is a 15-year vet and a future Hall of Famer, it's going to be a completely different number, and Tom isn't going to flinch at either of those scenarios. We're going to be very open-minded to what types of people we interview and would potentially bring in, and I'm not concerned about the number at all.”

The speculation has run rampant, especially on the heels of reports that Blazers staffers were asked to check out of their Phoenix-area hotel rooms hours before the first team bus left for a play-in game versus the Suns so that Portland could avoid 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.

Discourse about the Blazers slashing expenses has been hard to ignore, especially in the wake of the two-way player omission on the first trip to San Antonio.

Cronin was asked about the reputation that conversation is assigning the franchise.

“I think seeing those reports and some of those things, for me, it was somewhat disturbing,” he said, “because I've gotten the opportunity to know Tom Dundon really, really well these last nine, 10 months, and it's just not an accurate depiction of what his goals are.

“Yes, we're going to run things more efficiently in terms of being economically responsible, in terms of having a discipline, less is more mentality. … But I've seen a lot of instances where he was willing to throw big money on the table in order to support this team, in order to put it on the floor, in order to make us a winner.”

Cronin called upon a scenario at the trade deadline that he presented to Dundon.

“It would've launched us into the tax, close to the first apron, would've saved the other team a bunch of money,” Cronin recalled. “We would've got a nice young asset, and he would've had to write a check for $20 million because he would've inherited that tax bill, and he didn't flinch. He's like, 'Yep, do it.' And at that moment, I said, 'OK, he's about winning. He's going to put money into this team whenever it's necessary.'“

Cronin said he and Dundon have had dialogue about buy into this year’s draft using cash. Dundon, unprompted, bought the organization a new hyperbaric oxygen chamber, according to Cronin.

“So there's a lot of spending fallacies about him,” Cronin said. “He's going to spend when it touches the players, and the players are always going to be supported.”