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SPORTS
Blazers Notes: Camara, Splitter, Offseason, Dundon
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After being eliminated from the playoffs in a Game 5 loss in San Antonio on Tuesday, young players like Toumani Camara, Scoot Henderson and Deni Avdija came away encouraged by the Trail Blazers‘ first postseason appearance in five years, writes Joe Freeman of The Oregonian.
“My first two years, I was trying to figure out what the main goal was for this team, where we’re trying to go, what we have, what was our mission,” Camara said. “Well, now we have more of a clear view of what we can do and what we can accomplish. So I think it’s very promising. We have a lot of talent. We have a group of great-character guys. I’m just very excited for what we’ve got coming.”
As Freeman notes, Portland overcame a significant amount of adversity to make the playoffs. Head coach Chauncey Billups was placed on indefinite leave following the first game of the season after being arrested on federal charges related to illegal gambling, and the team endured several injuries throughout 2025/26.
“We had a crazy year, man,” Camara said. “We’ve battled all year. It’s a tough league. It’s a tough league to win. But we stuck together, believed in one another throughout all the ups and downs, and I think it was a positive season for us, especially the way we were able to end things. We didn’t get the results or play the way we wanted during the playoffs. But it was our first time for a lot of us and we’re learning, still trying to build connection. I think it’s only positive things and nowhere to go but up from here.”
Here’s more on the Blazers:

A year ago, Bill Oram of The Oregonian was skeptical of the team’s direction, but he viewed this season as a major success and now believes the Blazers are trending in a positive direction. Oram argues fans shouldn’t lose perspective on all the promising developments of ’25/26, despite the team being over matched against the Spurs.
Veteran wing Matisse Thybulle lauded Tiago Splitter‘s performance as interim head coach, according to Brenna Greene of KOIN News (Twitter video link). “There’s a term where, if its late in the shot clock and someone throws you the ball because they don’t have a good look and you have to shoot it with no time left, they call it a grenade. In a sense that’s kind of what Tiago was thrown,” Thybulle said. “… It’s in some cases a bit of miracle, but in our world, even if you overachieve, it can still be disappointing to people. … As far as I’m concerned, Tiago did an amazing job.”
Thybulle is one of many Blazers who’s supportive of Splitter, according to Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report (subscriber link), who thinks the former NBA big man has “more than earned” the full-time job. Finding a permanent head coach will be the first order of business in Portland, but there are several other big questions facing the team this summer, Highkin writes, mostly centered on new owner Tom Dundon and how his involvement will impact the organization going forward. Highkin views Camara, Avdija and Donovan Clingan as the team’s core, with shooting an obvious area of need going forward.
Within his offseason preview, ESPN’s Bobby Marks also points to Dundon as a wild card this summer, since he may or may not push the team to be ultra-aggressive. Robert Williams and Thybulle are among Portland’s potential free agents, with Henderson eligible for a rookie scale extension.
Dundon has been heavily criticized for a series of cost-cutting measures in his first month-plus as major owner. However, he recently opened his wallet to make another investment in pickleball, per Ben Axelrod of Front Office Sports.



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SPORTS
Blazers GM Cronin On Coaching Search, Dundon, More
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Trail Blazers general manager Joe Cronin conducted an end-of-season press conference on Thursday, writes Joe Freeman of The Oregonian. Portland, which was making its first playoff appearance since 2021, was eliminated by San Antonio on Tuesday.
Cronin confirmed the Blazers are conducting a search for a new head coach, stating that interim coach Tiago Splitter is a candidate to be promoted to the position full time.
“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, keep talking to people and having a really thorough process.”
As for the rumors of new owner Tom Dundon being unwilling to fork over top dollar for a head coach, Cronin said that wasn’t necessarily the case.
“A lot of the reports on budget out there were a little misleading,” Cronin said. “I 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.”
Here are few more highlights from Cronin’s presser, largely courtesy of Freeman.
On Dundon’s offseason directive: 
“Growth. He wants to see us continue to get better on and off the court. Tom and I spent a lot of time … he’s so competitive and so diligent and so engaged with this team already. He studied us deeply and intensely, watches every game. We talk pretty much after every game. So he got a really good feel for us. Even before he took over, he was watching all the time. And I think he was really encouraged with what he saw. He saw continued growth. He saw a talent base that is very promising, (he) understands the assets that we have moving forward with all these picks that we have. He challenges us every day to go gain an advantage, go find the right player at the right price point to keep improving our roster. But also, internally improving our processes and how we’re looking at things, whether it’s from a coaching standpoint, our style of play and our player development techniques, to health and performance or scouting. It’s just overall getting better and better and fine-tuning all these areas that are needed in order for a team like ours to thrive.”
On how the team can improve this offseason:
“From a skill set perspective, I think, the Spurs series showed us that — really, the whole season — we just don’t shoot the ball well enough. Shooting is something we knew we were somewhat deficient in and something that we tried to address a little bit at the trade deadline with (the) Vit Krejci (trade), something that (Damian Lillard) will definitely help with. But it’s still a need moving forward. We played a lot of possessions in the mud where it was a crowd of paint for our attackers, specifically Deni (Avdija), Jrue (Holiday), Scoot (Henderson). They just didn’t have a lot of room to operate. And teams guarded us a certain way, knowing that we were really good at the rim and not great on the perimeter. And I think offensively, that just created issues for us throughout the season, highlighted by high turnover rate and percentages. So that’s one thing.
“We also still need to keep improving our talent base. A lot of that will come internally. I mentioned Dame already. Of course, that’s a big talent boost. But, individually, our guys got to keep getting better. We have a lot of young guys who have a lot of growth in them still, so they’ve got to take another step. But, also, we need to look externally for additions that could continue to boost our talent. This league, this Western Conference, it’s tough. We’ve got to keep getting better and keep stacking these players to be able to compete with these guys.”
On whether the Trail Blazers will make a big splash on the trade market or make moves around the edges: 
“We’re open-minded to both. Big splash is definitely something that’s intriguing to us, but only at the right price point. We’re not going to completely sacrifice our future for a short-term swing. But at the same time, we plan to be very active and aggressive and explore all opportunities out there. If none of those opportunities present themselves, we’ll be content doing some smaller things, confident that our talent base is strong and that the addition of Dame, the internal development, fine-tuning some of these skill set deficiencies we have, we can take a nice step whether we make a big splash or not.”
On the decision to keep the two-way players in Portland at the start of the series instead of traveling to San Antonio (Twitter link via Sean Highkin of The Rose Garden Report):
“That one’s on me. I heard we were going to have some traveling party reductions and I assumed it would include them and didn’t double-check. That’s on me for not communicating it.”



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