New Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon is immediately making his presence felt across the organization.
Freshly minted NBA owners tend to make a grand entrance, whether they mean to or not. Mat Ishbia traded for Kevin Durant a few days after taking over the Suns. Patrick Dumont infamously traded away Luka Dončić.
What the 54-year-old billionaire appears to be doing in Portland is wider-reaching than any trade or hire.
Dundon was approved as the team’s new owner on March 30 after buying 80% of the team from longtime owner Jody Allen in the first step of a multi-tiered transaction that valued the team at $4.2 billion. He also owns the NHL’s Hurricanes and a web of pickleball assets.
His first few weeks running the Blazers have been marked by aggressive cost-cutting. On Sunday, the Trail Blazers fell to the Spurs 111–98 in Game 1 of their first round playoff series. Noticeably absent were the team’s three two-way players: Caleb Love, Chris Youngblood and Jayson Kent, who didn’t travel to San Antonio for the first two games in order to save money, according to longtime Blazers reporter Sean Highkin.
Portland was the only road team to not bring its two-way players on the road for the opening weekend of the playoffs, according to Highkin.
The report followed another from Sports Illustrated that team staffers had to check out of their hotel rooms before noon during a recent trip to Phoenix in order to avoid late checkout fees, despite having hours before team buses left for the arena.
Then there’s the report that Dundon wants to pay no more than $1.5 million for the team’s next coach. The Trail Blazers are in the playoffs with first-year coach Tiago Splitter, a seven-year NBA veteran who stepped in after head coach Chauncey Billups was arrested in October as part of the federal gambling probe.
Dundon’s reported $1.5 million cap is roughly what the top NBA assistants earn. Kings coach Doug Christie had no NBA head coaching experience before this year and is believed to be among the lowest-paid head coaches in the league at $2 million.
Dundon reportedly gauged St. Louis coach Josh Schertz’s interest in the gig. Schertz recently signed a six-year, $22 million contract to remain with the Bilikens that will pay him more than $3 million annually—double Dundon’s desired price tag.
All of it is well outside the norm for NBA franchises and has earned Dundon the “El Cheapo” moniker from Bill Simmons.
A Trail Blazers spokesperson did not respond to questions about the team’s travel spending or its budget for a coaching staff.
On Friday, the Trail Blazers will host the Spurs for Game 3, marking the Moda Center’s first playoff game since 2021. But fans won’t be receiving a free T-shirt to wear during the game, another league-wide playoff tradition.
Blazers president Dewayne Hankins told local media last week that no shirts will be given out to fans for their home games during the series.
The backlash led new co-owner Sheel Tyle to post on social media the same day that “we are doing something else.”
When Dundon bought the team from Paul Allen’s estate, the immediate questions were: Would the Moda Center finally get renovated? And who would pay for it?
Dundon has insisted that none of his money go toward fixing the arena, and Oregon recently passed legislation to spend $365 million of public money on it.
At his first press conference as Blazers owner earlier this month, Dundon said he wasn’t worried about how he would be perceived on the job.
“In the list of things I care about, it’s lower,” Dundon said. “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.”
