Chris Mannix’s NBA Notes: More Trail Blazers Cost-Cutting Moves Coming?

News, notes and observations from around the NBA …

Tom Dundon’s latest cost-cutting moves

There is a lot of anxiety in Portland, as Trail Blazers employees wait and see what other cost-cutting measures new team owner Tom Dundon will implement. Dundon, of course, has been slashing costs everywhere, from pushing staffers out of the team hotel to avoid late checkout fees to declining to send two-way players on the road (as the Rose Garden Report first reported) to putting a $1 million-ish cap on how much he wants to pay a head coach next season. I’m told that among the future cuts that have been discussed is potentially putting some staffers up in a less expensive hotel on the road next season.

NBA officials I’ve talked to continue to urge patience with Dundon. “People are starting to say he’s not willing to spend the money,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver told Pardon My Take last week. “You gotta remember, this is a guy who just won a bidding war, call it $4.5 billion to buy a team, and they’re calling him cheap. It just can’t be.” Uh, yes, Adam, it is. There’s a lot of league-wide pessimism about Tiago Splitter’s chances of retaining the head coaching job as well as rumblings that the cost-cutting measures will hit, among other places, the Trail Blazers’ broadcast team, which is widely regarded as one of the best in the NBA. With the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, the other team he has a majority ownership stake in, Dundon eliminated the radio broadcast in favor of a television simulcast. Stay tuned, as they say.

Would the NBA abandon the three-point line?

Steve Kerr’s interview with the New Yorker last week had a lot of familiar stuff. Family history, coaching influences, Kerr’s notable clashes with President Donald Trump. Tucked in the Q and A was this tidbit: Kerr believes the NBA should consider eliminating the three-point line.

“I just think that the game, as it was designed, is really to create the best shots possible,” said Kerr. “That’s why in the early days, you just throw it inside to the big guy. A three-point line came from the ABA, in 1979, and I think it was really effective. It makes for an exciting play, but the analytics revolution has created a weird situation where we all know exactly where the highest efficiency shots are: layups and corner threes.”

Kerr knows any pitch to kill the three is a nonstarter. And the fact that it’s coming from someone who made a career as a three-point sniper is laughably ironic. But is he wrong? The NBA has picked up a lot of young fans in the three-point era. But they have turned off thousands more. Watch a game with a millennial or a Gen X-er. Chances are you will hear a lot of bellyaching about how the game has turned into a three-point contest. Creativity and shot creation have been sanded out of the game. The NBA will point to robust ticket sales and its recently signed 11-year, $76 billion broadcast rights agreement as signs the game is as popular as ever. But there’s no doubt that as the NBA has grown, a subset of fans have been left by the wayside.

Did Jamahl Mosley save his job?

Will a first-round series win over Detroit save Jamahl Mosley’s job in Orlando? After a disappointing season—one that looked positively lifeless after the Magic’s end-of-season collapse in Boston and play-in loss to Philadelphia—it was widely expected that Orlando would make a change this offseason. It still could, but the Magic’s surge to a 3–2 lead this week—with a chance to become just the seventh No. 8 seed to knock off a No. 1—has increased the chances that Mosley will get another shot.

Orlando did underachieve this season, particularly defensively, where it went from a top-three defense the last two seasons to a middle-of-the-pack team in this one. Still, injuries, most notably to Franz Wagner, who was limited to 34 games, deserve some of the blame. And this postseason run may not stop in the first round. If Wagner, who is currently dealing with a calf strain, is healthy the Magic have a great shot against the winner of Cleveland-Toronto and advancing to the conference finals. And a conference finals trip is job security … oh, sorry, Tom Thibodeau.

How the Cavaliers’ top players are meshing

In preparing to play with James Harden, Donovan Mitchell studied film of an unlikely peer: Bradley Beal. Mitchell told Sports Illustrated last week that he watched tape of how Beal played in Washington, where he earned a pair of All-Star appearances playing alongside John Wall, another ball-dominant guard. “I’m not perfect at it, but still trying to get better at it,” says Mitchell. “And I think that’s kind of been my biggest thing, that’s making my life easier.”

The Cavs rebounded from a pair of tough losses in Toronto on Wednesday, with Harden (23 points) and Mitchell (19) leading the way. It was Mitchell’s selflessness that got the most attention after the game, with Kenny Atkinson revealing that with Dennis Schröder (19 points) playing well Mitchell passed on the chance to check back into the game early.

Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell dribbles beside Raptors guard Ja’Kobe Walter in Game 5. | David Richard-Imagn Images

“It’s about the group,” Mitchell said. “This is working. We’re getting stops. And I think the biggest thing about this group is, it’s about the collective. It isn’t about one person or two people. We know who we are, and we know what Dennis is bringing. You ride the hot hand.”

Said Schröder, “I didn’t know that. I appreciate that from Don. That means a lot. He’s a superstar. Not a lot of superstars [would do] that who I’ve been around.”

Mitchell is the unquestioned star in Cleveland. He’s the go-to player down the stretch who will be a 40-ish minutes per game player as the postseason advances. But it’s his ability to blend his talents with Harden and put the team first that will most impact the Cavs’ chances of success.

Mannix’s predictions

Thursday’s predictions: Knicks and Celtics close things out—setting up an anticipated Amtrak Series between the two rivals—while Denver beats back injury-depleted Minnesota to send that series to a Game 7.

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