Former executive: Trail Blazers introduce Yang Hansen & Lillard at the time of sale, which may not be due to basketball angle

Recently, John Hollinger, a former NBA executive and columnist at The Athletic, wrote an article about the direction of the Trail Blazers.

He wrote: "I left Las Vegas before the Trail Blazers signed back to Lillard. But when I communicated with people in the league afterwards, the signing made many people confused."

" Lillard will miss the entire 2025-26 season due to a torn Achilles tendon to recover. Therefore, on the Trail Blazers, this contract can be equivalent to Lillard signing a one-year, $28 million contract in the 2026-27 season. , by then he will be 36 years old and just recovered from an Achilles tendon injury. This can be said to be no discount in the hometown. Considering that the team is essentially a team in the rebuilding stage of youth, timing of the lineup has become a problem. But now they have locked in contracts for Lillard, Jerami Grant and Ju Holiday - these contracts will occupy more than half of the salary cap in the 2025-26 season and 2026-27 season, if Lillard The last year of Grant's choice to execute the contract, the same will happen in the 2027-28 season. "

"If you are the kind of person who likes to conceive multi-layered conspiracy theories with charts and arrows, then you will have enough room for this kind of thinking. Around the things that the team is about to be sold, Lillard's signing, and the unexpected selection of Chinese center Yang Hansen in the first round of the June draft, the core of many discussions in Las Vegas is that the Trail Blazers are now Is it purely based on basketball. How much does the potential buyer's perception have on these basketball decisions? "

" One view that General Manager Cronin and head coach Chauncey Billups' recent contract extension will give them more patience, but the Trail Blazers seem to be heading in the opposite direction. Two important offseason moves are to add Holiday and Lillard to a young team that seems to be quite far from challenging the top Western Conference teams."

source:7n cn livescore