The Portland Trail Blazers are currently clinging to the eighth seed in the West, and that apparently isn’t good enough for owner Paul Allen.
John Canzano of The Oregonian reported on Wednesday that Allen is not pleased with the team’s start to the 2017-18 season.
Per Canzano:
The lieutenants who work at owner Paul Allen’s Vulcan, Inc. mothership have been analyzing data and asking important questions. Two NBA front-office sources said they were contacted in the last 10 days by the Vulcans and asked whether they thought Trail Blazers struggles were due to a broken roster or poor coaching.
“Paul is getting antsy,” one of the league sources said, “he thinks they should be winning more.”
The Blazers are a fairly respectable 17-16 on the year, but they have largely failed to separate themselves from the middle of the pack. Their fifth-ranked defense is tempered by their 23rd-ranked offense (per NBA.com), and Damian Lillard’s recent absence with a hamstring injury certainly hasn’t helped either.
Portland had big dreams for this past offseason that went unfulfilled, and now they are left with Lillard and CJ McCollum in their prime years, something that cannot be wasted. We will see if Allen pushes for a trade, a coaching change, or another drastic measure to try to swing the team’s fortunes.
