Joe Cronin didn’t exactly hide from the issue when he sat down at Blazers Media Day on Monday.
The Portland Trail Blazers general manager was asked about the gap between the team’s three-point volume and its accuracy, and his answer made one thing clear: the shooting problem that haunted Portland last season is still very much on the table.
“TBD. It’s still I don’t think a strength of ours," Cronin responded.
"Obviously, Dame will improve our shooting, spacing, etc. immensely. There’s some outside additions that we made that will help in that category.
Vit Krejci at last year's trade deadline. Micah Potter is a real shooter.
Branden Carlson’s a good shooter. I think the thing we’re going to count on the most though is the internal development of our shooters.
They’re taking good steps. They still have steps to take as shooters.
I don’t expect it to be a strength of ours, but I’m not overly concerned with it.”
That’s a pretty direct admission for a team that leaned heavily on the three-ball last season without getting nearly enough return. Under interim head coach Tiago Splitter, the Blazers launched 42.2 threes per game, which ranked third in the league behind only the Golden State Warriors and Charlotte Hornets.
The problem was the makes never matched the volume. Portland hit just 34.3 percent from deep, good for 28th in the NBA and ahead of only the Brooklyn Nets and Sacramento Kings.
That kind of imbalance has been a familiar headache throughout the rebuild. The Blazers have often lived near the bottom of the league in three-point efficiency, even while playing a style that would make sense in today’s NBA if the shots were falling. Instead, the offense has too often looked stuck in the mud.
Cronin had already identified shooting as the top offseason priority after Portland’s first-round playoff exit to the San Antonio Spurs. At the time, he said Damian Lillard’s return would help, but he also acknowledged the Spurs series exposed how often the offense bogged down and how much work still needed to be done.
The issue now is that the summer additions only partially addressed it. Lillard should provide a real lift after last season’s brutal torn Achilles, and his 3-Point Contest trophy from last year was a reminder that the shot is still there.
Krejci should be better after ending the season in a shooting slump. Potter brings real range.
Carlson, too, is a good shooter.
But even with those pieces, the bigger concern remains the same: this looks more like a temporary patch than a true fix. Lillard is 36, and the role-player additions may not log enough minutes to change the math in a meaningful way.
That’s why the shooting question still hangs over Portland. Cronin called it the priority. Months later, it’s still not a strength - and by his own account, the best-case outcome may simply be that it stops being a weakness.
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