The Ja Morant deal already has the look of one of those Joe Cronin swings that keeps paying off for the Portland Trail Blazers.
At first glance, the fit was easy to question. Morant still hadn’t played a meaningful regular-season game in Portland, and the preseason didn’t exactly erase every concern on paper. But the early signs point to a partnership that makes a lot more sense than it did when the trade was first announced.
The biggest reason is simple: Morant changes the offense. His ball-handling and playmaking give Portland something it needed, and those traits have shown up fast enough to outweigh the worries about shooting and spacing.
He has also been better on the defensive end than expected. On top of that, the Blazers have a built-in cushion for his lack of positional size, with Donovan Clingan anchoring the frontcourt.
That combination is making Cronin’s decision look sharper by the day.
Portland had been mentioned as a buyer for months, going back to February’s trade deadline, when the expectation around the league was that the Blazers would make a real push to support their playoff chase. Instead, Cronin stayed quiet, aside from a smaller move for Atlanta Hawks sharpshooter Vit Krejci.
Even that didn’t amount to much in terms of on-court impact, since Krejci’s usually dependable three-point shot went missing somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. Still, Portland outperformed expectations anyway, which only made it clearer that the bigger move was coming later. Tom Dundon’s arrival and Damian Lillard’s return only added more fuel to the sense that the rebuild would keep moving forward.
The offseason buzz around Portland was hard to miss. Giannis Antetokounmpo was the biggest name attached to the Blazers, with the team described as a serious dark horse because it had Milwaukee’s future draft capital from the Damian Lillard blockbuster deal. Jaylen Brown came up often too, and Portland was also revealed to have interest in LaMelo Ball after the Timberwolves trade.
In the end, though, it was Morant - one of the few major names the Blazers weren’t tightly connected to - who Cronin chose to target.
That decision fits the kind of approach Dundon used in his successful turnaround of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, where he bought low on distressed assets. The Morant deal is the first clear example of that philosophy carrying over to Portland, and the early returns are strong.
Morant doesn’t have to become the exact version of the two-time All-Star he once was in Memphis for this trade to work. Portland only gave up another player viewed as a negative asset in Jerami Grant and a floor-shrinking Kris Murray, whose offense didn’t fit this roster. Even before Morant reaches whatever full version of himself comes next, the talent upgrade alone is enough to tilt this move in Portland’s favor.
That’s been a familiar pattern for Cronin. The Deni Avdija trade with Washington was met with plenty of skepticism at the time, especially because the Blazers attached draft picks to land a more established role player. This one drew a different kind of criticism, centered on Morant’s off-court issues and the way he would fit with the roster.
Preseason has already made those worries look overstated. Morant’s willingness to share the ball is helping make an imperfect backcourt fit function anyway, and there’s little in the early going to suggest that won’t carry into the regular season.
Portland opens Wednesday, October 21 against the Phoenix Suns, and with tip-off less than a week away, the Blazers have a chance to show this wasn’t just a preseason mirage.
If the early signs hold, Morant will join the growing list of controversial Cronin moves that ended up going Portland’s way.
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