Portland Trail Blazers start interviewing candidates for their General Manager post: NBA Update
The 57th richest man on the earth Paul Allen, who is also the owner of the Portland Trail Blazers have given the go ahead to his team to the start the search for the vacant General Manager’s post in his franchise.
The initial candidates, who were short listed for the interview, include Oklahoma City Thunder executive Troy Weaver. In addition to that, the Trail Blazers have also received the permission from the San Antonio Spurs to interview
their assistant G.M Dennis Lindsey.
Portland’s president Larry Miller had also shown keen interest in the former Golden State Warriors G.M Chris Mullin, as per sources. The franchise is also looking to set up a meeting with Mullin’s in order to talk about the G.M
post.
In the first phase, the Trail Blazers have scheduled an interview with Weaver that will take place on Thursday. Weaver had already met with the representatives of the Blazers in order to become the successor of former G.M Rich
Cho, who was the former colleague of Troy in the Thunder.
Weaver has made it to this level within no time after he became the director of the Utah Jazz and then took over the No. 2 position in Oklahoma City. Weaver is famous for his tremendous gauging of talent and has lot of connections
in every level of the game.
It was Weaver, who forced the Thunder to pick Russell Westbrook from the 2008 NBA Draft as No. 4 overall first round pick, which was way higher than any other NBA executive might have thought Westbrook to go.
It wouldn’t be a surprise if the Blazers’ G.M post went to San Antonio’s Lindsay, as most of the front office key posts are already held by different ex-Spurs, except for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles. Lindsey had
yet to meet with the Blazers officials, as he had talked to them just on the phone.
On the other hand, Mullin is also on the favourites list of Miller and the Blazers are also looking to set up a meeting with Chris to interview him for the job. As his stint with the Golden State was commendable and it is believed
that with his leadership quality and keeping the atmosphere clean will definitely make him a surprise package for many.
In addition to that Mullin also brings along with him a well-known name, plus lots of connections. Earlier the Blazers fired Cho and Kevin Pritchard in successive years. The reason for firing Cho was that he was too reserved for
the owner Allen and Pritchard was too aggressive for him.
After Cho was fired the Blazers appointed Chad Buchanan as the interim G.M and there were strong rumours that Buchanan might become the permanent choice. However, Miller and company decided otherwise and announced in their last
meeting that they will go for more experience person and the franchise will also keep Buchanan, who will also help them in finding the right person for the G.M post.
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