Blazers' Tom Dundon Talks Not Bringing 2-Way Players in Playoffs, 'I Just Don't Understand' the NBA

Tom Dundon, the new Portland Trail Blazers owner, has been under fire early in his tenure for being frugal, and his decision not to bring two-way players on the road in the postseason only added to the criticism.

On the Game Over podcast, Dundon apologized for not bringing two-way players to road games, saying he "made a mistake."

"I just made a mistake. I just don't understand the league," Dundon said (1:11:30 mark). "In hockey, we don't travel (with) extra people because it's … we're not on vacation. We're here to win, so we don't want the distraction. The NBA seems to live with those distractions. It's not how I think about it. So, you sort of got to learn, you know, what's the differences between the two leagues."

Dundon's purchase of the Blazers was approved in March, six months after Paul Allen's estate agreed to sell the team to him. Dundon also owns the Caroline Hurricanes of the NHL.

Reports of Dundon's potential frugality emerged shortly after he officially became the team's owner. NBA insider Jake Fischer reported in April that Dundon had no plans of spending big on the team's new coach, noting a price range of $1 million to $1.5 million.

Bill Oram of the Oregonian also reported that some people around the NBA were beginning to describe the Blazers' new ownership as "cheap."

Portland's cost-cutting measures took center stage during the team's first playoff appearance since 2021, as the Trail Blazers didn't provide fans with playoff-themed shirts for Games 4 and 5 against the San Antonio Spurs. While that isn't something that necessarily impacted the team's on-court performance, it's common courtesy around the league for teams to give out shirts during the playoffs.

It was also reported that members of the Blazers' staff were asked to check out of the team hotel hours before they had to be at the arena to avoid late checkout fees. Dundon addressed that situation on Game Over.

"Normally, when you travel, you get (a) late checkout, right? In this case, in sports, it's usually like 5 percent and never comes up. We went because it was last-minute going to Phoenix. There was no hotels, I guess," Dundon said. "… So I had trouble getting hotels, and the hotel really wanted us to be out early because they needed the rooms, and so they wanted us to pay for a second night, and so we did that for the coaches and the players, but we got them to let us leave at 1 o'clock."

The Athletic's Jason Quick reported in April that interim head coach Tiago Splitter had expressed frustration with Dundon, and some of that frustration perhaps could be because of his frugality.

The Blazers had a strong turnaround season and appear to be heading in the right direction, but whether the team's ownership will halt their progress remains to be seen.