Ranking All the Ways New Blazers Owner Tom Dundon Is Reportedly Trying to Save Money During Playoff Run
The Trail Blazers fought out of the play-in tournament and made the playoffs this season for the first time since 2021. It made Portland one of the best stories in the NBA heading into the postseason considering how this campaign kicked off—with the arrest of coach Chauncey Billups on federal charges.
Such a shocking turn of events could have derailed the Blazers’ year entirely, and it would have been hard to blame anybody on the team for letting that distraction impact their play. Instead, Deni Avdija made a superstar leap as the roster came together under interim coach (and former NBA center) Tiago Splitter; it didn’t make for a perfect season but they stuck together, battled hard and beat the Suns in a road playoff environment to earn a playoff berth. After Game 2 against the Spurs on Tuesday night the series is tied 1-1 heading back to Portland. With all the above context there should be plenty to talk about around the team’s performance on the court and the adversity they faced.
Instead, all the chatter about the Blazers right now is about the franchise’s new owner, Tom Dundon, and the lengths he’s willing to go to save money while the team is in the middle of a playoff run.
Dundon, also the owner of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, officially purchased his first NBA team in March. Almost immediately reports began to emerge that he was laser-focused on cutting costs, beginning with a note from Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix that Dundon forced Portland staffers to hang out in a hotel lobby before the play-in game against Phoenix to avoid late checkout costs. Since then a variety of similar reports have come out, highlighting Dundon’s ruthless pursuit of saving every last dollar he can. The story got big enough that Splitter was asked about it before Game 2. He didn’t add more fuel to the fire with his answer, but clearly that fire is already big enough if it’s one of his pregame questions ahead of a playoff game.
NBA owners aren’t supposed to worry about late checkout fees, so it all feels a bit silly. Moreover, however justified he or anybody else might feel about the value of cutting costs at every opportunity, this has undeniably become a distraction for his team and a national story.
To highlight the absurdity of it all, we ranked all of the reported cost-savings measures Dundon has allegedly instituted this playoff run by how ridiculous they look coming from a billionaire owner of a professional sports team.
Honorable mentions
Wanting to fire Douglas Fur, the second team mascot
This particular item is under the honorable mentions category because the reporting behind it isn’t as strong as the other items on this list. Portland reporter Bill Oram of The Oregonian confirmed he heard an “anecdote” that Dundon wanted to fire the Blazers’ second mascot, Douglas Fur, because he doesn’t think his team needs two mascots. Which is… something of a valid point, in all fairness. But does it really rise to the level of a priority in the middle of a playoff run?
FWIW I have heard this same anecdote. https://t.co/BL25zuAFj6
— Bill Oram (@billoram) April 21, 2026
Not giving out playoff t-shirts to home fans
One tradition many (but not all) NBA teams share is giving out free playoff t-shirts to fans during home games. These shirts are usually laid out on every seat in the arena during pregame and fans are encouraged to wear them during the game, which can lead to some remarkable scenes. Portland has done that in the past—but won’t be doing so this year. On its own that wouldn’t really raise eyebrows, but in tandem with all the other reported cost-cutting it sure seems like Dundon didn’t want to shell out for 19,000 shirts.
However, it earns an honorable mention because co-owner Sheel Tyle said the team had “something else” in mind, so it doesn’t seem fair to judge too harshly before we see what that something else is. Maybe it’s a cool and unique idea that has nothing to do with Dundon’s desire to save money! Probably not. But maybe!
Ranking the most ridiculous ways Blazers owner Dundon is trying to save money
Now we hit our official rankings of the most ridiculous ways Dundon is trying to keep his money in his pocket.
5. Fewer complimentary tickets for support staff
This nugget was reported by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne on Tuesday night after Splitter discussed rumors of Dundon actively searching for his replacement.
“Sources told ESPN that one of the Trail Blazers’ other recent cost-cutting moves was cutting back on complimentary tickets to home playoff games for support staff.”
Like the mascot thing, this falls into the bucket of “Maybe you’re right, but is it really that important?” It surely will lead to a small bump in playoff revenue, but again—Dundon is a very, very rich man who just spent more than $4 billion to buy this team. Refusing to offer the complimentary tickets gives the vibe of a new boss coming in to change things because he wants to change them rather than in an effort to enact meaningful change that will leave everyone better off. But as we all know, the sooner you can upset your employees the better off you’ll be. Right?
4. Not taking team reporter, photographer to away playoff games
Oram reported on this matter for The Oregonian over the weekend—the Blazers opted against sending their own reporter and (award-winning!) photographer to the opening games against the Spurs. This is very much part of a pattern for Dundon, who eliminated the Hurricanes’ radio broadcast upon purchasing the team. If you are not deemed critical to the operation, you are expendable. The sacrifice of fan service doesn’t move him. Nor, apparently, does the fact that Portland’s photographer is well-respected enough around the industry to win awards.
3. Not taking two-way players to away playoff games
Caleb Love wasn’t deemed important enough to attend the Blazers’ away playoff games. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images
We now move into the arena of how Dundon’s desire to save money impacts the players on the roster. Unlike every other NBA team, the Blazers did not send their two-way players to San Antonio for road playoff games, as first reported by Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report. Those players—Caleb Love, Chris Youngblood and Jayson Kent—are not eligible to participate in the postseason, and thus Dundon didn’t deem it worthwhile to pay for them to sit on the bench and support their teammates.
We don’t know enough about the inner workings of every NBA organization to say definitively that they all give support employees free playoff tickets or send their media teams to away games. We do know that every team sent their two-way players to away games this postseason, because those guys are part of the team in every regard. They fought alongside the Blazers’ stars, and Love in particular, helped get Portland back to the playoffs with big performances throughout the season. It’s not just cheap to keep them home, it’s damaging to team chemistry and makes everybody wonder if the owner just sees them as numbers on a spreadsheet.
2. Avoiding late checkout fees at all costs
Not a lot to say on this one! This just seems like a really bad move to save a marginal amount of money. We’re talking coins between the cushions level of saving every penny he can find. Worse, it was detrimental to those employees’ abilities to do their very important jobs—The Athletic reported the Blazers’ team masseuse was left without a place to give players treatment due to the early checkout directive. These are millionaire athletes who are being paid by a billionaire, and that billionaire would apparently rather kick everyone to the hotel lobby than pay to ensure they get soft tissue treatment.
1. Searching for the cheapest head coach possible
Tiago Splitter might end up a victim of Tom Dundon’s desire to avoid paying top dollar for an NBA head coach. | Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images
Which brings us to the biggest offense of all—Dundon is trying to find the cheapest head coach possible if Splitter won’t take a lowball offer, according to multiple reports.
ESPN reported Splitter was offered a long-term contract “far below a standard NBA head coaching salary.” NBA insider Jake Fischer reported Dundon had talked to 20 college and international coaches with the aim of paying no more than $1.5 million annually for a new head coach. That’s the going rate for a top assistant coach in today’s NBA. The Oregonian reported that number might be closer to $1 million. Some reports suggest Dundon isn’t searching with a dollar amount in mind, but it’s easy to meet those suggestions with skepticism given the fact that the owner employed this very playbook with Carolina, giving first-year head coach Rod Brind’Amour a famously low salary that checked in below some top NHL assistants.
This is the No. 1 no-no on the list. It’s one thing to skimp on things that aren’t technically necessary even if the PR hit doesn’t seem worth it. But skimping on paying the head coach, who is responsible for the on-court vision of the franchise Dundon paid billions for, reveals where his priorities lie. No fan wants to root for a team where the owner’s obvious goal is to save himself as much money as possible even if the team suffers. No player or coach wants to work for a boss whose track record suggests he’ll ditch them the moment a cheaper option passes before his eyes.
The fans ultimately don’t care that much about whether the two-way players go to away playoff games. But they will care very much if Dundon tries to pay as little as possible for the most important non-player in the organization.
All reporting around this shares one common theme: Dundon does not care what the rest of the NBA world thinks of him. He did this with the Hurricanes in 2018 and they’ve been one of the best teams in the NHL on an annual basis for five years. He thinks this is a path to success; maybe it is. But the NBA is not the NHL. His cost-cutting moves look more ridiculous in this arena. And he’ll continue to be judged for it in the court of public opinion—especially if it results in lesser talent for the Blazers because he won’t shell out for anything more.
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