Adam Silver Addresses Trail Blazers' Ongoing Sale, Future in Portland

📍LAS VEGAS — Since the Paul G. Allen Estate announced in May that the Trail Blazers are finally for sale, there haven't been any updates to speak of.

General manager Joe Cronin and his front-office staff have conducted the offseason as planned, and in fact have been given the green light to spend as if they weren't going through an ownership change. They took on three years and $104 million in future money with the Jrue Holiday trade, completed a contract buyout with Deandre Ayton and invested significantly in upgrades to Chauncey Billups' coaching staff. Everything appears to be business as usual on the basketball side.

In the estate's statement announcing the sale, they said the process was expected to continue into next season, and multiple team and league sources told me at the time that it would likely take between nine and 12 months to choose a buyer.

Since the announcement of the sale, there has been concern in some corners of the public discourse that a new owner could decide to move the team out of Portland, particularly with the current lease with the Moda Center only running through 2030 and the building being in need of major renovations.

Following the annual meeting of the NBA's Board of Governors during Summer League, commissioner Adam Silver held a state-of-the-league press conference at the Thomas & Mack Center on Tuesday evening.

The big news out of the day was expansion, and on that front, Silver said that the league office is in the process of conducting an analysis of the pros and cons of adding teams, and there's no timetable for when it could happen.

But when you have the opportunity to ask the commissioner of the NBA on the record if it's a priority for the league that the Blazers be sold to a group that wants to keep the team in Portland long-term, you have to do it, if only to clear up something that's a real fear for a segment of fans.

So I did.