Joe Freeman of The Oregonian is on a roll today. He reports that the Portland Trail Blazers are hitting the reset button on their search for a new GM and could be turning towards more experienced candidates. ------------------------------ League source: Blazers are no longer looking at the candidates they have interviewed for GM job and will, essentially, start search over. Blazers president Larry Miller spent Thursday calling all the candidates he had interviewed and informed them they were out of running. Miller would not address specifics of this, but did admit the Blazers were "expanding our search." But a league source told me former New Orleans GM Jeff Bower and Philadelphia GM Ed Stefanski will be among the Blazers' new GM targets. ------------------------------ Last week, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports hinted that this might happen. ------------------------------ Portland officials conducting the search have failed to reach a consensus on bringing in candidates to meet owner Paul Allen, and had started gauging the interest of more established GMs in the league. Blazers officials hope that offering more money to higher-profile candidates could convince some to push their own owners to let them get involved in the search. ------------------------------ Blazers president Larry Miller said that he "hopes" to have a GM in place when the ongoing NBA lockout ends but he wouldn't guarantee it when asked a few weeks ago. The position has been empty since the Blazers abruptly fired former GM Rich Cho back in May. -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter