New Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups has some bold plans for his team heading to the 2021-22 season, but superstar Damian Lillard might not be happy about it.
Apparently, Billups is not a fan of taking too many threes and has no plans to put an emphasis on it in his offensive system with the Blazers. For him, what he wants Portland to prioritize are spacing and attacking the paint, which should give them other openings from the perimeter or outside the arc.
“I'm not one of those coaches that wants to shoot all threes and get up 50 threes. I don't believe in that,” Billups said when asked about what his offense will look like, per Jay Allen of Rip City Radio.
“I like to play with a lot of pace, spacing the floor out so we can have gaps and lanes for penetration, attacking the paint and getting those kick-outs for 3-point shots. Those are beautiful shots and deflate defensive teams.”
While the offense is probably designed in consideration of the tools the Blazers currently have, it is worth noting that Damian Lillard is one of the best three-point makers in the NBA in 2020-21. He actually finished third in triples made last season, behind only Stephen Curry and Buddy Hield.
Not to mention that everyone knows his Logo Lillard nickname. Given that Chauncey Billups is not a big fan of taking many three-pointers, it could be assumed he wouldn't like those kinds of long-range attempts that many consider as a “bad shot.”
Of course, only time will tell if the new offensive philosophy will work for the Blazers. It's also a matter of wait-and-see how it will affect Lillard, who averaged 28.8 points on 4.1 triples made last season.
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