<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 18px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 16px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: #0000FF;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 16px;    text-decoration: none;}ul {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 16px;}ol {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px;    font-size: 16px;    border-left: 2px solid black;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 12px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;    background-color: #EFEFEF;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article><header><figure><img src="https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2-blazers-preseason-numbers-that-should-worry-damian-lillard-and-chauncey-billups.jpeg"></figure><h1>2 Blazers preseason numbers that should worry Damian Lillard and Chauncey Billups</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2021-10-18T18:00:24-07:00">October 18th, 6:00pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2021-10-18T18:00:24-07:00">October 18th, 6:00pm</time><address><a>Jack Winter</a></address><h3 class="op-kicker">Editorials</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Damian Lillard and Chauncey Billups don’t care about results in the preseason. That opinion is a convenient one for the franchise player and rookie head coach of a team that went winless in exhibition play, losing four games by a combined 95 points—and all of them by at least 14. Lillard and Billups weren’t lying, though. Wins and losses really are irrelevant for every team in the preseason, especially one undergoing the wholesale stylistic shift facing the Portland Trail Blazers.</p><p>But the whole point of dismissing the scoreboard is looking past it to focus on progress manifested elsewhere, and the Blazers just didn’t make much of it when they took the court against a real opponent over the last two weeks. The hope is their diligent work on the practice floor—championed by Billups, Lillard and everyone else throughout training camp—is what’s reflected most in the regular season, ensuring Portland’s adjustment period from deploying Terry Stotts’ schemes to Billups’ is far less severe and goes much more smoothly than it did during the preseason.</p><p>Caveats abound regarding the Blazers’ recent performance. Their full rotation was only available for the preseason opener. Their regulars didn’t play at all in one of those four games. Portland’s ugliest loss, to the Phoenix Suns, came with each of Billups’ top four bench players sidelined. Over half of the Blazers’ top-nine players didn’t suit up for the exhibition finale. Their three-ball just hasn’t been falling to the extent it will over a larger sample size.</p><p>What makes the Blazers’ losses significant isn’t that they happened at all, but <i>how</i> they happened. Billups singled out the first 20 minutes of Friday’s loss to Golden State as a <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/3-trail-blazers-bright-spots-from-loss-to-warriors-in-preseason-finale/">bright spot defensively</a>, yet offensive struggles and Steph Curry catching fire before halftime still left Portland trailing at intermission. It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that the Blazers’ best defensive stint under Billups to date came with Lillard wearing street clothes, either.</p><p>Bottom line: Portland’s process in preseason games was just as bad as its final results. And if numbers like these carry over into the regular season, the Blazers—with Lillard’s future beyond this season still a looming question mark—won’t even have the luxury of alluding to developing comfort in Billups’ systems as losses mount.</p><p>Here are two preseason stats that should worry Portland ahead of its season-opener on Wednesday against the Sacramento Kings.</p><h2>30th in Opponent’s Three-Point Rate</h2><p>The chief justification of the Blazers’ ultra-conservative defensive scheme under Stotts was limiting rotations in hopes of goading the offense into less efficient shot attempts. It worked for a while, too.</p><p>Portland finished top-10 in location effective field goal percentage on defense—a measure of opponents’ eFG% if they shot league average on the shots a team is allowing—for four straight seasons beginning in 2015-16, <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/shots#tab-defense_shooting_frequency">per Cleaning The Glass</a>.  That winning numbers game for the Blazers was flipped on its head in 2019-20 and 2020-21, though, death for a defensive scheme that inherently kept turnovers low.</p><p>Billups isn’t counting on math to improve Portland’s defense. He’s betting increased pressure at the point of attack and activity on the backline will spark more engagement from the Blazers, leading to an uptick in turnover rate and the frequency of defensive possessions that keep offenses from establishing rhythm. It didn’t happen during the preseason, a reality laid bare by Portland’s dead-last rank in opponent three-point rate, according <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/shots?season=2021&amp;seasontype=preseason&amp;start=10/1/2021&amp;end=10/15/2022#tab-offense_shooting_frequency">Cleaning the Glass</a>.</p><p>Portland allowed a whopping 50.7 percent of opponents’ shots to come from beyond the arc during exhibition action, over five points more than the Charlotte Hornets’ 29th-ranked mark. It’s not like the Blazers are permitting three-point attempts selectively, either. They also finished 29th in rate of opponents’ attempts on corner threes.</p><p>Growing pains were bound to afflict Portland. Both Billups and Lillard have spoken of just how difficult it is to break and change habits; the Blazers won’t panic if it takes longer to get comfortable executing their new defensive scheme than they’d like. It bears reminding that two of Portland’s preseason games came against the Warriors, too, poised to lead the league in three-point rate this season even before Klay Thompson makes his long-awaited return.</p><p>There are legitimate excuses to factor in here, of course. But just as pertinent is an acknowledgment that it’s not exactly surprising the Blazers would struggle to make precise, multiple-effort rotations and run shooters off the arc given their defensive personnel. In that regard, Stotts’ approach is a better fit than Billups’ is.</p><p>Let’s hope Portland’s square pegs fit better into round holes as the season wears on. Surrendering threes at the highest clip in league history would spell doom for the Blazers.</p><h2>29th in Transition Frequency</h2><p>The Blazers’ motto for this season is P.A.C.E.: preparation, accountability, communication and execution. Those overarching ideals have been preached, to a man, throughout Portland’s preparations for the regular season, but aren’t the only reasons Billups chose that specific acronym. He also wants his team to <i>actually</i> play with pace offensively in 2021-22.</p><p>It’s a misconception that tempo can only come in the open floor. The league’s best halfcourt offenses that rely more on execution and continuity than overwhelming star power get into their actions quickly, ping the ball from side to side, sprint into screens and make hard cuts toward the rim from the perimeter. All those nuances represent pace, too, and will be a requirement for the Blazers to sustain or improve upon an offense that was basketball’s second-best a year ago—at least if Lillard and C.J. McCollum actually spend more time playing off the ball.</p><p>Make no mistake, though: Billups also wants this team to fast break far more often than in years past. Yet Portland’s 12.8% transition frequency during the preseason, per <a href="https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/league/context#tab-offense_transition">Cleaning the Glass</a>, ranked second-to-last in the league. The easiest way to play in transition is off live-ball turnovers, and the Blazers didn’t force much of them. They also made a concerted effort to find opportunities early in the shot clock over the last four games, creating the type of tempo Billups wants on possessions that didn’t fall under the umbrella of “transition.”</p><p>You can see Portland really did take that new emphasis on pace to heart, at least in ways it could control. True open-floor chances can’t be mustered at the snap of a point guard’s finger or urging from a coach on the sidelines, though. Just like the marriage between roster and scheme isn’t seamless on the other side of the ball, it isn’t with respect to the Blazers’ goal of pushing the pace offensively. Other than Norman Powell, there isn’t a player on this team who’s at his best and most natural in transition.</p><p>Perhaps slow, steady defensive improvement over the course of the regular season makes those fast breaks easier to come by. It better if Portland wants to finally start threatening defenses in the open floor with some semblance of regularity.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

2 Blazers preseason numbers that should worry Damian Lillard and Chauncey Billups

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 18px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 16px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: #0000FF;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 16px;    text-decoration: none;}ul {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 16px;}ol {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px;    font-size: 16px;    border-left: 2px solid black;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 12px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;    background-color: #EFEFEF;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article><header><figure><img src="https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/chauncey-billups-diagnoses-trail-blazers-biggest-concern-after-winless-preseason.jpeg"></figure><h1>Chauncey Billups diagnoses Trail Blazers’ biggest concern after winless preseason</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2021-10-16T11:58:03-07:00">October 16th, 11:58am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2021-10-16T11:58:03-07:00">October 16th, 11:58am</time><address><a>Jack Winter</a></address><h3 class="op-kicker">Editorials</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Portland Trail Blazers finished exhibition action on Friday night pretty much the same way it started, with a <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/3-trail-blazers-bright-spots-from-loss-to-warriors-in-preseason-finale/">double-digit loss</a> to the Golden State Warriors. Preseason basketball is hardly a surefire indicator of regular-season performance, and Chauncey Billups has stressed he sees it as nothing more than a glorified extension of practice. Results just don’t matter before the real games begin.</p><p>But Portland certainly would’ve liked to leave the preseason with one victory regardless, or more importantly, at least the sense of confidence it’s made measurable progress since training camp tipped off nearly three weeks ago. The win, obviously, didn’t come. The Blazers sandwiched those blowouts to Golden State with a short-handed home loss to the Sacramento Kings and a 36-point drubbing by the Phoenix Suns during which their starters played deep into the third quarter.</p><p>As for palpable on-court growth, though? Billups went out of his way to acknowledge that he saw it during certain segments of Friday’s preseason finale.</p><blockquote>“I stepped in front of y’all after the last game and I was really disappointed with our effort, with our execution,” he said. “I don’t feel that way today. I thought guys played hard, I thought they tried to play the right way.”</blockquote><p>The effort was definitely there for Portland from the opening tip. No doubt invigorated by <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/chauncey-billups-calls-out-embarrassing-blazers-after-blowout-loss-to-suns/">harsh public criticism</a> from Billups following Wednesday’s ugly loss to the Suns, the Blazers came out with the type of fire and intensity defensively they’d sworn would be a hallmark of their revamped approach on that end since official preparations for 2021-22 began. They were stouter at the point of attack and more active on the backline, making the type of multiple-effort plays that are necessary to stringing together stops in Billups’ aggressive scheme.</p><blockquote>“Defensively, I thought we had some times where we had some really amazing possessions,” he said. “Where we did a good job of stopping their first action, then had two or three multiple efforts and did a good job there. And sometimes they score those buckets, sometimes they don’t, but if it’s a good defensive possession we’ll take those small victories. So I thought we had a lot of those moments.”</blockquote><p>This defensive sequence comes to mind as evidence of the above.</p><p>Ben McLemore goes from tagging the roller to closing out on Nemanja Bjelica as Marquese Chriss recovers to the paint after showing on a Steph Curry ball screen. Chriss then cuts off the drive, forcing a pass to the corner where marksman Otto Porter is waiting. But Greg Brown III keeps his hands high and stays low on the close-out, forcing Porter to put the ball on the floor and settle for a contested push shot over length as Chriss digs down to swipe at the ball on the way up.</p><p>That encouraging sequence, and the majority of those Billups was referencing, took place before Curry erupted late in the second quarter. The Blazers let go of the rope on defense once basketball’s most flammable scorer caught fire, falling victim to the misdirection and miscommunication the Warriors always induce when Curry has it going. By the time Dennis Smith Jr. picked up his fourth foul early in the third quarter, leaving C.J. McCollum to chase Curry, Portland had lost its previous defensive mettle almost entirely.</p><p>Not that Billups seemed overly perturbed by that unsurprising turn of events, though.</p><blockquote>“Our offense and defense, things like that, those things will come. I’m not really concerned with that,” Billups said. “We have some really good players that you can make up for some of those things at times as you’re trying to get there, so I’m really not concerned with that. I’m more concerned by the things you can’t control.”</blockquote><p>Instead of lamenting the two-way issues that plagued Portland on the court after a solid start Friday night, he was more bothered by how many of the Blazers’ regular rotation players were forced to sit out due to injury. Damian Lillard was the only player on his team who missed the game due to rest; Larry Nance Jr., Anfernee Simons, Cody Zeller and Nassir Little were all sidelined by injury.</p><p>Nance, dealing with right knee soreness, will almost definitely be available for Wednesday’s season opener. Statuses for the rest of Portland’s injury brigade against the Sacramento Kings, though, are varying bolds of question marks. Even if Simons, Zeller and Little prove to be available, it’s a near certainty all of them won’t be on the practice floor before then—and that’s what worries Billups most as he continues introducing the Blazers to specific offense-defense concepts.</p><blockquote>“The one the thing that you just hope to have is health, man. We’ve already been a little unfortunate with guys being out, really, really important guys to what we’re gonna try to do being out,” he said. “When you’re practicing, and your introducing things and you’re changing things and you’ve got three or four or five guys that are in your rotation who can’t do it, it makes it tough. It makes it really tough.”</blockquote><p>These injury woes, unfortunately, could be a harbinger of more to come over the next six months. Jusuf Nurkic, Nance and Zeller have been prone to missing time with injury throughout their careers, and Smith nabbing the final roster spot over Chriss leaves Portland bereft of traditional reinforcements up front.</p><figure class="op-interactive"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Guard Dennis Smith Jr., will make the Portland Trail Blazers’ opening night roster, source tells ESPN.</p><p>— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href="https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1449433754422759427?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" target="_blank">October 16, 2021</a></p></blockquote><p></p></figure><p>McCollum, previously an iron man, has dealt with significant injuries each of the past two seasons. Lillard’s blend of age and wear and tear factors in here, too.</p><p>The silver lining? Billups will be better prepared to deal with the injury bug biting come the regular season after dealing with it now, helpful for a rookie head coach especially. But that’s a problem the Blazers would be far better off avoiding, and the fact it’s already surfaced is a reminder of just how likely it is to return over the 82-game grind.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Chauncey Billups diagnoses Trail Blazers’ biggest concern after winless preseason

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 18px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 16px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: #0000FF;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 16px;    text-decoration: none;}ul {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 16px;}ol {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px;    font-size: 16px;    border-left: 2px solid black;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 12px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;    background-color: #EFEFEF;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article><header><figure><img src="https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/chauncey-billups-calls-out-embarrassing-blazers-after-blowout-loss-to-suns.jpeg"></figure><h1>Chauncey Billups calls out ’embarrassing’ Blazers after blowout loss to Suns</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2021-10-14T10:41:19-07:00">October 14th, 10:41am</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2021-10-14T18:30:45-07:00">October 14th, 6:30pm</time><address><a>Jack Winter</a></address><h3 class="op-kicker">Mini-Editorials</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Chauncey Billups doesn’t care about wins and losses in the preseason. He views exhibition action as a glorified extension of training camp practices rather than a replica of preseason games, a perspective that <i>could</i> have shielded the Portland Trail Blazers from at least some criticism after their <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/4-trail-blazers-takeaways-from-ugly-preseason-loss-to-suns/">36-point loss to the Phoenix Suns</a> on Wednesday afternoon. As Billups told it matter of factly after the game, though, Portland’s process was just as if not more dispiriting than the final result on the scoreboard.</p><blockquote>“It was a horrible effort, I thought, by us,” he said. “We didn’t get anything done today.”</blockquote><p>To a man, the Blazers have talked a lot since official preparations for 2021-22 began late last month about their collective embrace of Billups’ two-way schemes and overall approach to commitment and accountability. Portland’s <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/4-crucial-takeaways-from-trail-blazers-media-day/">bright-eyed optimism at Media Day</a> made it seem like the manifestation of those ideals on the court would be a formality.</p><p>But following a third straight double-digit loss, Billups and Damian Lillard copped to just how difficult it’s been for their veteran team to break old habits and rely on new ones once preseason games have tipped off—a reality laid bare on both sides of the ball against Phoenix.</p><blockquote>“We’re trying to change habits and when you’re trying to change habits you have a lot of bumps in the road,” Lillard said, “especially when you’ve been one way for so long.”</blockquote><p>Billups has never been under the impression the path toward changing the Blazers’ two-way principles was going to be smooth. With the regular-season opener less than a week away, he couldn’t help but focus on Portland failing to take advantage of the chance to make <i>any</i> progress.</p><blockquote>“Habits are really hard to change,” Billups said. “But you gotta be chipping away at it, and today we didn’t chip away.”</blockquote><p>The box score from Wednesday’s game, unfortunately for Portland, aligns closely with the eye test.</p><p>The Blazers definitely missed their fair share of open jumpers, and Lillard admitted he decided against taking the reins offensively when the Suns got out to a big early lead. It bears mentioning that Anfernee Simons, Nassir Little, and Cody Zeller didn’t play in Wednesday’s game, too, leaving Portland’s revamped bench absent three of its four top players. Billups also didn’t outright dismiss the notion of an odd mid-afternoon tipoff having a negative effect on his team.</p><p>Still, there’s no excusing defensive execution and engagement like this, which Billups called “embarrassing.”</p><p>Billups didn’t just bemoan frequent lapses in communication and additional efforts defensively. For the second straight outing that included the Blazers’ starters, he also expressed displeasure with his team’s shot selection—specifically on contested three-pointers early in the shot clock—and carelessness with the ball.</p><p>Portland doesn’t need Robert Covington to take a contested, early-clock three that resulted from a single pass. Lillard and Norman Powell are each culpable for their way-too-casual disposition on the former’s transition turnover.</p><p>The problems in Wednesday’s game extended far beyond the possessions above.</p><p>The Blazers’ transition defense was exposed again after being shredded in the exhibition opener by the Golden State Warriors. Perimeter defenders still aren’t making life hard enough for ball handlers at the point of attack. Efforts to ping the ball from side to side in the halfcourt and attack downhill off the dribble were far fewer and further between than Billups wants.</p><blockquote>“In the preseason all you’re really expecting is—for us at least—to change the mentality a bit, and that’s why a game like today’s is so disappointing,” he said. “Not because you lost or you got beat so badly, but because the mentality wasn’t there.”</blockquote><p>It’s too early for Portland to panic.</p><p>While clearly frustrated, both Billups and Lillard downplayed the big-picture significance of the loss to Phoenix, alluding to the Blazers’ overall body of work in training camp and the preseason looming far larger than any single-game result. It’s telling that Lillard said he probably won’t play in Portland’s exhibition finale on Friday, too. If the state of this team was as dire as it appeared on Wednesday, he’d no doubt want to try and right the ship one last time before the games start to really matter next week.</p><p>Still, there’s no longer denying the extent of the Blazers’ preseason struggles. What they portend for the regular season, though, no one will know for sure until Portland hosts the Sacramento Kings on October 20th.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Chauncey Billups calls out ’embarrassing’ Blazers after blowout loss to Suns

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 18px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 16px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: #0000FF;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 16px;    text-decoration: none;}ul {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 16px;}ol {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px;    font-size: 16px;    border-left: 2px solid black;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 12px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;    background-color: #EFEFEF;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article><header><figure><img src="https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/chauncey-billups-sheds-light-on-blazers-approach-without-damian-lillard-cj-mccollum.jpeg"></figure><h1>Chauncey Billups sheds light on Blazers’ approach without Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2021-10-10T16:22:22-07:00">October 10th, 4:22pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2021-10-10T16:22:22-07:00">October 10th, 4:22pm</time><address><a>Jack Winter</a></address><h3 class="op-kicker">Editorials</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum <i>are</i> the Portland Trail Blazers. No star tandem in basketball is more synonymous with their incumbent team than Portland’s, a reality owed both to Lillard and McCollum’s longevity in Rip City as well just how much of the Blazers’ sustained success has been driven by them.</p><p>Portland owns the league’s longest active playoff streak entering 2021-22, an eight-year run that includes five trips to the postseason with Lillard and McCollum behind the wheel. The Blazers’ longtime ball-screen-based, dribble-heavy offense under Terry Stotts was a direct reflection of their star guards’ preferred playing style. It’s no coincidence with Lillard and McCollum dominating the ball that Portland has ranked first or second in pull-up jumpers per game each of the last four seasons, according to <a href="https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/pullup/?Season=2020-21&amp;SeasonType=Regular%20Season&amp;sort=PULL_UP_FGA&amp;dir=1">NBA.com/stats</a>.</p><p>Fortunately, their absence for Monday night’s preseason game against the Sacramento Kings at Moda Center is no indication of their health or readiness for the regular season. Chauncey Billups is simply resting Lillard and McCollum, giving their legs a break before Portland plays two more exhibition games on the road before its regular-season opener on October 20th. Not that the Blazers’ rookie coach would be all that jarred by his starting backcourt missing games that actually matter, though.</p><p>As Billups told it after Saturday’s practice, his team won’t be playing any differently on Monday night as Lillard and McCollum watch from the sidelines in street clothes than it normally would.</p><blockquote>“Those two guys won’t play in the game, but we don’t change the way that we play,” he said. “We still try to play the same way offensively, with unselfishness. Defensively, we pick up, we pressure. Nothing changes.”</blockquote><p>That’s a far cry from seasons past, when the simultaneous resting of Lillard and McCollum would have left Portland grasping at straws offensively. Pick-and-roll after pick-and-roll and dribble hand-off after dribble hand-off for Anfernee Simons and Gary Trent Jr., for instance, wouldn’t exactly have produced efficient offense given their inability to get to the rim and make plays for teammates. It’s not like Jusuf Nurkic, even now, is equipped to be a true offensive fulcrum from the post and elbows a la Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid.</p><p>It speaks to the variability, randomness and overarching principles of Billups’ offensive attack that he’s confident the Blazers won’t have to drastically alter their gameplan without Lillard and McCollum to score consistently. Perhaps that’d be a bit different if Monday’s game came in the regular season. For Billups, official exhibition action might as well be a glorified extension of practice in training camp.</p><blockquote>“To me this is still training camp, right?” he said. “A lot of people think once the game start training camp’s over. Training camp is not over until the preseason’s over, for me.”</blockquote><p>Portland is clearly still working to find comfortable footing in a completely revamped offensive system. Expect to see the Blazers on Monday getting the ball from side to side in the halfcourt, attacking early in the shot clock with simple kick aheads and making a more concerted effort to attack the rim downhill, the latter of which Billups said earlier this week he didn’t see enough of in the preseason opener.</p><p>In that vein, Lillard and McCollum not playing could actually prove beneficial. Portland still has multiple players capable of launching off-dribble threes and pull-up twos with them on the sideline, but a presumed starting trio of Simons, Norman Powell and Nassir Little could give the Blazers a sense of burst and physicality on the drive they often lack when Lillard and McCollum are options one and two.</p><p>In general, Portland’s second preseason game should serve as the perfect opportunity for this team to heartily embrace the <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/3-ways-chauncey-billups-is-guaranteed-to-improve-damian-lillard-blazers/">ball and player movement</a> Billups has made a theme of his offensive ethos. The additional size afforded by Powell sliding up to shooting guard and Little starting at small forward should improve the Blazers’ point-of-attack defense, too.</p><blockquote>“I’m happy with where we are,” Billups said of Portland’s progress in training camp. “I’m happy with just how these guys are really trying to pick it up, thing we’re trying to implement and do. I’m happy about it, but I also know it takes time.”</blockquote><p>The scoreboard could look ugly on Monday night depending on who Luke Walton decides to play. The Blazers, like every team in the league, are at an immense talent disadvantage without their two best players. But process looms <i>far</i> larger than results in the preseason, and continuing to grow comfortable in Billups’ schemes on both ends of the floor—but especially on offense—without Lillard and McCollum would be an encouraging sign of Portland’s ongoing progress as the regular season draws closer and closer.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Chauncey Billups sheds light on Blazers’ approach without Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">    <head>        <style type="text/css" media="all">            body {    margin: 0px;}h1, h2, h3 {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Semibold";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 18px;}header {    margin: 0px;    height: 0px;    display: none;}p {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px;    font-size: 16px;}p > img {    margin-left: -15px;    width: calc(100% + 30px);}a {    color: #0000FF;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    font-size: 16px;    text-decoration: none;}ul {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 3px 10px 3px 10px;    font-size: 16px;}ol {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";}img {    margin: 0px;    width: 100%;    height: auto;}blockquote {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 30px 15px 30px 15px;    padding: 0px 0px 0px 15px;    font-size: 16px;    border-left: 2px solid black;}blockquote p {    margin: 0px;}.op-tracker, .op-ad {    display: none;    height: 0px;}article > figure {    margin: 0px;}figcaption {    color: #333333;    font-family: "SFUIText-Regular";    margin: 10px 15px 30px 15px;    font-size: 12px;}iframe {    width: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;    margin: 0px;    border: 0;    background-color: #EFEFEF;}.vine-embed {    height: __SCREEN_SIZE_WIDTH__;}.twitter-tweet, .instagram-media {    margin-left: 15px !important;    margin-right: 15px !important;    width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;}.clutchpoints-widget {    /*margin: 10px 15px 10px 15px !important;*/    /*margin-top: 1px !important;*/    padding-top: 10px;    /*margin-left: 15px !important;*/    /*margin-right: 15px !important;*/    /*width: __SCREEN_CONTENT_SIZE_WIDTH__ !important;*/}        </style>        <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />    </head>    <body>        <article><header><figure><img src="https://clutchpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/chancey-billups-damian-lillard-blazers.jpeg"></figure><h1>Blazers coach Chauncey Billups won’t beg Damian Lillard to stay in Portland</h1><time class="op-published" datetime="2021-10-07T22:37:27-07:00">October 7th, 10:37pm</time><time class="op-modified" datetime="2021-10-07T22:38:42-07:00">October 7th, 10:38pm</time><address><a>Arlos Sara</a>Arlos Sara graduated with a degree in Psychology. He is an NBA writer and editor for ClutchPoints and Cavs Nation. Back in the day, while other kids were consumed by their toys and comic books, young Arlos was already thumbing through the pages of sports magazines.</address><h3 class="op-kicker">NBA</h3><figure class="op-ad"></figure></header><p>The Portland Trail Blazers began the offseason dealing with incessant rumors concerning <a href="https://clutchpoints.com/sports/nba/players/damian-lillard/a90b097e">Damian Lillard</a>‘s future in Rip City. Since then, Lillard and his teammates have quashed the idea of the All-Star point guard leaving the team multiple times.</p><p>However, if Lillard contemplates a change of scenery, head coach Chauncey Billups would be the last person begging for him to stay.</p><blockquote>“I came here to coach you, but it’s your career, it’s your life and it’s your family.” Billups said on <a href="https://twitter.com/SiriusXMNBA/status/1446211225809928220">Sirius XM NBA Radio</a>. “I’ve been there before, and I’m not going to be the guy preaching ‘Stay here, go there, do this.'”“I got a job to do, I want to do it with you, obviously. But if at some point you deem ‘Hey, another place is another place for me,’ that’s not going to be an indictment on myself. That’s going to be you making a decision for you and your family.”</blockquote><p>Time and again, Damian Lillard has never held back when professing his love for Portland. Stars have come and go, but the Blazers and Lillard have been tight ever since the latter was drafted in 2012.</p><p>No matter how many times Lillard refutes exit rumors, these things still find ways to creep back into the picture. That’s not to say the 6-foot-2 point guard’s footing in Portland is etched in stone, though. The Blazers still need to surround their star with a supporting cast strong enough to contend for a title, especially while Lillard is still in his prime.</p><figure class="op-tracker"></figure></article>    </body></html>

Blazers coach Chauncey Billups won’t beg Damian Lillard to stay in Portland

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2013-14 SEASON STATS
PTS	REB	AST	BLK	STL
3.8	1.5	2.2	0.1	0.4

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3.8	1.5	2.2	0.1	0.4

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