2021 Blazers Training Camp

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Scalma said:
Lmao going from listening to terry’s press conferences to chaunceys is like going from a bicycle to an Aston Martin. We’ll see what the results are but he’s way more personable and it’s easy to tell the players enjoy him more as well. I’m sure Stotts was a good guy but there’s little doubt his coaching style also confused pretty much everyone except dame and CJ. With Chauncey it’s much more cut and dry and it’s refreshing to hear a coach actually answer questions instead of giving a condescending shrug and smirk.
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He's very open and I get the sense that he won't get so defensive as Stotts did some times.
 
A Fresh Start For Everyone On The First Day Of Training Camp


Players might not necessarily look forward to training camp, but they’re generally excited once it gets underway. The conditioning can be tough, even with players in the modern NBA generally staying in good-if-not-great shape year round, and participating in two-a-days doesn’t leave much time to do more than rest before returning to practice, but the renewed optimism that comes with the start of a new season usually makes those annoyances much easier to bear.

And this year, with an entirely new coaching staff led by first-year head coach Chauncey Billups, eight new players -- some already under contract, others playing for one -- and most of the COVID protocols that were in place last year rendered unnecessary by the entire team being vaccinated, the excitement at the Trail Blazers’ first day of camp seemed palpable.

"I thought it was good. Guys came out, competed really hard," said Billups, who led his first official practice as an NBA head coach Tuesday morning in Tualatin. "Training camp, I know as a player, I hated training camp. It was just so tough. You work your behind off all summer and you get in and get your butt kicked."

A number of veteran players, a number of whom had never participated in an NBA training camp run by someone other than Terry Stotts, noted a different sense of enthusiasm at Tuesday's practice. They didn’t say it was better or worse -- it’s hard to derive any conclusion from one day of practice -- just the fact that it was new to everybody, no matter how long they’ve been on the team, added to the interest and camaraderie.

“It was different having a whole different staff. Usually I come in here, I know exactly what we’re gonna do, I could probably put the practice plan together,” said Damian Lillard. “But this is the first time that I was just kinda like ‘what’s next?’ It was fresh. Obviously everybody had a little bit of rust, it was a little bit sloppy when we went live but everybody went hard. It was a good first day back.”

And for the players hoping to expand their roles this season, Tuesday’s practice was the first official opportunity to prove they can do more than previously thought.

“It was great, been looking forward to that,” said Jusuf Nurkic. “Guys were really competing. You can tell new energy, new fresh start for everybody I feel. I think it was a great first practice.”

While most coaches tend to tinker a bit with preexisting sets and schemes at the start of a new season, the Trail Blazers under Billups are undergoing wholesale changes on both sides of the ball. That’s not to say the players are starting from scratch, but when you render the institution knowledge one attains from playing for the same coach for nearly a decade moot, it does require a different level of attention.

“It’s a new start,” said Lillard. “Sometimes when you haven’t been a part of a new start and then it comes, you like ‘this is new.’ For guys that didn’t play a lot of minutes they’re looking around like this is my opportunity to show that I can help the team more than I did in the past. And for us, we learning a new offense, we’re learning new terminology, things like that. So it’s given us more of a reason to be engaged or more engaged than we would be usually coming in here like ‘alright, we’re gonna run Thumb, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that.’ It’s been different in that way. I think it’s been a different level of energy because it requires us to be a little more engaged.”

Billups echoed both Lillard and Nurkic’s sentiment that the first day of training camp was replete with quality energy and enthusiasm, though he also noted there was room for improvement. Holding players accountable has been an emphasis for Billups during his first days as the head coach, so while he was generally happy with his team’s performance on the first day, he did point out that it was hardly perfect.

“I thought the dudes really got after it, paying attention to details,” said Billups. “I think that’s one of the things for us this year is we’ve got to be kind of locked in to detail things. Angles on screens, angles on when we’re the ball handler, timing of passes. And we went through it early on and then when we started playing live you could tell that they didn’t pay attention to that. So we’ll do a little bit more of that stuff tonight.”

https://www.nba.com/blazers/forwardcenter/fresh-start-everyone-first-day-training-camp
 
Scalma said:
Lmao going from listening to terry’s press conferences to chaunceys is like going from a bicycle to an Aston Martin. We’ll see what the results are but he’s way more personable and it’s easy to tell the players enjoy him more as well. I’m sure Stotts was a good guy but there’s little doubt his coaching style also confused pretty much everyone except dame and CJ. With Chauncey it’s much more cut and dry and it’s refreshing to hear a coach actually answer questions instead of giving a condescending shrug and smirk.
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It's crazy how much of what's been said resembles what people were saying for years. It's like the dude read the forum, watched our streams and agreed with everything. Or he (more likely) watched the team last year and came to all the same conclusions as the couch coaches did. Either way, I'm in heaven.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Usually Chad Doing (same dude who does the pre-game and post-game shows) is on the air at the time you posted that, so that'd be my guess, but I wasn’t listening, so I can't say for sure.
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No sir, I know that guys voice. Some guy I’ve never heard before. He was a mess….. talking slow and slurring his words. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
This is a message board for Blazer fanatics, so it make sense to have excitement for the first big scheme changes of the team after 9 years. Obviously a lot of this could fail, Blazers fans know very well the chance of disappointment.

What doesn't make sense is a Lakers fan working for the Blazers then posting 56k message on a Blazers fan site.
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Outstanding post FAMS!
 
THE HCP said:
No sir, I know that guys voice. Some guy I’ve never heard before. He was a mess….. talking slow and slurring his words. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
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Was that your son’s audition?
 
THE HCP said:
No sir, I know that guys voice. Some guy I’ve never heard before. He was a mess….. talking slow and slurring his words. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
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I listen everyday on I Heart Radio from Colorado. Kyle & Steven were filling in for Chad & Travis, and neither was drunk. They're all great dudes. But a couple of the callers sound that way, but it's just their voices. Smellzer is an older fellow & Mitch from New jersey. A Fed Ex driver who just sounds drunk but isn't.
 
tykendo said:
I listen everyday on I Heart Radio from Colorado. Kyle & Steven were filling in for Chad & Travis, and neither was drunk. They're all great dudes. But a couple of the callers sound that way, but it's just their voices. Smellzer is an older fellow & Mitch from New jersey. A Fed Ex driver who just sounds drunk but isn't.
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haha I’m a daily listener too. Chad is awesome. Great radio personality. Raider Mike is my favorite call in dude. I think he’s coked out every time he calls in
 
MickZagger said:
haha I’m a daily listener too. Chad is awesome. Great radio personality. Raider Mike is my favorite call in dude. I think he’s coked out every time he calls in
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Yes, he's a pretty hardcore dude.
 
MickZagger said:
haha I’m a daily listener too. Chad is awesome. Great radio personality. Raider Mike is my favorite call in dude. I think he’s coked out every time he calls in
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Do you call in? I've called in pretty regularly since i lived in Springfield. Now back in Colorado i still call. Kyle & Steven are real cool producers. They were hosting today.
 


~5 min mark. Question about Powell and his size at the 3. Billups says you can work with it to our advantage in the regular season, but it would be a challenge in the playoffs. Unless we make a trade for a longer wing, this is my biggest worry and Chauncey nailed it on the head (instead of dancing around the question like Neil did in the summer).
 
illmatic99 said:


~5 min mark. Question about Powell and his size at the 3. Billups says you can work with it to our advantage in the regular season, but it would be a challenge in the playoffs. Unless we make a trade for a longer wing, this is my biggest worry and Chauncey nailed it on the head (instead of dancing around the question like Neil did in the summer).
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In a series in which Powell's size would be a liability at the 3, you start 6'7" Snell in Powell's spot (or hopefully Nas if he makes the proverbial "jump"), and bring Powell off the bench in the microwave role. Lineup is versatile enough that we can mix/match as necessary.
 
illmatic99 said:


~5 min mark. Question about Powell and his size at the 3. Billups says you can work with it to our advantage in the regular season, but it would be a challenge in the playoffs. Unless we make a trade for a longer wing, this is my biggest worry and Chauncey nailed it on the head (instead of dancing around the question like Neil did in the summer).
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I liked how he talked about the nuances that'd take place in the playoffs. I think he'll be able to coach around it in the post-season.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
In a series in which Powell's size would be a liability at the 3, you start 6'7" Snell in Powell's spot (or hopefully Nas if he makes the proverbial "jump"), and bring Powell off the bench in the microwave role. Lineup is versatile enough that we can mix/match as necessary.
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Why wouldn't you just start RoCo & Nance together?

I don't see many series where Powell's size will be a liability. He has a long wingspan and a solid standing reach, is strong, and plays bigger than his listed height. If Chauncey's able to gameplan proper help in a situation where Norm might have trouble then I think we'll be fine.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
In a series in which Powell's size would be a liability at the 3, you start 6'7" Snell in Powell's spot (or hopefully Nas if he makes the proverbial "jump"), and bring Powell off the bench in the microwave role. Lineup is versatile enough that we can mix/match as necessary.
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it would seem much better to move RoCo to SF, start Nance at PF, and bring Powell off the bench. Actually, it would be best to bring CJ off the bench but that won't happen
 
BonesJones said:
Why wouldn't you just start RoCo & Nance together?

I don't see many series where Powell's size will be a liability. He has a long wingspan and a solid standing reach, is strong, and plays bigger than his listed height. If Chauncey's able to gameplan proper help in a situation where Norm might have trouble then I think we'll be fine.
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Starting Nance would be the intuitive choice, no doubt. IMO, starting Snell means less disruption to the rotation, retains Nance as backup 4. With the shortage of 4's on the roster, it's easier to stagger them if one comes off the bench.
 
BonesJones said:
I liked how he talked about the nuances that'd take place in the playoffs. I think he'll be able to coach around it in the post-season.
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Lets hope he wont have to and we finally get some skill and size at the wing. We saw Porter cook Norm. Dont need a repeat of that.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Starting Nance would be the intuitive choice, no doubt. IMO, starting Snell means less disruption to the rotation, retains Nance as backup 4. With the shortage of 4's on the roster, it's easier to stagger them if one comes off the bench.
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Nas.

Not Snell.

Moving Norman to a bench role could be a solution. Possible to still workout 30 mpg for him there but I dont see it happening
 
wizenheimer said:
it would seem much better to move RoCo to SF, start Nance at PF, and bring Powell off the bench. Actually, it would be best to bring CJ off the bench but that won't happen
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True... the same logic that supports keeping Nance at backup 4 also supports bringing CJ off the bench when a bigger lineup is warranted. Also agreed that it wouldn't happen.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Starting Nance would be the intuitive choice, no doubt. IMO, starting Snell means less disruption to the rotation, retains Nance as backup 4. With the shortage of 4's on the roster, it's easier to stagger them if one comes off the bench.
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but that assumes that Snell would be in the regular rotation anyway. I'm not sure that's true
 
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