The up-and-down Trail Blazers had perhaps their worst game of the season on Sunday in Denver, losing by 29 points to the Nuggets and falling to 6-8. While Portland was playing without star point guard Damian Lillard, Denver was missing Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and Will Barton.
Following the loss, Blazers coach Chauncey Billups expressed displeasure with his club’s compete level, as detailed in stories from Jason Quick of The Athletic and Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian.
“I’m confused,” Billups said. “I don’t think we came to compete in this game. I mean, this is a team that beat us in the playoffs last year. And we come out and don’t even compete in the first quarter. Kind of … a little disappointed in that. The effort. Just no fight. No fight.”
Asked about the possibility of making lineup or rotation adjustments to shake things up for the Blazers, Billups suggested that changes could be around the corner.
“It’s coming. That point is coming soon,” Billups said. “If we continue to play like that … because if you think about it, you keep playing that way, at some point I have to look at it and say something isn’t quite working. And then maybe think about shifting some things around.”
In Quick’s view, changes seem most likely to come at power forward and/or center, since Robert Covington and Jusuf Nurkic have been inconsistent so far this season, while bench players like Nassir Little, Larry Nance Jr., and Cody Zeller have provided more stability. Billups, who said earlier this month that Covington “could be better defensively,” stated on Sunday that he’s been happy with the effort he’s seeing from his reserves, including Anfernee Simons, Dennis Smith Jr., Little, and Nance.
“All of the second unit played as hard as we need them to play,” Billups said. “The first unit, they didn’t have it.”
The first-year head coach acknowledged that Portland had a busy schedule during the last week, playing four road games in six days. However, Billups didn’t view fatigue as a viable excuse for the team’s lack of effort.
“I just think there is no real reason to not have effort,” Billups said. “We’ve had a lot of games, so I can see being tired. … I can see if we come out and play our behinds off, but we just run out of gas. I can live with that. I don’t like losing like this. That game was over.”
Nurkic has been their main issue. He’s a bad defender, and he honestly hasn’t been much better on the offensive side of the ball either. He can’t space the floor. Problem is, his contract. He can’t be moved, and a benching would probably ruffle feathers and make it a somewhat untenable situation. Otherwise, I would look to start Nance at the 5.
Well in the past blazers have played much better with nurkic in the floor.
Idk what is different this year, but I believe they should be starting larry nance jr. I thought they would start him after acquiring him. Brings versatility and energy on both ends.
To be fair, their best player has got off to a rather pedestrian start. 38/.27/.84 splits, 16 PER , and -2.2 BPM . . . . those are barely starter level #s.
It’s worth noting that Dame is a small guard almost two years into his third decade.
Not saying he’s going to stay at this level, but it’s not crazy to think his best years may be in the rear view. Portland was teetering the last few seasons with Dame playing at his apex.
Win loss record
Thunder 5-7
Blazers 6-8
Blazers need to make good trades right away
Trade Covington and McCollum
McCollum should have been traded years ago. hes more of a 6th man imo. kinda like Lou
The question now is what’s the market for him? Because he’s the team’s second best player, so you can’t really flip him for $.75 and draft assets with Dame aged 31.
But I agree w/ the premise – the Dame-CJM has a low ceiling
Maybe
Nurk has a $12M expiring contract. He’s very easily movable.
Nance needs to start at the 4, Powell at the 2, and Little at 3 with CJ and Covington coming off the bench. That ought to shake things up significantly.
They lose, without Lillard, against a top tier team with a top 5 player in the league. Nothing to be ashamed for, why try hard knowing you have no chance without Lillard? the rotations are looking kinda wierd IMO. Billups has a lot of work to do himself, more than the players.
They lose, without Lillard, against a top tier team with a top 5 player in the league. Nothing to be ashamed for, why try hard knowing you have no chance without Lillard? the rotations are looking kinda wierd IMO. Billups has a lot of work to do himself, more than the players.
They lose, without Lillard, against a top tier team with a top 5 player in the league. Nothing to be ashamed for, why try hard knowing you have no chance without Lillard? the rotations are looking kinda wierd IMO. Billups has a lot of work to do himself, more than the players.
Lol. I’ve never seen the triple post. Kudos.
Say it again. I think some people missed it.
They need to finally make changes. You can’t start 3 small guards like that. One of Dame or CJ has to go. Nurk and Covington can be moved as well. Time for the youth to take over. Nance is just languishing on the bench when he should start to help the defense and add more shooting. Nurk, Nance, Little, Norm, Dame should be the lineup after a CJ trade with Nance moving to the 5 when they play small. Or maybe if Nurk gets traded, play small all the time like Toronto.
As I said months ago, a tear down and reset is necessary in Portland. This team as assembled is not winning anything. They’re stuck in 38 to 47 win territory and they’re just spinning their wheels. They have many valuable pieces that will bring back buildable assets. It’s time Portland…….
Covington is stealing money from the Blazers!!
POR was never gonna be a serious contender for a playoff spot, we all knew that, right? But their biggest issue is Dame, he has been horrible this year so far, right now he has no value, if they trade him for any star in the league POR would have to add assets to compensate the other team… if they are gonna rebuild with him as part of it, great, if they ever expected to trade him for value before that… well, as we can see that train left last spring, too late!
Well Billups you need to look in the mirror because it all starts with you the Head Coach & then trickles down to the Assistant coaches & then to the players.
Mr Billups do you really think you’re qualified to be a Head Coach in the NBA after only 1 yr of any coaching experience
If they start trading CJ, RoCo, Nurkic… might as well go full rebuild and trade Dame.
You already know you’ll get a haul from Philly. Take advantage of injuries like Sexton and trade CJ to the Cavs. Take on Loves contract and a bunch of picks.
I’m expressing my frustrations with Billups’ rotation decisions, and how it impacts their compete level, since literal day 1…look in the mirror “coach”