Intel from the first day of camp.
The Portland Trail Blazers tipped off training camp Tuesday at their Tualatin practice facility with a new motto for the 2025-26 season: “Make ‘Em Uncomfortable.”
Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups told reporters he created the motto as a way to set the tone this season on both sides of the ball. The phrase was even printed on the back of his shirt in block letters.
“I always kinda have a word every year that I think will be our barometer for our team,” Billups said. “My word for us this year is just ‘uncomfortable.‘ We want to work to make people uncomfortable. Obviously, defensively, that’s our pressure and our physicality. Offensively, it’s our speed and getting in that paint. … It’s who we have to be if we’re going to be any good.”
That was one insight gleaned from Tuesday’s media availability session, which included interviews with Billups and forwards Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara. Here’s seven more pieces of intel from day one of camp.
- Billups said 90% of Tuesday’s practice focused on defense.
- “Obviously, you scrimmage so there’s offensive involved, but I didn’t put in any sets,” Billups said. “It was all defense. We are, without a doubt, a defense-first team, so you gotta spend time working on who you are at the very start.”
- Camara explained more regarding what the team worked on at the defensive end: “Just how we want to play defense in the gaps, how we want to pressure the ball and all the small details — rotations, when there’s a drop, how do you rotate to the big and stuff like that. Kind of fundamental, just first day, refresh your mind on how to play defense. It’s all things that we know, just being able to polish them.”
- Unsurprisingly, new Blazers addition Jrue Holiday shined in a defensive-focused practice.
- “He’s picking up the ball,” Billups said about Holiday’s defense on Tuesday. “He caused a lot of turnovers today just with his hands and his physicality. He knows when to switch. He’s just so far ahead thinking the game based on his experience. He makes the game pretty easy for everybody out there. He puts you in the right position, offensively and defensively. Quite frankly, we haven’t had a guy like that.”
- “He just wants to win, you can feel it on him,” Avdija added. “We like those types of players.”
- Billups said the team has implemented some of the new offensive schemes he discussed at Media Day (running less pick-and-roll, more off-ball motion, pushing the tempo). However, building out the full package that comes with the new system will be a more gradual process that includes incorporating 1-2 plays every day or two.
- “I’ll start doing some of it tomorrow, but it will just be a slow thing,” he said. “Most important is our pace and our speed and not the play. Sometimes when you put a lot of plays in, it just slows you down. You start thinking about this cut, that cut. … more than anything, we just need to go.”
- Billups also said the voluntary offseason scrimmages leading up to training camp didn’t feature much of the playbook; they were more about getting players to learn how fast the team wants to play and how the team plans to attack advantages.
- “I really want that time to be [the players] getting to know each other, so you don’t have to start that process today,” Billups said. “As far as the technical things, we’re kinda starting all of that now.”
- Each interviewee on Tuesday fielded questions about how Blazers rookie Yang Hansen looked during his first official NBA practice, and each of them gave positive reviews.
- “He did a good job,” Billups said. “He worked really hard. I thought, offensively, he set some pretty good screens and showed some playmaking abilities out there, but the game is moving really fast. I’m quite sure he’s not used to the speed of our game yet, but his feel is really high, his IQ is really high, so he doesn’t look out of sorts.”
- “I can see him fitting really, really well with this new [offensive] scheme,” Avdija said. “He knows how to play. Regardless of how he played or which team he played for, I feel like he would be good because he’s a good player.”
- “He’s doing good, he’s like a sponge,” Camara added. “He’s learning so much and willing to learn a lot, so I think he’s been great.
- Camara revealed the Blazers had a team dinner at Damian Lillard’s house on Monday night, one example of how Lillard is already stepping into a leadership role with his new teammates.
- Camara also revealed he’s a fan of several NFL teams. The list includes the Miami Dolphins, the Seattle Seahawks, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
- “I’ve got friends on all of them, so I’ve got to support all of them,” he said.
Training camp for the Blazers will continue in Tualatin through Friday, which means Blazer’s Edge will have more practice reports for you coming soon!
Category: General Sports
