Changsi Billups lost again. But this time in the interview booth, there are no more reporters who often throw out questions at the beginning of the season to make him difficult.
It may have something to do with the Trail Blazers' 10-1 surge in the last 3 minutes yesterday, maybe it has to do with the four wins he's won in the last six consecutive away games, maybe it has to do with the team's recent rising youth, but in any case, we should be aware of one thing: Billups has taken his chance and proved that he is a coach with "something".
This is very different from a few months ago. When Billups took over as a Blazers, many people thought he was a charlatan who would only pour chicken soup to players — and of course that wasn't all thanks to him, there were too many great athletes in the NBA who failed to prove themselves. The Blazers' poor performance at the start of the season also seems to be a strong argument for this argument.
But the Blazers' management, players and team reporters didn't see it that way. Jason Quake, a veteran columnist who spoke to the Trail Blazers for 23 years, keenly spotted the biggest difference between him and Terry Stotts: "Chansey doesn't hesitate to question players in public or remind players to be tougher and more rational in the game to execute his tactics. Maybe it makes the player uncomfortable because it amplifies the mistakes of each player, but I think he did a good job, he was smart and good at communication... At the very least, he's really trying to break and change their habits. ”
Billups wanted the Blazers to play a very different basketball game than they did in Stotts' time. He wants the team to selflessly share the ball, execute tactics efficiently, be aggressive defensively, in short, play the kind of basketball he used to play in Detroit or Denver when he was a player. But in the first few months of the season, his attempts faltered: most Trail Blazers players were used to playing for a loose coach like Stotts, with a noticeable lack of discipline on the court; Damien Lillard was affected by injuries and his form plummeted, which many media believed was closely related to Billups's emphasis on sharing the ball; the team did not have enough manpower to perform Billups' defensive tactics, and only two players in the Blazers, Nurkic and Zeller, were over 206 centimeters tall. Billups asked them to play aggressive blocking defenses, which meant they needed to reach the three-point line during defensive blocks, rather than sticking to the basket, and as long as the opponent could hit the ball to the basket, it was an easy two-pointer - whether the players on the weak side were Lillard, McCollum or Powell, they couldn't rotate to the basket to complete the basket. The defense didn't pick up, the offense regressed, and under his new deal, the team looked like it was in disarray.
Billups doesn't think it's his problem, and on more than one occasion he's hinted and even made it clear in interviews that the team's roster lacks players with height, athleticism, basketball IQ and competitiveness. Around the time of the december 16 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, Billups had been salivating over Dillon Brooks in his opponents, saying he was "tough and hardworking", "able to shoot and defend", and was the "heart and soul" of the Grizzlies.
But at the time, it seemed that the Blazers' roster did not have a tough, defensive, hard-working player like Brooks. When players like Frank Kaminsky can score 31 points on the Trail Blazers interior (he was still in college the last time he scored such a high score in a single game), you'd think they've had a bad season. A coach who carved a sword came to a team that was not suitable for him, and there was no room for everything to turn.
No one expected that the turnaround would come so suddenly.
After a 33-point crush to the Lakers, Lillard finally made up his mind to have surgery and say goodbye to the lower abdomen injury that had plagued him for years: "It was a very difficult decision because I really liked playing. Even now, my dignity and pride want me to keep playing, doing my job, and bringing the team to the playoffs. But there is an elderly person inside me who said to me, you are not in the best state now, you are not healthy enough, your body can not keep up with your mind, and there is no point in continuing to fight strongly. In order to take a few more steps forward in the future, I have to take a step back now. That's the best outcome for the team. ”
The good results he said were good for the future, but the future was still coming a little too fast to be taken by surprise. Before Lillard's injury, the Blazers' defense ranked first in the NBA, but this January after Lillard's injury, the statistic quickly rebounded to the NBA's 18th place. Since 2022, the Blazers' record is 7-5 (previously 13-22), climbing to tenth place in the West, two wins ahead of eleventh-place Pelicans, and has a good chance of reaching this year's playoffs. Even more astonishing than the record is the gold content of these wins, which have won consecutively from playoff teams like the Nets, Raptors, Celtics and Wizards, and the whole team has shown amazing vibrancy — especially on the defensive end.
It's all due to two changes: Simmons starting as the team's starting point guard; after Powell was injured, the Blazers' starting number three became Naz Little. Saion lost his horse, and he knew that it was not a blessing. Simmons and Little didn't have enough playing time in their Stotts era, which also meant they didn't have a chance to develop those bad court habits in their predecessors' systems. When they experienced a new system under Bilups, they changed and integrated faster than the veterans in the team. When the Blazers put on a lineup of Simmons + Ben McLemore + Little + Covington + Nurkic, they were able to beat their opponents by 27.5 points per 100 possessions.
43 points, 7 assists, 31 points and 6 assists, 23 points, 6 rebounds, 11 assists, 31 points and 11 assists... After Lillard's injury, Simmons perfectly filled his gaps, shooting more than Lillard in 48%+44%+89% and standing taller on the defensive end. Of all the players who played more than 50 minutes, Simmons ranked first in net plus-minus, and in another high-level list of statistics used to measure defensive possession cover, he ranked third in the league, behind Juju Holliday and Lonzo Ball. After gaining possession, stage and confidence, the 22-year-old young defender evolved at the speed of light in all three roles of organizer, scorer and defender under the guidance of Billups. After averaging 25.0 points and 7.2 assists per game in 2022, he has become the Blazers' rising future star.
Little's college day template was once defined as Drummond Green. The player, who started seven games in the first two years of his career, has finally had enough of a chance to prove what the scouts are saying. Of all the athletes in the league who are under 203 centimeters tall, he ranks fifth in offensive rebounds and fourth in blocks. The way he gets these rebounds and blocks when he's in the seams isn't a blast of physical quality, it's accurate judgment and deep understanding. The energetic, tough and intelligent athlete is likely to be the "Dillon Brooks" that Billups dreamed of.
The youngsters' great performances have brought comfort to the disappointments of the Blazers and Lillard this season. For them, that makes their season a 2019-20 season for the Warriors and Curry. That season, the Warriors played a year off for the lotto show, allowing the young players to grow up for a year without the pressure to win. A year later, Curry returned to the court, where he had a stunning season with a break, and a year later, the Warriors were back on the championship team. Of course, for Lillard and the Blazers, they may also have a hard time reaching the Warriors' heights this season next season. But in any case, that's the only way out for them now.
To play the basketball billed by Bilups, Blazers interim general manager Joe Cronin still has a lot of work to do. According to a staff member who worked with Cronin, Cronin is a decision-maker who dares to challenge and take risks. He's always more inclined to get players with higher ceilings than safer, proven players with lower ceilings.
The brave man still has a lot of options to do, how do they appease Lillard, how do they deal with C.J. McCollum, and what do they have to do with Norman Powell? Nurkic and Covington are about to expire at the end of the season, should the team renew their contracts, let them go in vain or take the opportunity to make the last profit from them? Simmons and Little played so well, what kind of athlete should the team choose to match them in this year's draft?
Billups has proven something. Now it's his turn to perform.