From media day: Trail Blazers primer for the 2025-26 season
A group of Chinese journalists interview rookie center Yang Hansen on the Trail Blazers’ media day at Moda Center
For four years, expectations for the Trail Blazers were low as a limbo contest winner. That is what tanking will do for you.
Not anymore. This season is about being competitive from the jump, about piling up wins, about contending for the play-in and perhaps the playoffs and proving to the NBA that Portland is a team on the rise.
“We took some strides to get better in the offseason,” veteran forward Jerami Grant said Monday on Blazers Media Day at Moda Center. “We are moving in the right direction. Everybody’s goal now is the same. We are moving toward winning.”
After a 13-28 first half last season, the Blazers turned things around to go 23-18 the rest of the way, finish 36-46 and make a run at a play-in spot. They fell short, but suddenly there was light at the end of the tunnel.
On draft night in June, I asked Portland general manager Joe Cronin if he thought the Blazers would be a playoff team next season. “Possibly,” he said then.
On Monday, Cronin answered in similarly cautious fashion when asked how he felt about his team’s playoff chances.
“It’s a little like last season,” he said. “We still have a lot of growth left in us. I want to continue to see (the players) develop. We took a really nice step the last 41 games, in both our quality of play and establishing our identity. We became really defensive-minded and understood this is the way we need to play in order to win.
“We have big bets on a handful of young guys. They need to collectively keep improving, and we need to continue to implement the veterans we have in here.”
Cronin declined to quantify his goal for the Blazers this season.
“The goal is to compete every night,” he said. “Do we want to make the play-in? Yes. Do we want to make the playoffs? Yes. Do we want to win 16 playoff games? Yes.
“But I don’t have expectations and won’t be disappointed if those things don’t happen as long as we are continuing to grow. We are still thinking big picture with this roster, knowing that until our young guys are ready to fuel winning, we are not good enough. We are taking that approach. But we are expecting to be a quality team every night.”
Sixteen playoff victories would mean the NBA championship, which seems just a tad far-fetched. The taste of a playoff run, however, went over big with the Blazer players last spring.
“We had so much fun trying to get to that play-in,” Billups said. “The guys took pride in it. The guys remember that. They felt a little bit of what winning is like.
“Now we get to start 0-0 and try to pick that up again. Our guys are hungry. Their commitment and dedication is there. I know we are young, still developing, but … you never know what can happen. I want our young guys to take a few steps, continue to get better and let chips fall where they may.”
The Blazers begin training camp Tuesday without a key component — point guard Scoot Henderson, who suffered a torn left hamstring during a five-on-five pickup game at the Tualatin training facility last week. The team announced at the time that he was expected to be out four to eight weeks.
“I have been told it could be as quick as four (weeks), it could take as long as 10, and if (the injury) is stubborn he won’t feel right for even longer than that,” Cronin said. “We will have him rest and rehab and be smart with the tempo we bring him back at.”
Henderson, 21, missed a significant amount of games — 20 as a rookie in 2023-24, 16 last season — due to various injuries. He said he was in great shape after working hard during the offseason before the hamstring injury occurred.
"This is just a speed bump for him, and he has had a few,” Billups said. “He is really tough mentally. He will get back and he will be strong, but my heart hurt for Scoot when he went down that day.”
Someone who will be out of action all season is Damian Lillard, the Blazers’ franchise player who left after 11 seasons for Milwaukee in 2023, then was reacquired by Cronin during the offseason. Lillard underwent surgery after suffering a torn Achilles tendon in the playoffs, and plans are for him to sit out the upcoming season. His rehab, though, sounds as if it is going smoothly.
“I’ve been running, I’ve been shooting,” Lillard said Monday. “It is at the stage where I can do a lot, but it’s tricky. You get to the point where you can do all these things, but the tendon is not strong enough to stand up to basketball activities. I am still building the strength up in getting that tendon back to taking its normal shape.”
Is there a snowball’s chance in hell that he would return to duty this season?
“I don’t plan on it,” Lillard said. “I just want to be as healthy as I can possibly be, to be 100 percent confident and do all the movements and everything that it takes to be on an NBA court. I want to make sure I am ready to go.”
Lillard said he has been warned by his medical advisors, “Don’t try to be the guy who (recovers) in record time. It takes what it takes. Usually when people return to form, it’s because they took the proper time (to recover).”
The other Blazer who will not be in “go” mode is center/forward Robert Williams, who underwent left knee surgery in March.
“We have started to ramp him up,” Cronin said. “He is not cleared for contact, but we are not too far away from that.”
The Dean of Portland Sports is now on BlueSky.
Since Billups took over as coach, he has spoken about wanting his team to have a defensive identity. The Blazers have improved in defensive rating every year, from 30th in 2021-22 to 28th in 2022-23 to 23rd in 2023-24 to 16th — and top 10 in the second half — last season.
“I believe if we are going to be any good, we have to be a defense-first team,” Billups said. “We finally established that as our identity the second half of last season. We will look to get better at that this season. We have brought in Jrue (Holiday), and he makes us even better.”
Asked about defensive assets, Billups said, “Our physicality, our pressure. When you have (Donovan) Clingan at the rim, he is going to deter a lot of people, block a lot of shots. Also Rob Williams and (Yang) Hansen. We want to be disruptive defensively the entire time, and when (opponents) get by us, they have to deal with those guys.”
Billups added this: “The one area of defense that we were really poor at was our defensive rebounding. We’ll focus on getting better at that. We’ll look to close out those (opponents’) possessions with defensive rebounds.”
The Blazers sound upbeat about their potential on defense.
“We can be a top defensive team,” Grant said. “We have a ton of length and physicality, a lot of guys who can shut their man down one-on-one, a lot of defensive awareness on the court. We just have to make sure that is our identity like we are saying.”
“With the guards pressuring around the perimeter, forcing them into the bigs, with us protecting the rim at a high level, we can be one of the best defensive teams in the league,” Clingan said. “We finished strong last year, but we can make an even bigger jump this year.”
Billups wants improvement at the offensive end, too. There will be a different look than in the past.
“Us establishing a defensive identity was a big part last year,” he said. “This year we have to establish what we are going to be offensively. A couple of my (offseason assistant coaching) hires — Tiago Splitter and Patrick St. Andrews — reflect that. What I want to do with our offense, those guys have done it.”
St. Andrews coached under Mike Budenholzer in Atlanta and Milwaukee from 2017-23 and with Memphis under Taylor Jenkins from 2023-25, winning an NBA title in ’21. Splitter, a former NBA big man, coached Paris Basketball to the French Pro League and French Cup titles last season.
“I went (to Paris) and studied Tiago,” Billups said. “I watched him operate in practice and games. His offense was really potent. They played fast. They got up and down, tried to get there before defenses got set. I am excited about our (new) staff. We have worked hard to put together what our offensive system is going to be.
“Our offensive identity will be a ton different. We will play faster, moving the ball up the floor. And even in the halfcourt, some of the cutting patterns will be totally different. Not as much standing around, running the pick-and-roll with three guys watching. We will get away from that.”
Billups will employ a “grab and go” philosophy after defensive rebounds. Last season, Blazer bigs would rebound and look for a point guard to pass to. No more.
“We will have different guys bring the ball up,” he said. “Playing fast is not just blazing the ball up the floor on the dribble. Sometimes it’s kick ahead. A lot of times it’s where you catch the outlet. Even while Scoot is out, we will play faster. We just have to. No reason to be young, athletic and versatile and play slow. Whoever gets it, let’s get up and go and play.”
Billups wants to spread the wealth on offense.
“We won’t be as predictable,” he said. “Our best games last year, we had six, seven guys in double figures and everybody sharing the ball. I want to be like that most nights. Those are the most difficult teams to play against, where everybody is alive and involved in the action. We will play a lot different than before Damian left here.”
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When the Blazers open preseason play against the Warriors at Chase Center on Oct. 8, it is a given that four players will be in the starting lineup — Holiday, Clingan, Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara. The fifth starter will be either the 6-7 Grant or fourth-year guard Shaedon Sharpe. If Sharpe starts, Camara will start at his natural small forward position. If Grant is the starter, the 6-7 Camara will likely slide down to shooting guard.
Grant has started every game in which he has played since the 2019-20 season, when with Denver he came off the bench for the majority of the season. He was asked if he is prepared for the possibility of not starting this season.
“Nah, I don’t really expect that,” Grant said.
I asked Sharpe — the Blazers’ No. 2 scorer behind Anfernee Simons with an 18.5-point average last season — if he expects to start. Sharpe started 52 games in 2024-25.
“I don’t expect anything, really,” Sharpe said. “I expect for me to help this team. Whether that’s starting or coming off the bench doesn’t matter to me. I’m going to do what I have to do to help the team.”
That probably makes Billups’ decision easier. My guess is that Grant will get the starting nod, at least to begin with. But Billups slyly dodged the question Monday.
“There are a lot of different ways you could go,” said Billups, beginning his fifth season at the Blazer helm. “I am not the one who is deciding that. I am just going to be the messenger. (The players) have to go earn it. Whoever plays the best, whoever plays the best as a unit, are going to be starters.”
Then he added: “I am glad to have this discussion, to have the talent, the depth. This is new for me. But I am a fair coach. Jrue probably will be a Hall-of-Famer at some point, but we don’t have an All-Star on this team, or a top-75 (all-time) guy with Dame not playing.”
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Forward Deni Avdija, the Blazers’ most valuable player last season, wants to pick up where he left off
By the end of last season, Avdija was the best player on the Portland roster. In the 20 games after the All-Star break, the 6-9, 240-pound forward averaged 23.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 5.2 assists. He finished the season with averages of 16.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.9 assists, shooting .476 from the field, .365 from 3-point range and .780 from the free throw line.
Playing for his native Israel, Avdija was named to the All-Star second team at the FIBA EuroBasket tournament this summer, averaging 24 points and 6.8 rebounds through six games.
Avdija, 24, proved himself as one of the best in the league at taking the ball end-to-end for a basket or a drawn foul. At times, he was a bit out of control, something he addressed during the offseason.
“I still have a lot of things to work on,” he said. “I am not a finished product yet. I want to add a lot of stuff to my game, but I am not rushing. I am trying to always make the right play. The next step is take care of the ball better, control the ball better and slow down sometimes when I need to.”
When I asked about personal goals, Avdija said, “I want to pick up where I left off last season — being vocal with everyone, being a leader, helping everyone to be in the best position possible, and helping us maximize the team’s potential.”
If Avdija is Blazer of importance No. 1, Camara is No. 2. The Belgium native burst onto the scene last season after a promising rookie campaign in 2023-24. Starting all of the 78 games in which he played last season, Camara averaged 11.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals and was a second-team NBA All-Defensive Team selection. Not bad for a second-round draft pick by Phoenix who was a throw-in with DeAndre Ayton in the trade that sent Jusuf Nurkic to the Suns.
Camara shot well last season — .458 from the field, .375 from beyond the arc and .722 from the foul line — but wants to make more of an impact on offense in 2025-26. He feels his growth at that end was stunted by the fact that he played center during four college seasons at Georgia and Dayton.
“I always knew how to play offense at a high level, but my whole career in high school and college was as a ‘five’ man,” he said. “There was a lot of adjustment (to the NBA), being able to learn even to dribble the ball, and how to properly run to space. There have been a lot of things to learn in two years, but I can’t really be stuck on just being a defensive player. I am very excited about what I am going to be able to show this year with my offensive game.”
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Guard Jrue Holiday was Portland’s most important offseason acquisition
Holiday, 35, came to Portland in the summer trade that sent Simons to Boston. Set to begin his 17th NBA season, Jrue first entered the sphere of Blazer country in 2018, when the No. 6 seed New Orleans Pelicans, led by Anthony Davis, swept No. 3 Portland in the first round of the playoffs. C.J. McCollum had a big series, but Holiday and backcourt partner Rajon Rondo contained Lillard with suffocating defense.
The 6-4 Holiday has been a key component to two NBA championship teams in the last five years — Milwaukee in 2021 and Boston in ’24 — and was a member of the U.S. teams that won gold in the Olympic Games in 2020 and ’24. He is a two-time All-Star and has three times been named NBA All-Defense first team and three times a second-team selection.
“One of the best defenders in this generation,” Billups said.
“One of the premier defenders the game has ever seen,” added Henderson, who worked out with Holiday and McCollum for a period in Los Angeles this past summer.
“Love his work ethic,” Holiday said of the 21-year-old Henderson. “He is a gym rat. I was the same way (at that age). To see him dedicated to his craft, learning new things, asking me questions, asking C.J. questions … you see him working out at 5 in the morning. You can see the dedication to him getting better.”
Camara has also spent time playing with and learning from Holiday this summer.
“We have talked about everything and nothing at the same time,” said Camara, 25. “He is a welcoming person. He wants us to get better. The way he communicates with me on the court is he explains small things here and there. To be able to hand down the knowledge he has is crucial for us. I am super excited to get on the court with him this year.”
Cronin was attracted to Holiday’s leadership skills, work ethic and integrity — he has twice won the NBA’s Sportsmanship Award.
“I try to bring the mentality of coming in and work hard every day,” Holiday said. “It is about consistency. It’s hard to win a championship, and winning is hard in this league, especially in the Western Conference. My expectation is to win games.”
The Blazers haven’t had a winning campaign since 2020-21, when they were 49-33 and lost in the first round of the playoffs.
“When you have seasons of not doing so well, it can get discouraging,” Holiday said. “We want to stay positive. We want to be very encouraging and win games.”
Does Holiday want to prove he still has it in the twilight of his career?
“Everybody here knows I still got something,” he said. “Whatever is needed to win is what I’m going to do. Can I still defend? Yeah. Can I still score? For sure. But building a winning culture here is super important to me. Even though I’m 35, I still have a lot left in me.”
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Yang Hansen was the object of much attention Monday. The 7-1 giant from China, chosen with the 16th pick in the July draft by Portland, was an item of interest to the throng of local media on hand. There are also a half-dozen journalists from China in town to chronicle the 20-year-old's every move, reminiscent of the members of the Fourth Estate who followed Ichiro around during his time with the Mariners.
Yang has been busy in Portland in the two months since the draft and summer league, getting accustomed to a new language, culture, city and country and learning a new system while facing competition several rungs higher than he has seen before.
Cronin said the Blazers are looking for “day-by-day improvement” from Yang.
“It is hard for a rookie in this league, especially one who comes from international play,” the Portland GM said. “He doesn’t have a lot of quality NBA repetitions. It is come in, build confidence, do your thing, get better day by day. He has external things to deal with, too; he also has to work on the English language.
“For us, it is about pouring into him on a daily basis. We are confident in his abilities and excited to see him come in and compete and potentially win a spot in the rotation.”
Billups said time will tell how Yang fares in competition for playing time with Clingan, Smith and Duop Reath at the center spot, “but he is definitely going to play.”
A portion of Yang’s first season in Portland could be spent with the G-League Remix.
“If we are finding he is not getting enough minutes for the Blazers, I would be very open to him playing for the Remix and getting as many reps as possible,” Cronin said. “If say there is a two-week stretch where he is not getting a lot of minutes, (Yang could) go play for the Remix for two or three games to keep his conditioning up.”
Yang tried a few sentences in English but mostly spoke through an interpreter during his Monday session with the Portland media.
On his biggest adjustment in coming to the NBA: “I try to work on my body, be faster and communicate better with my teammates.”
On the pressure of comparisons with Yao Ming: “I am still in the process. I have achieved nothing. I don’t have to think that much right now. I just work on my game and see what I can do for the team.”
In a first-person article in the Players Tribune website last week, Yang wrote that he had “talked smack” to opponents at the Chicago pre-draft camp last spring. He smiled as he was asked if he has done the same with his teammates in preseason pick-up games.
“I try to build brotherhood with my teammates,” Yang said. “So no, I don’t do that anymore.”
Assorted comments from teammates about Yang:
AVDIJA: “He is a very skilled big. He knows how to play basketball. You can see he is very smart, a good passer, and he wants to learn. He wants to be a better player. I see him working on stuff. To play with Yang is going to be fun.”
CAMARA: “During the summer, we played a ton (of basketball) together. Being with Hansen, seeing how selfless he is, he doesn’t care if he scores. His knowledge of basketball is impressive. He seems like a very happy kid … my fault, young man. His development has been awesome. He is getting better by the day. His touch and feel for the game, it’s natural for him.”
Center Donovan Clingan will get starting duty in his second season in a Blazer uniform
CLINGAN: “His footwork and finish around the rim is top tier. He is doing well at learning the terms, especially in English. He is in there early every day, trying to learn everything he can. He is coachable, and he’s easy to be around.”
HOLIDAY: “To be so young, he is very skilled, a very smart player. He is huge, by the way — really tall. His mobility, how well he is able to move at that height, is an advantage. He can shoot, he can pass. Being able to play off the pass and play with the athletic guards, things are going to open up a lot for him. He is so eager to learn — to learn the language, the game and how we play it over here. And off the court he is hilarious. He enjoys life, he enjoys being here, and that’s really good to see.”
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Assorted tidbits:
• One player who didn’t expect to be around this season is Grant, who was disgruntled with his role in the Blazer offense last season and seemed bound for an offseason trade that didn’t happen.
“I was definitely very frustrated with the offense last year,” he said. “This offense is different. It is an open offense, a lot of drive-and-kick, swings, motion offense. It is a bit random, but there is a structure to it. A lot more drives, a lot more opportunities. There won’t be anybody standing in the corner. It fits my style of play.”
Asked if he thought after the 2024-25 season that he would be back in Portland for this season, Grant answered, “Umm, probably not. I definitely didn’t. But I’m glad that I’m here right now the way the team is structured. The changes that have been made are beneficial for me and the team.”
• Clingan will be given the first opportunity to start at center in his second NBA season. The 7-2 former UConn post man, who averaged 6.5 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.6 blocks in only 19.8 minutes a game as a rookie, said his offseason program helped him lose weight and add muscle.
“I put a lot of work in this summer and I feel like it is going to pay off,” he said. “I am in a lot better shape. There are times last year when I was absolutely winded. This year, I feel like I could keep going. Conditioning is one of the things that has taken the biggest jump this summer. I feel the best I have ever felt. I feel I can at least double my minutes from last year.”
When told that would mean playing 40 minutes a game, he smiled. “All right, we’ll say at least 30,” he said.
• Holiday on Clingan: “One of the first times we played pickup this summer, he blocked my shot. I told him, ‘Don’t ever do that again.’ ”
Clingan, smiling when asked if he will try to block Holiday again during training camp: “I’m going to try to get one more. He went up for a floater on the left side and I got him. He said don’t do that again. I said, ‘Hey, I’m just doing my job.’ ”
• Sharpe said he watched a lot of game film (video) during the offseason. Asked specifically what he watched, he said, “I am looking at different coverages, how teams play me in certain situations. Also, watching Anthony Edwards, Devin Booker — players who play my position.”
• Dewayne Hankins, president of business operations, was asked about the economic impact of having Yang on the Blazers and the country of China in their orbit. Hankins indicated that last season, the Blazers had international players play the most collective minutes of any team in the NBA.
“So when we drafted Yang, I was very excited for what this opportunity means for our organization globally,” Hankins said. “It’s important for us to make sure we build that relationship. There are fans in China who have heard of us, but there are also plenty of new fans who are hearing about the Trail Blazers for the first time. We have to be authentic and focused in the relationship-building we do with them. There are business opportunities down the road.”
Hankins said the Blazers were first in the NBA in “social media rankings” in July during Vegas summer league. “A lot of that was due to the incredible audience Hansen brings to us,” he said.
• Lillard was asked if he understands why Portlanders are worried that prospective new owner Tom Dundon will move the Blazers to another city.
“The Trail Blazers mean so much to Portland,” he said. “It is the biggest show in town that the fans are attached to. The passion for the team, the history of the team — it means a lot. Even in the 11 years I have been in Portland, the connection I have built with the community has meant a lot. The Trail Blazers mean a lot to them.
“It is easy to see why there would be fear that the team wouldn’t be here. I am someone who supports them. I came back here not only because I wanted to play for the Blazers, but I wanted to be in Portland. I am with them. Hopefully, the team stays here.”
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