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Chauncey Billups agrees to a multi-year extension with Trail Blazers
Chauncey Billups agrees to a multi-year extension with Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers have agreed to sign head coach Chauncey Billups to a multi-year extension, ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania first reported Sunday. Billups, 48, was in the final year of his contract.
This extension comes less than a week after the Blazers extended general manager Joe Cronin to a multi-year extension.
This year was Billups’ best year with Portland by a legitimate margin, and the W-L reflected that, even though that’s definitely not the only indicator of a good coach. Heading into the final day of the regular season, Portland owns their best record since they went 42-30 in the COVID-shortened regular season in 2020-21. It improved by 14 wins this year and will be at least two wins better than any year of Billups’ tenure.
The Blazers are No. 23 in adjusted offensive efficiency and No. 14 in defense, one year after finishing No. 29 and 23 in those categories, respectively, according to Dunks and Threes.
I’ve been critical in the past of Billups’ development, or lack thereof, of the team’s young players. However, one player that has absolutely developed in his system is second-year forward Toumani Camara, the most under-talked-about piece of the Damian Lillard trade after the Suns drafted No. 52 overall in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Through 77 games, the soon-to-be 25-year old is averaging 11.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game on 45.6/37.0/72.2 shooting splits. He’s developed into one of the NBA’s most underrated multi-positional defenders. Additionally, I think Scoot Henderson made tangible growth with his decision-making and shot-making throughout the second half of his second season under Billups, while Deni Avdija has been a legitimately awesome player in his first with Portland.
The fourth-year head coach deserves his credit, even though I want to see him stack the deck next year with another quality season developmentally. Few expected Portland to finish with more than 25 wins, let alone be on the precipice of finishing with more than 35.
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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
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