Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups recently sat down for an interview with SiriusXM NBA Radio (Twitter link), and he says he’s not going to be preaching “stay here” to star point guard Damian Lillard.
Billups adds that he won’t be constantly discussing whether Lillard wants to stay with the team or not with his star player, saying he has a responsibility to coach the rest of the players, but he definitely wants him to stay, and believes Lillard when he says he’s “all in” for the upcoming season.
Here’s more from the Northwest:
- Former first-rounder D.J. Wilson knows he might be a long shot to make the Thunder‘s 15-man regular season roster, but that’s not going to stop him from trying, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. Mussatto notes that the Thunder had their eyes on Wilson in the 2017 draft, but the Bucks selected him before the Thunder were able to. Wilson is on a non-guaranteed training camp contract.
- In a tweet, Mussatto notes that the Thunder are being cautious with Vit Krejci, who’s a year removed from an ACL tear. Coach Mark Daigneault said Krejci has been cleared to play, but he’s still not a full participant in practices. This could be a result of the “slight setback” Krejci had last week. Mussatto adds that the bigger issue for Krejci is his visa status, which has no timeline for a resolution.
- One reason the Jazz appealed to Rudy Gay in free agency is they had the best regular-season record in the NBA last season, so he doesn’t feel any pressure to rush his recovery process following heel surgery, tweets Eric Walden of The Salt Lake Tribune.
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