Apr 13, 2025; Portland, Oregon, USA; Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups (middle) shares a moment with Portland Trail Blazers center Duop Reath (26) (left) and Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons (1) before the Portland Trail Blazers play Los Angeles Lakers at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images

Blazers' Chauncy Billups Has Simple 3-Word Message to Team in Camp

Originally posted on Portland Trail Blazers on SI
By Ryan Stano | Last updated Oct 9, 2025 1:00 PM ET

The Portland Trail Blazers came up just short of making the play-in last season. They dug themselves a massive hole at the beginning of the season they just couldn't get out of.

Heading into this year, the Trail Blazers have voiced that their goal is to make the playoffs this season. It's a tough goal to achieve with how good the Western Conference is.

Chauncey Billups believes that his team is talented enough to make a push for the playoffs. He has a motto that he is making this year's team live by during training camp.

The Trail Blazers Have a Very Simple Motto Heading Into This Year

Billups' motto for training camp this year is "Make 'Em Uncomfortable," which is something he believes will help them win games this season. Casey Holdahl of NBA.com got Billups to explain the motto.

“I always kind of have a word every year that I think will be our barometer for our team and my word for us this year is just ‘uncomfortable,’” said Billups. “We want to make people uncomfortable."

Billups isn't just talking about making other teams uncomfortable with their defense, either. He wants teams to be uncomfortable with what the Blazers are doing offensively.

"Obviously defensively, that's our pressure and our physicality. Offensively, it's our speed and just getting in that paint and kind of mixing it up and our crashing the offensive glass. I just think those things make people very uncomfortable."

The Trail Blazers Will Have a New Identity This Season

Portland is going to be a defense-first team this season, which is an identity they created at the end of last year. Offensively, Billups wants them to find a new identity.

This preseason will be about helping the team find that identity so that they can start to win games against really good teams. That's what it will take for them to make a playoff push.

Billups understands that his team has to embody this motto if they want to achieve their goals.

“It's who we have to be if we're going to be any good.”

Portland needs its young guys to really embrace this as they step into unfamiliar roles this year.