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Lillard will use the 2025-26 season to rehabilitate his injury, but a return to the franchise and Portland, where his family and children reside were of the ultimate importance, per sources. He also had multiple midlevel exception and minimum offers from NBA contenders, per sources.
Chauncey Billups: Scoot Henderson is having an incredible summer
I spoke with Scoot Henderson for a minute a couple of days ago. He's been putting in some great work with Chris Johnson, his trainer, out in Los Angeles. What kind of a leap do you expect from him next year? Chauncey Billups: Well, I'll be honest with you—Scoot's having an incredible summer. He had a tough year last year, mainly because he didn't get to play basketball during the summer. He was banged up, licking his wounds from the season. This year, he's been playing ball all summer and working on his game. As you said, he's going to take an incredible leap this year. I really, really believe Scoot's going to take a big-time jump. And I'm along for the ride, man. We're ready for it.
The Portland Trail Blazers have named James Posey as an assistant coach on Head Coach Chauncey Billups’ staff. Posey brings 25 years of NBA experience as a player and coach to the Trail Blazers as he is a two-time NBA Champion as a player (2006, 2008) and winning one as an assistant coach (2016).
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Sources tell ClutchPoints the Grizzlies are doing their due diligence on Avdija as the NBA Draft approaches. The highly competitive, Chauncey Billups and Scoot Henderson-led Trail Blazers are understood to be weighing whether to continue building around young talents like Avdija, Shaedon Sharpe, and Henderson or leverage their well-seasoned assets for future draft picks in a loaded 2026 class.
Michael Scotto: The Portland Trail Blazers named Tiago Splitter, Patrick St. Andrews and Quinton Crawford as assistant coaches on Chauncey Billups’ staff. Leron Black was also hired as a player development coach. Black served as Rip City Remix G League assistant coach and director of video since the 2023-24 season.
Michael Scotto: Portland Trail Blazers named Jonah Herscu as Rip City Remix G League head coach. He spent the past 3 seasons in Portland as an assistant coach under Chauncey Billups. Sergi Oliva returns to his role as Blazers assistant GM. Eli Kell-Abrams will be the Remix’s lead assistant coach pic.x.com/yJ4VMEhD03
Portland Trail Blazers named Jonah Herscu as Rip City Remix G League head coach. He spent the past 3 seasons in Portland as an assistant coach under Chauncey Billups. Sergi Oliva returns to his role as Blazers assistant GM. Eli Kell-Abrams will be the Remix’s lead assistant coach pic.twitter.com/yJ4VMEhD03
— Michael Scotto (@MikeAScotto) June 10, 2025
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Chauncey Billups on Scoot Henderson: 'I want him to just play as much five-on-five basketball as he can'
Chauncey Billups: "Yeah, I was happy for Scoot this past season. I was proud of him, you know. It was up and down. He’s one of those guys that handles the downs and the ups with such grace. He’s great, man. It’s tough on him a lot of times—with the expectations, you know, of being drafted where he was drafted, of Dame not being here, and him being the next. It’s been very difficult on him, but he’s handled it great. So, I was happy to see him take a step this past season. And my challenge for him this summer has been—I want him to just play as much five-on-five basketball as he can. That, to me, is the only way that you really get experience.
Chauncey Billups: So, my challenge for Scoot all summer has been: we need to be playing as much as we can, man. We need to be playing. And as you can see throughout the season, as he played more and more and more, that’s when things started to change for him. He starts to see different things. He starts to be able to put teams in disadvantaged situations. He sees the lob. He sees the kick-out. He finishes. You have to play basketball—and a ton of it—to be able to see those things and for the game to slow down for you. So that’s my challenge for him. And again, it’s one of the reasons why he’s here in town—working, playing hard, playing five-on-five every single day. And he’s continuing to get better."
Toumani is a big topic on the team, who did get All-Second Team All-Defensive. Yeah. How big is that for him and just the growth that he's shown in just year two? Chauncey Billups: "Well, first of all, I was mad he didn’t get First Team. I really was. I thought he did good enough to get First Team. I thought the only reason why he didn’t is because our team—we didn’t make the playoffs, and nobody sees the Blazers. Of course, we do in this market. People in Orlando, people in Atlanta, people in New York—they don’t really watch the Blazers that much. That’s going to change, though. We’re going to start continuing to get better and get more national games. That was the only thing that was different for me. I thought he performed at a First Team All-Defense level. But even him getting Second Team needs to be celebrated in an incredible way. He’s a young player. He’s just now playing these guys for the second year. You know what I mean? It was incredible what he’s done.
Chauncey Billups: I’ve developed so much over the last several years. I’ve been through a ton, man—a ton, ton, ton. You know, the team we had when I took the job, and what it was three or four months after that, was totally different. And it’s just been a lot, you know? I’ve gone through a lot here. I’ve learned through all of it, you know? I’m really, really excited that we are where we’re at, and that they’ve chosen to believe in me—let me continue to drive this organization forward. I think that we’re all— I mean, I count myself in this—like, we talk about our team being young. I’m a young coach still. So I’m still—we’re growing together here. It’s not just these guys.
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