Portland Trail Blazers: 3 most encouraging quotes from Chauncey Billups

3. Billups will not accept a lack of defensive effort

"“To go to the next level, and be more competitive, and be more consistent, we got to be so much better defensively. I know that. It’s not going to be optional to play hard defensively.”"

Last season, the Portland Trail Blazers rode their second ranked offense to a 42-30 record and a sixth seed finish, despite finishing second to last in defensive efficiency.

For a team with title hopes, this isn’t going to cut it. The Blazers did their best to address their defensive deficiencies in the offseason. Derrick Jones Jr. is returning and the team signed reliable defenders in Tony Snell and Cody Zeller in free agency. Both of those newcomers are miles better on defense than anybody who came off the Blazers pine last season.

Portland’s starting lineup will be the same for next season though, and there are plenty of defensive holes in that group. Both Dame and CJ are notoriously bad defenders, even at their positions. Norman Powell is a good perimeter defender, but is being forced to play out of position again and will be asked to slow down small forwards while standing just 6’3.

The Blazers three guard lineup means that they’ll have to work harder than most teams to create stops. Billups knows this, Blazers fans know this, and most importantly, Portland’s opponents know this. It’s up to the first-year head coach to make sure that his players know this as well.

Finding good defenders is tough in the NBA as they have to go against the most offensively talented players on the planet, but most of it comes down to effort and IQ. The Blazers aren’t lacking in the latter, so with a little more commitment to getting their hands dirty, Portland should be able to at least be a middle-of-the-road defensive team.

If they can finish in the top-20 on defense, and continue to build on that second-ranked offense, they’ll be a much tougher out in the playoffs moving forward.