PORTLAND — When Terry Stotts took a year away from coaching, he went to San Antonio to check out the Spurs training camp after they won the 2007 NBA title and saw what roster continuity can build.
“I was there for four or five days. The first day Pop didn’t say a word,” the Trail Blazers head coach said. “They were further along on the first day of practice than a lot of teams were in January.”
Stotts told this story while describing the “double-edged sword” that comes with stability and success during the Blazers’ 2014-15 media day at the Moda Center.
A “double-edged sword,” can also apply to the construction of the team and it’s flexibility.
After Damian Lillard’s option for 2015-16 was picked up Monday, only he and Nicolas Batum are under contract to be in a Blazers uniform next season.
The man who constructed it — general manager Neil Olshey — said it himself on Monday.
“Not to be devil’s advocate for my own model, but whenever you work towards flexibility and everybody is in the same contract there is a danger of things interrupting your chemistry because of guys in contract years.”
But then Olshey gets at the crux of his philosophy.
“So I think we’re more comfortable because these guys are coming back to a 54-win team,” he said.
“Winning solves everything,” was a common theme of the day.
The Blazers know that their road has not gotten easier, only that they now know what it takes to get there.
They have done as much as they can do in talking to LaMarcus Aldridge and Aldridge stands by his commitment to re-sign in the offseason.
Olshey said that Wesley Matthews “knows he’s part of our core,” and Lopez’s team-first commitment is frequently lauded.
Now they have to continue to play “Blazers Basketball,” an emerging brand in its own right with Aldridge and Lillard in the middle.
But Stotts is wary that the Blazers cannot take what they’ve done for granted.
While the Blazers run was full of fun basketball from a team and an individual level from the likes of Lillard and Aldridge, the Spurs killed the fun.
And amongst the players, it seems that San Antonio is what’s on their mind the most.
“I think we had a pretty successful season last year but I don’t think anyone was happy with the way the year ended,” said Robin Lopez.
“Last year if we didn’t make the playoffs, people would had been like ‘oh, yeah, they fought hard, this and that,’ ” said forward Dorell Wright. “This year it’s like they made it to the second round of the playoffs, now we expect them to make the Western Conference finals. I’m pretty sure that everybody going into training camp that walked off in San Antonio with that sour taste in their mouth is thinking the same thing.”
The Blazers added Chris Kaman and Steve Blake, two veterans with playoff experience hungry to win.
Stotts wants the Blazers to emphasize their weak side and transition defense in training camp in hopes of improving on giving up the second-most field goal attempts at the rim last season.
They need their young players to become more consistent and they need their stars to be just as good. Even though Stotts is pleased with their summer growth, he’s firm that nothing is set.
The Blazers have solved one piece of the puzzle in carving out an identity and figuring out who they are.
The difference this season is that everybody else knows too.
Matthews summed up the team’s challenge when comes to having a target on their back: “We still have that hunger mentality. We’re excited about what we did last season. We know it’s fragile. Before last year we were on the other end of that spectrum. And now we are back up here. It can come and go, it’s just embracing and knowing this opportunity.”
