The Young Blazers Want The Smoke
And Deandre Ayton is emerging as the vocal leader for Chauncey Billups' young team.
During Chauncey Billups’ postgame media availability, songs from the 2017 collab record by Future and Young Thug, Super Slimey, were blaring from the Suns makeshift weight room in the bowels of the Moda Center.
And as Billups made his way to the podium after Portland’s 8th win in nine tries, the game we just watched made me think of another song from that album: All da Smoke.
The Blazers want it and Deandre Ayton is egging them on to get after it. Yes, you read that right. Despite the easy target that Ayton is for media, local and national alike, to project their displeasure with the team, Ayton is emerging as this team’s vocal leader. Ayton went 5 of 6 from the free-throw line in the final seven seconds of overtime, in the same place where just three years ago, Damian Lillard dared him to beat them at the line and missed.
On Monday, it was a different Ayton at the line. And it’s both his play–and his leadership–a trait that nobody had ever credited Ayton for before–that are helping the Blazers play their best ball since Lillard asked for the Blazers to trade him.
Billups and the Blazers knew what they were walking into tonight. After blowing out the veteran Suns on Saturday night, they expected the Suns to lock in. The Suns made adjustments, sagging deeper in the paint on ball screens for Portland’s ball-handlers like Deni Avdija and Scoot Henderson, as well as offensive adjustments like getting Devin Booker and Kevin Durant to move the ball when Portland blitzed them on ball screens.
All of the Phoenix adjustments were working and the game started to turn in their favor. In the third quarter, it started to look like they were running away with the game. But rather than succumb to the script that was laid out for them by the basketball gods, the Blazers said no: we want the smoke. And they gave it right back.
And at the end of it all, it was Ayton once again, becoming the foil for his former team. While Jerami Grant and Anfernee Simons outrank Ayton in terms of years served with the Blazers, what is becoming clear about this stretch is that Ayton has emerged as the team’s vocal leader.
“It was tough and we thought it would be,” Billups said. “The way we beat them the other day, we knew they would come in and scrap and fight and not allow that to happen again. There’s Hall of Famers on that team. We prepared for a dog fight and that’s exactly what it was. We kept scrapping the entire night. So many people played well, I think this may have been (Ayton’s) best all around game. He’s had some really good ones in our uniform but this one, in terms of his activity across the board. Hitting big free throws at the end was a really big thing. Tou hit some timely shots, 3s that we needed, Scoot played well. Ant didn’t shoot well but he was huge in the game.”
Over the last few games, Billups has spoken glowingly about Ayton, not only because of his play, but because of his leadership as one of the team’s ranking veterans. While his production can waver, Billups and other players are feeling the boost from Ayton stepping into a leadership role.
“He’s been leading. He’s been the biggest voice on the team,” Billups said of Ayton. “Whether he’s in there or not, his leadership hasn’t wavered. DA was just such a big deal. When they went small, I thought they really hurt us. I went back to DA and I thought it was won us the game. They just couldn’t take advantage of us like they did at the time. His leadership has been great.”
“He just brings an energy and intensity,” Anfernee Simons said of Ayton. “When he’s playing like that with so much energy and so much fire, it can be contagious for sure. Obviously we are playing well and we are on a good run. DA has been playing well and everybody has been having their good moments of playing well too. Him just coming in every night for the past couple of weeks and playing his butt off, his energy is contagious, so I would attribute it to that.”
Ayton wants the Blazers to get used to this. Because the more they rack up the wins, the more attention teams will pay to them. When Ayton was asked to talk about his performance and the team’s performance, he tried to avoid talking about himself but once again went to the boxing analogy of fighting back against his former team.
“We’ve been on this streak of playing well, playing together. That’s what you see. I was really happy to be out there. In the fourth quarter, down the stretch we needed that. I believe there’s going to be more games like that if we keep playing like this. Teams are going to try and take us a little more seriously and give us a little more respect,” Ayton said. “It felt like a playoff game tonight with how they slowed it down and they was picking on some of our guys. They wanted to attack certain defenders and we adjusted. We had some mishaps, they got their run going but we took the punch and we threw some of our own. I really enjoyed how we all was together. Down the stretch we handled that the right way. Especially with the crowd, the environment, the concepts, it was real basketball. It was good to be out there tonight.”
I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I DEFINITELY don’t know what’s going to happen at the trade deadline on Thursday. But what I do know is the energy in the arena, especially at the end of the third quarter, when Portland was throwing back Phoenix’s best punches with fast breaks and dagger 3s of their own, it felt like I was watching the PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS IN THE ROSE GARDEN again. It might as well have been B-Roy and Travis Outlaw out there.
And the vibes around the games have been changing. Even before the win, the boos for Chauncey Billups that have been a staple of home games during his tenure, were barely noticeable.
I don’t know exactly what this is just yet. I don’t even think the Blazers front office knows. But as their chances for maximum ping pong balls has gone by the way side, it’s impossible not to feel SOMETHING about this run.
After three years of shamelessly going for the ping pong balls, the Blazers put too much talent on this roster to truly have the best chance for the No. 1 pick. While there’s absolutely something to be said for Portland potentially missing out on the No. 1 pick, there’s also something ELSE to be said about the energy in the building tonight.
It’s the feeling that has kept a lot of us coming back. The feelings that live deep in the gut of Blazers fandom. Maybe, very understandably given the state of the franchise, it’s a feeling that a lot of people around here forgot. But it’s the feeling that keeps you going through season-ending injuries and trading your franchise GOAT. Tonight, during their third quarter run to take control of the game after the Suns made their run, that was the feeling that permeated the building. Some good ol’ fashioned BlazerMania.
And while I would like to see some moves at the deadline, the energy these Blazers are creating isn’t something to easily throw away. It’s the feeling this fanbase has been searching for since the clock struck zero in Game 6 of the Denver series in 2021.
I don’t think the Play-In is realistically on the table, but at this point, I’m done underestimating Billups and this group. They’re playing for him and responding for him. It might be a 2025 version of Major League, where the players and coach are throwing up a middle finger at management’s plans to be bad. But right now, I don’t care. This is too much fun.
And I don’t think I’m the only one around here who feels the same way.