Inside the office of Chauncey Billups, in bold letters, reads a saying the Portland coach holds dear, an adage that he wants to be at the root of the Trail Blazers’ rebuild.
“You can have bad plays,’’ the maxim reads, “but not bad ways.”
The quote is from Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, whom Billups played for in Detroit and now considers a mentor. It’s a quote that goes a long way in explaining why the Trail Blazers parted ways with center Deandre Ayton, whom they waived after negotiating a contract buyout, this week.
See, the Blazers could live with Ayton missing shots or his man scoring on him. They could even live with him being limited by injuries to 55 and 40 games in his two seasons in Portland.
But in the end, they couldn’t live with his bad ways. The tardiness to team flights and practices, according to a team source. The skipping of rehabilitation appointments. Fans saw him slam chairs when he was taken out of games. And a team source said there were tantrums in the locker room when he was sidelined for poor effort.
And for as much as the Blazers tried to compliment Ayton for being supportive of 2024 lottery pick Donovan Clingan, doesn’t it speak volumes that they are paying him millions to stay away from their young centers — Clingan and 2025 first-round pick Yang Hansen? It’s not like Portland is averse to paying someone $35 million to mentor; they just traded for veteran Jrue Holiday, who has even more remaining money remaining on his contract, for what is presumably a mentorship-type role with point guard Scoot Henderson.
Portland joins Phoenix as teams that have calculated that Ayton’s baggage isn’t worth his talent. And this week, as Ayton enters the free-agent market, there will likely be a third team that convinces itself it can either change, or live with, the Ayton experience. He has some undeniable assets. He’s 7-feet. He has silky touch from mid-range. When his right knee isn’t throbbing from tendonitis, he can beat most centers up and down the court. And he’s a lob threat around the rim.
But the former No. 1 overall pick suffers from a critical flaw: He has little self-awareness.
In his first news conference in Portland, he referred to himself as “Domin-Ayton.” During the 95 times he played in Portland, he was maybe dominant in a handful of games. He once said he has nothing to prove because “I’m a max (contract) player and I’ll continue to be a max player.” But in both Phoenix and Portland, he chaffed his coaches with inconsistent effort. In Game 7 of the 2022 Western Conference semifinals, Suns coach Monty Williams benched him in the second half, prompting a heated argument. In a December game against Utah in Portland, Billups called a timeout two minutes into the second half and benched Ayton for the rest of the game.
After the 141-99 loss to the Jazz, in which Ayton was minus-29 in his 17 minutes, Billups said, “I didn’t like his spirit in the game.”
When the Blazers traded for Ayton, not everyone in the organization was on board. Some questioned his maturity. When Ayton arrived, he envisioned himself as the cornerstone, the big fish, and he acted like it. He was carefree and loud, often blurting out songs or offhand comments in the locker room. While some reporters laughed, there were times when veterans at their lockers rolled their eyes.
Around the corner from the locker room is Billups’ office. That quote from Brown is positioned on the wall so it’s the first thing you see when you walk through the door. Billups never worried about Ayton, because he felt he could coach him up and instill some work ethic, humility and professionalism into Ayton. Throughout Billups’ Hall of Fame playing career, he had tamed other colorful and/or loose cannons. Chris Anderson and JR Smith in Denver. Rasheed Wallace in Detroit.
But now, as the Blazers’ rebuild is starting to show signs of promise, it is clear the organization believed Billups couldn’t change Ayton. So Portland did what so many teams are reluctant to do: They admitted a mistake and cut ties.
Habits in the NBA are formed when players are young, and with the Blazers’ impressionable core of Deni Avdija, Toumani Camara, Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, along with the young centers Clingan and Yang, a standard needs to be set. A good starting point is an understanding that they can have bad plays, but not bad ways.
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