Since last year, the Portland Trail Blazers have made Goleta their home for NBA training camp and in year two of their partnership with U.C. Santa Barbara, the team is night and day different from last year’s roster with six new rookies and the departure of Damian Lillard who was traded Sept. 27 to the Milwaukee Bucks as a part of a three team trade.
“We’ve added so many new players, that most of the new guys, they got to get some reps," Head Coach Chauncey Billups said candidly. "My responsibility is to get our new guys to understand our stuff.”
One of the pieces brought over from the three team trade is rookie Toumani Camara who got his welcome to the NBA moment early on after being drafted to the Phoenix Suns only to be traded to Portland before even playing in his first NBA game.
“It's just a learning experience and then it's another opportunity," Tounami explained. "We're still in the NBA, so we just take the opportunity with a full sprint and just just going all in.”
While Camara, a Belgium native, is trying to make a name for himself with Portland much, UCSB standout, the reigning Big West Player of the Year and fellow Belgian born basketball player, Ajay Mitchell, is garnering national attention at the mid-major level.
“He's been doing a good job representing our country," Camara said. "I think he played a little bit with a national team and everything and I think just his tools, the sky's the limit for him.”
Acquisitions like veteran big men Deandre Ayton and Robert Williams III help provide defense in the front court while Malcolm Brogdon bring experience in the backcourt to add to an already impressive list of guards including Anfernee Simons and rookie Scoot Henderson.
“I think that helps as we start to amp up our intensity defensively as guards, just being able to create more problems for the other offenses,” Portland forward Matisse Thybulle said.
While there is question marks with how this team will perform come the regular season, there is no denying that this team enjoys being down in warmer weather for training camp.
“It’s a lot warmer over here, I would say you can spend a little more time here in the water and that’s my preference,” Thybulle added.
