Blazers Training Camp Day 2: Jerami Grant 'Just Fits Here Like He's Been Here'

The Blazers' week of practices in Santa Barbara continues.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — If Tuesday's opening of Trail Blazers camp was full of first-day jitters, Wednesday was about tightening all of that up. Between a long film session and a day of drills that included more scrimmaging than the first day, Chauncey Billups' staff put on a nearly three-hour session on their second day in Santa Barbara.

"They've responded well," Billups said. "Most of the mistakes, some of the sloppiness that we had yesterday, we were much better today. At the end of practice, some guys are a little tired. So it's a mental component. … This year, most of our vets know a lot of the stuff. We've changed some things, but it's similar. Now, you're able to just kind of peel back the layers on stuff. But they're picking it up pretty good. And even our young guys, we did some of the stuff at Summer League. I've been really impressed, to be honest with you."

One of the fits that's been most intriguing early on in camp is between the Blazers' new starting frontcourt partners, Jerami Grant and Jusuf Nurkic. Grant said Monday at media day that he's excited to play with a passing center like Nurkic again after playing with two-time reigning MVP Nikola Jokic during the 2019-20 season.

The feeling is mutual.

"I love it," Nurkic said of Grant after practice on Wednesday. "There's not one thing I don't like. Human being standpoint, player standpoint, I'm just impressed."

Nurkic himself is coming off a big offseason playing for the Bosnian national team at the EuroBasket tournament earlier this month. Billups and general manager Joe Cronin flew to Germany for the early rounds of the tournament to watch him and spend time with him during the tournament after Nurkic re-signed for four years and $70 million.

"Nurk has been good," Billups said. "The biggest adjustment for Nurk has just been a different style of play. His conditioning is good, but it needs to be better based on the way we play here. But he knows that and I've been happy for him."

Playing in EuroBasket helped Nurkic with that conditioning, keeping him in game shape during the offseason so he came in at a higher level than he normally does in September. But that's not to say much of what he did with the national team is going to translate over to the Blazers' season stylistically.

"It's a different speed," Nurkic said. "It's a totally different game. A lot of rules are changed here to be more efficient. They give you more space. Over there, it's crowded. Everybody's in the paint. No three-second [rule]. Get the ball off the rim. So many things are different. But it definitely helped me out to get me in 'game mode.'"

So far, the pairing with Nurkic is living up to the billing in Grant's eyes.

"It's great," Grant said Monday after his first practice as a Blazer. "Still learning the way he passes, but he's a great passer. I'm figuring out when to cut."

One thing that's going to bear watching early in the season is how Grant adjusts from the featured scoring role he had in Detroit to a return to the supporting role he played prior to that in Denver and Oklahoma City. The early reviews from camp are that he's adapting just fine.

"I feel like I've played with him already," Nurkic said. "I saw him a little bit, because when you play in the east, you don't match up often. His length is ridiculous. He's so athletic. What he can do is amazing for us. You can put him in any possible situation and it looks like he's already been there. I'm really excited so far. He's having zero trouble adjusting. He just fits here like he's been here."

A programming note: The Blazers will not be practicing tomorrow, so since there's no new availability, I'm going to put together a notes column of some things from the first two days of camp that I haven't written on yet. They have two more practices down here, Friday and Saturday; I will miss the latter day because my flight back to Portland is on Friday late afternoon, but the team should have a media availability earlier that day that I plan to make before I fly out.