Chauncey Billups Makes Accountability-Based Lineup Change, and Trail Blazers Snap Losing Skid
Moving Shaedon Sharpe to the bench was meant to send a message about Portland's flagging defense.
📍PORTLAND, Ore. — Like every coach in the NBA, Chauncey Billups has had to juggle his lineups this season as players are in and out due to injury. On Sunday, though, the change he made was to send a message.
Shaedon Sharpe, who has started 31 of 33 games he’s played in this season, was the odd man out as Deni Avdija returned to the Trail Blazers’ lineup against the Chicago Bulls, and Billups made no secret about why.
“We need to be better defensively,” Billups said. And he wasn’t done there.
“He's struggled a little bit,” he continued. “As a head coach, as I'm trying to build and develop these guys, I don't believe in playing on one side of the ball. I just can't allow that. I can't have that on my watch. Shae has to get better. I've seen him be so good so many different times, but he's just struggled a little bit. And when he struggles, there needs to be consequences for that.”
Even with Sharpe’s admitted struggles on that end, the move was something of a surprise. Earlier this month, he had a stretch of five games in a row scoring at least 20 points. Really, since he returned from the shoulder injury that kept him out for the start of the season, Sharpe has been one of the Blazers’ most consistent scoring threats.
But the Blazers entered Sunday having lost five games in a row, with their last four each by 18 or more points. Something had to change with the five-game homestand ending and a tough three-game road trip coming up. And Billups decided that would be Sharpe, as a message to the rest of the team.
“That wasn’t just about Shae,” Billups said. “That was about everybody. We need to be better. Plan-wise, defensively, we need to be better. That was something that I really challenged Shae on. That wasn’t at all about him. That was for everybody.”
It would be a better story if the Blazers won Sunday’s game because Sharpe came off the bench and made a key defensive play. That didn’t happen. But he did play much better on that end than he has in the past several games, and Billups believes that led directly to the 23 points he scored off the bench.
“Really good,” Billups said of Sharpe’s performance. “I was proud of Shae. I thought defensively, he was locked in, which is where he needs to be. And I think with him, when he’s locked in defensively, it helps his offense. It makes him go. It speeds him up a little bit. I thought he was locked in most of the time. Didn’t make very many mistakes.”
Sharpe, for his part, said he understood the decision to move him to the bench.
“It was a good convo,” he said. “He basically told me what I needed to do, and today I think I took a big step in doing what he said. So I’ve just got to continue to do that.”
Sharpe admitted, too, that he knows he needs to be better defensively.
“I think sometimes it’s a lack of focus,” he said. “My ability to guard is there. I just need to lock in and focus. I’m not really too worried about that. Just got to continue to do what I did today.”
Of course, the Blazers’ defensive struggles can’t all be attributed to Sharpe’s recent slippage. And before he entered the game, they let the Bulls jump out to a 14-6 lead. They trailed by 12 at the end of the first quarter—and then outscored Chicago by 23 the rest of the way by limiting their three-point attempts and turning them over 14 times.
Scoot Henderson—who had another excellent game, leading the Blazers with 25 points along with seven rebounds and eight assists—has been shuffled from the starting lineup to the bench several times during his career. To him, Sharpe handled the temporary demotion the right way.
“He did what he’s supposed to do,” Henderson said. “Control what he can and go out there with great energy.”
Billups was noncommittal about Sharpe’s role on the upcoming road trip, which starts Tuesday in Miami. But the smart money is on Sharpe staying in a bench role, at least until the roster sorts itself out at the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Anfernee Simons missed Sunday’s game with an elbow injury, but he’s not expected to be out a long time. Henderson has been playing too well lately to take out of the starting lineup. There’s going to be a lineup crunch coming with Avdija, Toumani Camara and Jerami Grant. If Simons or Grant is moved before the deadline, that will clear some of it up. For now, it’s going to be messy, and not everybody’s going to be happy.
“Shaedon's going to be a star in this league, but I want him to play both sides of the ball like Jaylen Brown and Anthony Edwards,” Billups said. “He's able to do it. Shae will be fine, but this is that moment. This is how we get there.”