It’s the offseason for the Portland Trail Blazers, but that didn’t stop Head Coach Chauncey Billups from sitting down with Tyree Smith from Portland television station KATU for a near-half-hour interview about the Blazers and the NBA.

In the course of the interview, Billups discussed the success and construction of the Western Conference Champion Oklahoma City Thunder, early offseason workouts for the team, the development of Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, and Donovan Clingan, assimilating Deni Avdija, what he, himself has learned as a coach, his recent contract extension, his love for the city of Portland, the evolution of the NBA in recent years, and more.

On the development of Sharpe and the main focus this summer, Billups said:

I thought he had a really, really good end of the season. My challenge to Shae was, I don’t want to get back to this point next season, I want to start at this point. I don’t want to take any steps back this summer. Let’s start the season this way. In the summer it’s all about going out and just take it. Whatever you believe, go get it.

On Henderson’s evolution, Billups adds:

I was happy for Scoot past season. I was proud of him. It was up and down. He’s one of the guys that he handles the downs and ups with such grace and he’s great, man. It’s tough on him. A lot of times with the expectations of being drafted where he was drafted, Dame not being here and him being the next...it’s been very difficult on him, but he’s handled it great. So I was happy to see him take a step this past season. My challenge for him this summer has been, I want him to play as much five-on-five basketball as he can. To me that’s the only way you really get experience. You can work 1-on-0 as much as you want. That’s fine. That’s good. We have to do that. But playing against real NBA players is how you continue to evolve. Certain things you just can’t get in a workout. So my challenge for Scoot all summer has been, we need to be playing as much as we can...

As you can see throughout the season, as he played more and more and more, that’s when things started to change for him. He starts to see different things. He starts to be able to put other teams in disadvantage situations. He sees the lob. He sees the kick-out. He finishes. You have to play basketball, and a ton of it, to be able to see those things and for the game to slow down for you.

The interview is rich with Billups’ thoughts and assessments of his young players. It’s well worth a view if you want to understand more about the views of Portland’s coach.