Supposedly that is on the 18th of this month. Edit: Bad source. It seems it is November 1st this year. https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2021/09/decisions-on-2022-23-rookie-scale-team-options.html
just curious. Seems like Portland has mostly had a history of waiting so I suspect this means they like what Little is doing.
Love Nassir. Going to have a great season. And if he doesn’t get playing time we should start a fire Billups thread
Chauncey sure is talking about him a lot in very positive terms. I like what Nas brings with his tenacity and athleticism, especially if what Chauncey says is accurate and he's a way better shooter than what we've seen.
If CJ were to be traded for Simmons and they wanted a talented forward along with CJ, Nas would make sense. If Simmons were brought on board and with both RoCo and Nance already here playing big minutes at forward, there wouldn't be a lot of time for Nas at that point.
Nassir Little wanted to make a statement during the Trail Blazers’ training camp this week, and it didn’t take long for the third-year wing to raise some eyebrows. Much of the first practice on Tuesday was instructional. Diagramming plays. Walking through the plays while coaches explained where players should go. But finally it was time to go full speed. The sneakers squeaked, coaches shouted instructions and defenders called out assignments. And then … BOOM! “The very first play,” Robert Covington said. The boom was Little throwing down a forceful dunk. “I came off a double away screen, going to my right hand,” the 6-foot-6 Little remembered. “I saw a lane, so I just kept driving hard right.” He saw 6-foot-9 power forward Marquese Chriss coming from the help side. “I knew I couldn’t go up soft,” Little said. “I just jumped and then cocked it back and dunked it.” It was that kind of play — athletic, powerful, instinctive — that has come to define what has been a standout first week for Little. “Nas has really worked his ass off this summer, and it shows,” Covington said. It is exactly what coach Chauncey Billups was hoping to see from the 21-year-old after a series of summer conversations. The Blazers are excited about the prospect of Little breaking into the rotation because he offers a unique element to the roster. The Blazers are filled with spot-up shooters and finesse scorers. Little is so physically gifted with his strength, speed and leaping ability that he can create his own shot … even if it means hammering it home over a 6-foot-9 forward. “He’s playing so hard, so hard,” Billups said. “And that’s kind of been my thing with him all summer — he needs to be playing harder than anybody else if he is going to give himself a chance to be in the rotation, to play minutes, to impact the game. And he’s doing that.” But here is where it gets interesting. Billups — like most NBA coaches — believes the sweet spot for an NBA rotation is nine players. The Blazers’ top eight are all but set in stone: starters Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Norman Powell, Jusuf Nurkic and Covington and top reserves Larry Nance Jr., Cody Zeller and Anfernee Simons. That leaves one spot up for grabs among Little, veteran wing Tony Snell and guard Ben McLemore. The three other roster spots — CJ Elleby, rookie Greg Brown and whoever among Patrick Patterson, Dennis Smith Jr., Quinn Cookand Chriss wins the 14th spot — are not expected to see much playing time this season. “You can’t play everybody,” Billups said. “Just tough to do.” Little would appear to have the early lead for the ninth spot as Snell has yet to practice because of a minor foot issue, and McLemore is caught behind the logjam of four guards. Snell is an eight-year veteran and a proven 3-and-D player, and Billups indicated his foot issue is not serious. Whether Snell will have enough time to supplant the rave reviews of Little remains to be seen. “He works his butt off,” Billups said of Little. “And he’s a really good shooter, much better than people know. I’ve been very happy with him.” So has the front office. That was made clear Friday morning when Neil Olshey, the Blazers’ president of basketball operations, found Little sitting courtside watching film before practice. Little’s day was about to change. Little’s concentration while watching film was broken by Olshey’s voice. “Neil was like, ‘Buy a nice dinner tonight,'” Little recalled. Little was confused. He asked Olshey what he was talking about. “And he was like, ‘You are $4 million richer.'” Encouraged by Little’s progress, Olshey and the Blazers on Friday morning picked up the fourth-year option on Little’s rookie deal. He will be paid $4.17 million next season. “I almost shed a tear, I’m not going to lie,” Little said. “He almost had me here crying before practice. It was a good moment, for sure.” Little celebrated by having yet another standout practice, which was highlighted in a series of scrimmages at the end of the two-hour workout. “Nas was really good today,” Billups said. “He played really well. … He’s the best athlete we have, in my opinion. He can get downhill and put a lot of pressure on the rim, and he had that going today. I thought he was focused and had a good day.” Billups, who was an assistant last season with the Clippers, said he hopes Little can duplicate the breakout season of the Clippers’ Terance Mann, a 6-foot-5 wing who in his second season erupted for 39 points to catapult the Clippers into the Western Conference finals. “I was telling (Little) that’s the guy he has to be for us this year, what Terance Mann did for us with the Clippers last year,” Billups said. “This year, I think Nas can have that same impact.” Billups said it has to be a two-way contribution, though. If Little can’t guard other forwards, it won’t work. But Billups says he sees the ability. “I want to be able to have the confidence to throw Nas in there and put him on the KDs and LeBrons and all those top guys for three to four minutes and let him just kind of harass them, use that gift he has.” So far, that gift has been on display in practice. But Little says it won’t mean anything until he does it against other teams, starting with Monday in the Blazers’ preseason opener against Golden State at the Moda Center. “Me playing well in practice is cool and all, but it’s time for me to showcase that against other top talent in the league,” Little said. “And then we will really see where we are.” Right now, though, after one week of training camp, it’s difficult not to see where Little is and dream about what he can become. Perhaps that’s why Covington couldn’t contain a smile Thursday while talking about him. “He’s going to make us very lethal,” Covington said. “The more and more he builds that confidence, the more and more he builds that demeanor … man.”
All this hype and praise is great and all, I just hope they stick with him when he inevitably goes through some adversity.
From the article, it doesn't sound like he was extended for trade reasons, so i hope you are right. Hard to build confidence if you aRe yanked after every mistake and not given a chance to get through them.
