Key Takeaways From Trail Blazers Exit Interviews
Here's what happened in the Blazers' annual end-of-season media availability.
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📍PORTLAND, Ore. — Following the Trail Blazers' season-ending 109-81 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday afternoon, most of the team's players held their annual end-of-season exit interviews with local media.
Most of the attention, as expected, was still on the announcement earlier that day that head coach Chauncey Billups, whose future had been up in the air since last spring, would be back on a multiyear contract extension.
Sean Highkin
But there were other things to take away from the sessions, from the futures of some of their veterans to a few injury updates.
Questions about the future for the Blazers' veterans
Now that the coaching decision is settled, the biggest question surrounding the Blazers' offseason will be what they do with some of the veterans who don't fully fit the timeline of their rebuild—namely Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons and Deandre Ayton.
Simons and Ayton are both going into the final years of their contracts and will become free agents next summer. Grant has three years left on the five-year, $160 million contract he signed in the summer of 2023, but with the emergence of Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija as the Blazers' starting forwards of the future, his fit on the roster is not straightforward.
All three were asked Sunday about their futures in Portland and how they felt about this past season. All three had different answers.
