The Portland Trail Blazers may have moved to extend head coach Chauncey Billups in part due to speculation linking him to the Phoenix Suns’ expected head coaching search, according to NBA reporter Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report.
Highkin reported on social media that he had “heard a lot of chatter” suggesting Billups could be a top target for the Suns, who fired Mike Budenholzer after one season. That buzz may have prompted the Blazers to finalize an extension with Billups before the conclusion of the regular season.
Billups, who was hired by Portland in 2021, has guided the team through a rebuilding phase. The Blazers finished the 2024-25 campaign with the same 36-46 record as the Suns.
Despite finishing the season with just 36 wins, the Trail Blazers extended both general manager Joe Cronin and Billups, a move that would be unusual for most teams in a similar position.
As The Athletic’s Jason Quick reported , this season marked Portland’s best record since 2020-21, and the organization believes it has taken a meaningful step forward. Young players such as Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson, and Donovan Clingan showed signs of development, while Deni Avdija delivered a breakout campaign and Toumani Camara emerged as one of the league’s top perimeter defenders.
Cronin said the front office is shifting away from talent accumulation toward more targeted roster building.
“As a front office, we don’t feel that pressure to take swing after swing to try and hit on the next up-and-coming guy,” Cronin said. “We are starting to feel really comfortable with our talent base that we can be more diligent about adding specific types of guys.”
While the Blazers appear to have a solid foundation, the question of whether a true franchise player will emerge remains. Cronin and Billups expressed confidence in the roster’s long-term potential.
“There’s a lot of talent on this roster, and I wouldn’t put ceilings on a lot of these guys,” Cronin said. “There is still a lot of time and talent that can be maximized.”
Added Billups: “It’s true you need to have top-flight guys, but to me, we are raising that, we are growing that. I look at Oklahoma City — they traded for (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander), but he wasn’t a star yet. Now he’s probably going to be the MVP. Joker (Nikola Jokic) wasn’t a star when he got to Denver. They raised him into that. (Giannis Antetokounmpo) wasn’t a star when he got to Milwaukee. They raised him into that. That’s where I think we are trying to go … Deni, Shaedon, Scoot, Ant (Anfernee Simons) … We are raising those guys.”
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