Despite the team’s recent struggles, the Portland Trail Blazers are good at developing young talent, argues John Hollinger of the Athletic. As one of two teams in the league without a G-League affiliate—the other being the Denver Nuggets—the Blazers have to rely on their own structures to help develop players. Hollinger notes that patience is a key ingredient in Portland’s approach to player development.
Digging in, it’s notable that Portland’s and Denver’s approaches are pretty dissimilar, despite their ultimate success.
Portland doesn’t have specific player development coaches; Denver does. Portland rarely assigns players to the G League for long; Denver has been much more liberal about sending them out for a while.