Micah Nori says the Blazers will go 10 deep, and every practice drill now ends with a rebound

PORTLAND, Ore. — Micah Nori has two days left before his first regular-season game as the Trail Blazers’ head coach, and he is not hiding how he plans to use his roster. Asked after Monday’s practice whether he still expects to play about 10 players a night, Nori did not hesitate. “Yes, I do,” he said. “I think for sure we will go 10 deep. Absolutely.”

Portland opens the season Wednesday at 7 p.m. PT against the Phoenix Suns at the Moda Center, and Monday’s work was mostly about the Blazers themselves. Nori said the staff added a few more defensive coverages and some new offensive actions and sets, with only a light look at what the first couple of opponents will show.

A deeper rotation by design

Nori’s case for a 10-man group is about the shape of the roster. Some teams, he said, are front-loaded and do not trust a ninth or 10th man. “I’m not saying their top eight is better than our top eight, but they might not have a nine and 10 that they feel comfortable playing,” he said. He has told his players the trade-off directly: each of them may lose two or three minutes, but should be fit enough to play hard for every one they get. “I think that they’ve really bought in, and we’ll see what it looks like,” he said.

When a reporter suggested Sidy Cissoko and Vit Krejci were the obvious ninth and 10th men behind a settled top eight, Nori agreed that “those two guys” are “probably right there.” Beyond them he listed situational options: Yang Hansen on nights Robert Williams III is out, Micah Potter when the Blazers need shooting or another vertical threat at forward, and Chris Youngblood. “It’s really a good problem to have,” Nori said, adding that trust gets built when those players get minutes in games that count.

He also expects the hard part to come later. Right now, he said, there are no minutes, wins, losses, starting group or closing group to argue about. The lesson he took from his years beside Chris Finch in Minnesota is to be blunt early. “Brutal truth,” Nori said. “If it’s fair and it’s truthful and you follow through with it, then it’s really hard for them to, they might be disappointed, but not to be pouty, upset and all that type of thing.”

Every drill ends with a rebound

The other theme was the glass. Nori brought up a line from Williams the day before, that the team needs to rebound, and said it is less about any one player trying harder than about everyone helping. Modern defenses ask big men to protect the rim and contest shots, which leaves guards boxing out centers late in possessions. “It’s so deflating when you work hard for 24 seconds,” he said. “They shoot one, next thing you know, they rebound, it’s a kick-out three.”

The fix is built into practice. “They say back in the day every drill is a passing drill,” Nori said. “There’s no difference now. Every drill ends with a rebound.” Live half-court and full-court work has to be played all the way through the possession, so players learn where misses go.

Conditioning, Cissoko and a no-cliques room

Nori credited the strength and performance staff with a preseason that leaned on extra scrimmage time instead of old-fashioned sprints, which he said “helped immensely.” He singled out Cissoko, who the Blazers want to guard “damn near five positions.” Nori said his energy and defense will keep him on the floor, but that his shot has come along and he can be a catch-and-shoot threat. “When he misses, he misses long and short,” Nori said. “You got to worry about guys that miss left and right.”

He described a locker room with “no cliques,” where any mix of players can be found talking in the training room. “We really do not have one bad person or individual in the group,” he said, crediting the front office for the type of people it brought in.

On the injury front, Nori said Youngblood, who tweaked his Achilles, practiced a little on Monday, and that Potter is still getting back to full strength after being sick at the end of the preseason road trip.