The Portland Trail Blazers held their third day of training camp in Tualatin on Thursday as they prepare for the 2026-27 NBA season. Following the day’s work, Blazers head coach Micah Nori, Scoot Henderson and Deni Avdija met with reporters for media availability.
While I wasn’t able to make it out to Tualatin this time around, through the modern power that is YouTube, we can still bring you the videos and some quotes from the session. Those are posted for your viewing pleasure below.
No Sugarcoating
Blazers fourth-year
guard Scoot Henderson talked about a number of topics during his six-minute interview: how camp is going, his experience playing with Ja Morant, his contract extension situation and more. He also gave a rave review of his new head coach. Here’s what Scoot had to say about Micah Nori:
“I love Micah, I like Micah. I like his culture style. He’ll get into ya and then also cheer you up. We don’t need anybody sugarcoating, especially with the team we have. We can’t have any sugarcoating, lenient type of guy in charge at this point. I feel like we need a guy that’s Micah Nori.”
Scoot “Russell Westbrook” Henderson
During his nine-minute media session, Nori also showed some love to Henderson by saying he’s been “phenomenal” during camp and comparing his game to a former MVP’s.
“I think Scoot to me is more of a combo-type guy than just a true point guard, and I think he would agree with that,” Nori said. “So I told him ‘I don’t need you to worry about everybody else as far as facilitating and orchestrating. We will get stuff off of you pushing pace and being who you are.’ I think the one way that he can look to play is — in my mind, it’s not that far-fetched — I kind of look at him like a Russell Westbrook-type player. He can be very dominant on both sides of the floor. He can also impact the glass. He’s a strong, athletic guy.”
Deni Avdija, Complete Player
2026 All-Star Deni Avdija spoke with reporters for eight minutes. Among other topics, he talked about how his intentions to be a more complete player on both ends of the floor this season.
“I definitely had a lot of offensive load last year, especially during the middle of the season, I had all of the back injury stuff that kinda held me back,” Avdija said. “But at the end of the day, I’m trying to be a complete player on both ends of the floor. I’m trying to be a good defensive player and just continue what I do on offense. It doesn’t have to disturb my defense. I’m gonna work on my shape. I’m gonna compete every possession. I think this year, I’ll try to make the next step on the defensive end. … I think the next step for me is to be a complete player.”
