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Tiago Splitter took over as interim head coach in October after Chauncey Billups was arrested as part of a federal investigation into illegal gambling activities. In Billups’ absence, Splitter coached the Trail Blazers to a 42-40 record and the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2021. While Splitter remains a candidate for the full-time job, the franchise opened its search before the season ended, a practice that is frowned upon league-wide. “The amount of disrespect (toward Splitter) that’s going on is beyond description,” a league source told Quick. “It’s like, every day, a new name is coming up. It’s the most vicious thing I’ve encountered in 30-plus years.”
Brenna Greene: More from Lillard on Chauncey Billups: "It was tough for me. I didn't even think about it from a basketball standpoint... I just felt bad for him having to experience that and that it had come to that."
More from Lillard on Chauncey Billups:
— Brenna Greene (@BrennaGreene_) April 30, 2026
"It was tough for me. I didn't even think about it from a basketball standpoint... I just felt bad for him having to experience that and that it had come to that." https://t.co/zswSlOm7yl pic.twitter.com/yFXWWoioaO
To wit: The Blazers are the only NBA team in the playoffs who are not traveling their two-way players, a move to save on hotels and food first reported by The Rose Garden Report. Also, the team’s traveling party of support staff was trimmed — the award-winning team photographer and digital reporter did not travel with the team for its playoff series in San Antonio. And as Splitter has done an admirable job as interim coach — he was thrust into the position before the season’s second game when Chauncey Billups was arrested by the FBI in a gambling probe — Dundon has conducted a phone-book’s worth of interviews with college and pro coaches, breaching the etiquette that sitting NBA coaches are usually afforded.
Sean Highkin: "(Shaedon Sharpe)’s the most talented player on the entire roster. The athleticism, the dunks, the highlights, he's gotten more efficient as a shooter year over year. He has the physical tools to be a really elite defender. But the issue has been general effort and focus. Last season, the day that their second-half run started, Chauncey (Billups) told us he was moving Shaedon to the bench and putting Kris Murray in the starting lineup. He said publicly he hadn't liked the way Shaedon had been engaged on defense. Shaedon responded, won his job back, but it's kind of come and gone since then. If you put Scoot (Henderson)'s attitude, mentality, and work ethic in his body, he would be Anthony Edwards."
League sources say Dundon has been actively exploring the coaching market to get a better sense of Portland's potential options at season's end. Tiago Splitter entered Sunday's play with a record of 40-37 as Portland's interim coach after Chauncey Billups — following the Blazers' Opening Night loss to Minnesota — was placed on indefinite leave by the NBA with Billups under investigation as part of a federal gambling probe.
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Chauncey Billups was back in court Wednesday, along with multiple other defendants, for a status hearing in the federal case against an alleged poker-rigging scheme -- or Operation Royal Flush, as the Department of Justice announced in October. Billups, who was alleged to be a "face card" in the scheme, a well-known person used to attract players to rigged games, pleaded not guilty in November. On Wednesday, as he returned to court for an update on the case, his former backcourt-mate with the Detroit Pistons, Richard Hamilton, voiced his full support for Billups. "Chauncey's in a good place. We always have his back. Spoke to him multiple times," Hamilton told BetFTW and USA TODAY Sports. "So we're here to support him, but this ain't Chauncey. I know Chaunc. This ain't him. So, hopefully everything works out and everybody in the world realizes that Chauncey's one of the better people in this world."
Sean Highkin: The judge in the poker case involving Chauncey Billups said during today's hearing that the proposed start date for the trial is November 2. Prosecutors say they're in the process of offering plea agreements to many of the defendants. Next status hearing is scheduled for June 11.
Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier will return to court this week in Brooklyn as they and more than 30 other people indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice appear in front of federal judges for updates on their cases. Billups, a Basketball Hall of Famer, and Rozier, a Miami Heat guard, have seen their cases move slowly toward trials as their lawyers and federal prosecutors trade legal filings and discovery.
Billups' only words that day were his plea on the charges against him. His attorney, Marc Mukasey, offered no comment when entering and exiting the courthouse. It will be a long time before anyone fully knows how Billups allegedly became involved in this scandal and the extent to which he was. It's a process that could take years. In the courtroom, the judge put a protective order on the evidence in the case disseminated to attorneys -- which prosecutors say includes a terabyte of bank records, surveillance photos and other electronic data -- and said he hoped a trial could begin in September.
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Ron Naclerio was one of the people who appeared in court in November to show support for a man he met nearly three decades earlier. The legendary coach of Benjamin Cardozo High in Queens first met Billups when he was a star point guard coming out of Colorado and trained him for the 1997 NBA draft. "He saw me, we hugged, and I said, 'I know you're going through hell, but just keep going,'" Naclerio told ESPN. "Then his lawyer came over to me and thanked me for showing up." As Billups and his family exited the courtroom, throngs of cameras and people followed as Billups went to post his $5 million bail. "It was overwhelming," Naclerio said. "I mean, it's obvious for a guy that used to get stopped to do interviews for winning an NBA championship or the Hall of Fame announcement, to get bombarded for something like this. I just said, 'Wow, the bombardment now is such a low compared to the highs that he's had.'"
Billups used a mouse he owns in Colorado as collateral for the bond, which was signed in court by his wife and daughter Sydney.
Billups has been in one of his two Colorado houses for the past several months, according to sources with direct knowledge of his whereabouts. The 15,000-square-foot Greenwood Village estate he purchased in 2007 was used as collateral for his $5 million bond. He sold his Lake Oswego, Oregon, house for $4.275 million shortly after his arrest and indefinite unpaid leave from his head coaching job with the Trail Blazers.
He spends his days quietly, according to sources close to him, with his family and friends in the Denver area, playing golf, watching games and communicating with a handful of NBA brethren. The terms of his release restrict him from traveling outside the United States, and any state or city other than Colorado, California, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington D.C. or New York City.