Article from espn.com on Portland wanting to take their team to the next level. Here is an excerpt on their mindset defensively:
Regardless, Portland will have to take another step forward from a year ago to challenge the likes of L.A. And to do that, it's counting on improving the defense -- again, a goal about which Pritchard, McMillan and the key players seemed to be in lockstep agreement.
"For most teams, when they took that next step, when they won consistently and they won big, those stars that team had committed to the defensive end of the floor," McMillan said. "It seems to me every team that wins the title, they end up talking about how they committed to the defensive end."
"Two years ago when Boston won it, some key guys who weren't really known for playing defense, that's all they talked about, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. Kobe talked about it this past year. You're going to need offense, but those teams that seem to commit to the defensive end of the floor, they've taken steps to put themselves in a position to win [a title]."
He's walking the walk on that front, too. McMillan devoted the entirety of Portland's first practice on Tuesday to defense.
