Blazers’ Robinson Banks On High Hopes

Clifford Robinson looked around at all the new faces at the Portland training camp and pronounced himself ready to play one final season with the Trail Blazers.

“We’ve got a lot of new talent out there and I’m really looking forward to the season,” Robinson said after the training camp opened Friday at Linfield College. “We can make some things happen.”

Robinson is one of just seven players back from last year’s team, and his future remains uncertain. Upset over the failure of Portland to renegotiate his contract, Robinson wanted to be traded over the summer.

Now, he’s willing to wait to test the free-agent market when his contract expires at the end of the season.

“I still want more money,” Robinson said. “That’s not going to change. But right now, it makes no sense for me to get blown out of shape about it. I’m here to play. I’m going to enjoy myself.”

Portland coach P.J. Carlesimo said Robinson is in the best shape he’s been at the start of any of Carlesimo’s three training camps with the Blazers. The fact that Robinson is playing out his contract should help his motivation, not hurt it, Carlesimo said.

“I’d be more concerned about a guy who’s just signed a 10-year contract for $20 million a year,” Carlesimo said. “I wouldn’t be concerned about a guy who’s in the last year. I think he’s going to bring it.”

A dozen of the 19 players on the training camp roster are new to the team, including high-profile newcomers Kenny Anderson, Isaiah Rider, Rasheed Wallace and Jermaine O’Neal.

Anderson, the new starting point guard signed to a seven-year, $40 million contract as a free agent, said he likes what he sees as far as talent goes.

“I’m really excited to be a part of it,” Anderson said. “Hopefully, we can mesh as a team. It’s tough and you’ve got to be patient, but this is the NBA. These guys are talented and they should learn quick.”

Carlesimo said he liked what he saw in the opening practice session “from the standpoint of the talent and the competitiveness and the enthusiasm that comes with youth.”

Arvydas Sabonis, Anderson and probably Robinson are assured starting jobs. But the rest of the regular rotation is up for grabs.

“With a younger team and so many guys competing either for making the team or playing time, it’s going to keep people hungry,” Carlesimo said.

Rider, who said he’s happy to be in an organization with a reputation for winning after three seasons in Minnesota, said he knows that he has to earn his spot.

“Nothing’s a given here. Nothing,” Rider said. “You’ve got to beat the guy who’s in front of you. You’ve got to be better than him every day. That’s the way I look at it.”

Sabonis, on the cover of the team’s press guide, said he got about three weeks of rest this summer after helping Lithuania win the bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics. Still, he thinks he can play significant minutes throughout an NBA season, despite the nagging soreness that results from years of serious injuries.

“In Europe, you know, I played 40 minutes,” he said. “Here, maybe 30.” He averaged just under 24 minutes a game last season.

In the corner of the Linfield gym, O’Neal, the first-round draft pick who won’t turn 18 for another nine days, couldn’t help but be a little in awe.

“When I saw Sabonis and Isaiah Rider and Kenny Anderson - I’ve been watching them on TV for a couple of years,” O’Neal said. “It just makes me happy to be out here.”