Photo: Portland Trail Blazers/X

Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups sees a different type of confidence from Anfernee Simons this season.

(via Portland Trail Blazers):

Reporter: “What’s the difference between Anfernee now to when you first joined here?”

Billups: “Confidence would be the one word that I would give you. His confidence is totally different. He just believes that he’s one of the best players in the NBA, he believes that. And I’m always one that I believe and I tell people that, ‘If you believe that or you don’t believe that, there’s really no difference, you’re probably right. You don’t have the confidence to believe that and you think I’m not, then you probably won’t be. Confidence is a big thing.’ So the belief that he has in himself, he’s proven it a lot of nights in the NBA of who he can be, and I’m just proud of him. His voice, his confidence, his voice really picks up. He takes control of our huddles and stuff sometimes. He’s teaching some of the young guys. He’s teaching some of the new vets our stuff. You couldn’t get him to open up his mouth for weeks at a time when I first got here, so it’s a confidence thing.”