Zach Lowe of SI.com conducted a lengthy interview with new Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts, digging into some of his background as a basketball lifer and getting his thoughts on some key members of the 2012-13 squad. ------------------------------- SI.com: Sounds like you think Batum is ready to do more. Stotts: You take the contract out of the equation, and there are a lot of things he can become better at. I don’t want to limit him. I want him to post up, to get his own shot, to handle in the pick-and-roll. ... SI.com: Portland fans will kill me if I don’t ask for your opinion on Damian Lillard’s summer league play. Stotts: Obviously, he played really well. I was really anxious to see him, and not only because I was interviewing for the job out there in Vegas. It wasn’t one skill that stood out, as much as that it seemed to me that he had command of the game — of what he wanted to do. He took what the defense gave him, whether it was a jumper, a drive or a pass. SI.com: What about Leonard? Is he ready to play? Stotts: Two things stood out to me: He was athletic and he played hard. Those are things you don’t see in a lot of big guys like that. He has a lot of room to grow on both ends, but he tried. And I don’t mean that in a small way. When you have a big out there busting his ass, it matters. He screened really well and he ran the court. ------------------------------- -- Ben Golliver | benjamin.golliver@gmail.com | Twitter