Portland Trail Blazers forward Nassir Little entered training camp with zero track record with new coach Chauncey Billups.

But it took just a couple of days of training camp for Little to catch Billups’ eye and establish himself as a potential rotation player .

Then Monday night happened. Little, the first man off the bench in the Blazers’ 121-107 loss to the Golden State Warriors, struggled, making just 1 of 9 shots for three points and committing five turnovers.

“I was a little anxious,” Little said. “I was super excited to play.”

That excitement led to Little forgetting what had built his profile with Billups in the first place. Tough, aggressive, sound, fundamental basketball backed by athleticism. On Wednesday, Little saw his errors on video, received constructive criticism and then hit the practice court .

“In basketball, you can’t take certain things personally,” Little said.

Little is very much a wild card on this team. The Blazers’ first-round pick in 2019 appeared in 48 games as a rookie while dealing with several injuries and setbacks. His shot was off (23.7% on 3s). His comfort level never developed while seeing just 11.9 minutes per game. The athletic wing worked on his game all offseason only to miss all of training camp in 2020 after testing positive for COVID-19. He recovered, played in 48 games and demonstrated improvement as a shooter (35% on 3s), but he couldn’t work his way into former coach Terry Stotts’ regular rotation come the latter part of the season.

This year, Little is taking full advantage of having a full training camp.

Several players on the team said they noticed right away that Little was a different player than the one they saw last season.

“Confidence,” forward Robert Covington said. “ His whole demeanor has changed and that’s a big thing.”

Little is taking the criticism of his early preseason performance well.

“It’s all a process of getting better,” Little said. “Anything that somebody tells me is all constructive criticism. I take it for what it is. I learn from it. Just keep moving forward.”