The Portland Trail Blazers will soon use the Idaho Stampede to allow several young players to receive playing time in the D-League.

Victor Claver, Joel Freeland, Will Barton and Nolan Smith care candidates to spend time in Idaho.

“We’re going to utilize the D-League when it’s appropriate, we want to use it when we’re not taking assets away from our team,” Neil Olshey said. “We’re looking to get the most bang for our buck.”

LaMarcus Aldridge sat out of the Portland Trail Blazers' loss on Sunday to the Nets with a back issue.

Aldridge said he "most likely" will play on Monday against the Pistons.

Aldridge hurt his back during the Blazers’ win over the Timberwolves on Friday night.

“By the time I got home, it was horrible,” Aldridge said. 

Aldridge had difficulty sleeping due to the back spasms.

“I woke up and I couldn’t function,” Aldridge said. “I couldn’t walk. And I was on the plane for five hours (traveling to New York), so that wasn’t good.”

Nicolas Batum signed a big contract in the offseason and has been producing career highs to start the season.

Batum ranks 11th in scoring, seventh in steals and fourth in minutes.

“It’s what people say about me and what people too scared to say it think about me: ‘Yeah, he’s been good, but it’s only been 11 games. We’re going to see the old Nicolas Batum soon,” said Batum. “But I’m going to try to avoid that. I’m not the old Nicolas Batum.”

“He’s such a unique player that you can do a bunch of different things with him,” Terry Stotts said. “His ability to shoot, his quickness to the rim, his length. As a coach, you see all the possibilities and you know it can’t happen all at once, but ... he’s doing a little bit of everything right now.”

Batum has been more aggressive, especially because he isn't deferring anymore to Brandon Roy or Gerald Wallace.

“I’m more free,” said Roy.

“Where I am right now is where I should be,” Batum said. “I just need to try to keep playing, be aggressive and try to produce every night. I’m a different player.”

Brandon Roy will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery this week.

Roy has undergone seven knee surgeries in his career, dating back to high school.

Roy has missed the last four games with soreness in his knee.

The Portland Trail Blazers lost to the Dallas Mavericks 114-91 in a game where Damian Lillard struggled.

Lillard scored 13 points on 2-for-13 shooting.

The Mavericks were aggressive defensively against Lillard, doubling him often to force the ball out of his hands.

“It’s part of my growth,’’ Lillard said. “Every team guarded me pretty much the same up until now, and now I have to learn and make adjustments. I have to adjust to how teams are going to stop me. They aren’t going to keep letting me do what I did every game.’’

“We anticipated them doing it, but we didn’t have enough time necessarily to prepare for it,’’ Terry Stotts said. “But I think more teams will do that and it’s one of the adjustments we need to anticipate.’’

Neil Olshey left the Los Angeles Clippers to become general manager of the Portland Trail Blazers in the offseason.

"After nine years, I had done everything I felt like I could do there," Olshey said Wednesday. "It would have been nice to enjoy the ride for the next period of time with the guys that we had acquired, but it was time for kind of a new challenge."

Olshey was reportedly offered a three-year, $3.6 million contract from the Blazers, while he only received a one-year, $750,000 offer from the Clippers.

Olshey compares the current state of the Blazers to where the Clippers were after the 10-11 season when they acquired Chris Paul via trade and also re-signed DeAndre Jordan.

"I don't know if we'll be that lucky here," Olshey said, referring to the Paul trade, "but we have the same flexibility. And that's all we're trying to create, is have a core group of players we're going to go forward with and then have the [salary] cap flexibility to involve ourselves in player acquisition deals."

"He did a tremendous job changing the perception of the organization and changing the culture," one NBA executive said of Olshey's work with the Clippers, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss a competitor. "He made the L.A. Clippers an organization that guys want to play for and that's no small task considering their history."

The Lakers-Blazers game on Wednesday was the highest-rated ever on NBA TV, which picked up the feed from Comcast Sports Northwest.

An estimated 847,000 watched the Blazers beat the Lakers by a final score of 116-106.

The game was the second for Dwight Howard and Steve Nash with the Lakers.