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Joel Freeland (right) is trying to model his game after Oklahoma City Thunder forward Nick Collison.

(Sean Meagher/Oregonlive.com)

LAS VEGAS — The transformation of Joel Freeland started two days after the end of the 2012-13 regular season.

When most of the

scattered across the globe to decompress from a disheartening end to the season, Freeland awoke in the morning, hopped in his car and drove to the team’s practice facility for a workout. He hoisted some jumpers and worked on his low-post game with assistant coach Dale Osbourne and went through a weight-lifting session with the strength and conditioning staff.

Then he said goodbye to Joel Freeland.

And hello to Nick Collison.

Since that day in the gym, and the week of workouts that followed, Freeland has washed the disappointment of his lackluster and

and embraced a new role. The player who used to be featured in the Spanish ACB League, the player who used to earn headlines with prolific scoring and gaudy statistics, has been replaced with a gritty, grimy, embrace-the-dirty-work persona. The player was replaced by Collison, Oklahoma City’s rugged and respected forward.

“This is the NBA,” Freeland said. “I don’t want to be hard-headed about things and look up and suddenly, after my contract is finished, find that my NBA career is over. Everyone that plays basketball wants to be in the NBA. I will do whatever it takes to be in the NBA. If it means helping the team in this way, with what I’m doing at the moment, I’m more than happy to do that.”

Blazers coach

and general manager Neil Olshey, who spotted a lot of similarities between Freeland and Collison, planted the seeds for the transformation last season. Stotts became all-too familiar with Collison’s understated yet impactful game when he coached for the Dallas Mavericks. The Thunder and Mavericks have had some memorable and heated matchups in recent seasons, including in the 2011 Western Conference Finals, and Stotts grew to appreciate the little things Collison did to affect the outcome of a game: set screens, play solid help defense, rebound, draw fouls and communicate on the floor.

Collison wasn’t a headline-grabber, but he was a solid player. And a winner. And although most people outside Seattle and Oklahoma City haven't necessarily noticed, he’s also had a long NBA career that will enter its 10th season in 2013-14.

“They were talking about Nick Collison a lot, comparing me to him and stuff,” Freeland said of Stotts and Olshey. “It was: Nick Collison, Nick Collison, Nick Collison.”

Near the end of the regular season, Freeland mentioned this to his European agent, Rafa Calvo, and Calvo dug up an article Collison

for GQ Magazine in 2012 titled: “How To Survive in the NBA When You’re Not a Superstar.” During the final season of his All-American career at Kansas, Collison averaged 18.5 points, 10.0 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. But when he arrived in the NBA, he quickly learned he would need to create a new identity if he wanted to last.

“The guys who have success in the league and stick around are the ones who understand how to make themselves valuable to an organization,” Collison wrote in the magazine, before adding.”If you can become really good at things like screening, passing, defending pick and rolls, communicating, boxing out and rotating defensively, you can have a huge effect on your team winning a game. If those parts of your game become a habit and you develop consistency, you are going to be valuable to your team and have a long career.”

As Freeland read Collison’s story, something resonated. Sure, he had developed into the

. Yes, he had been a star on the Olympic stage, finishing with 25 points and seven rebounds in a game against Spain, which featured the talented interior duo of Marc and Pau Gasol. But if Freeland learned nothing else during an underwhelming rookie season in which he played just 51 games and averaged a pedestrian 2.6 points and 2.3 rebounds, he would not have that type of impact in the NBA.

So he digested Collison’s words and decided to become that type of player, a fact that makes Stotts giddy.

“You see how effective he’s been in his career,” Stotts said of Collison. “It took a while for him to find his niche, but I think Joel has a lot of the same attributes. He’s a good midrange shooter. He’ll do the dirty work. He’s a smart player. He’s hardworking. He’ll do what you want him to do. He can fill that role. He can be a similar player.”

and

have drawn most of the headlines for the Blazers in Las Vegas. But Freeland has quietly played well, revealing significant growth in virtually every aspect of his game. He’s averaging just 6.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game. But, behind the scenes, coaches have praised him as much as anyone on the team for filling his role: setting hard and textbook screens, fighting for defensive positioning, talking on defense and altering shots with perfectly timed defensive rotations and perfectly executed leaps at the rim.

And Freeland has relished it all.

“I’ve always been a player that likes to hit first,” Freeland said. “I like the dirty work. I’m not a dirty player, but I like to be in the mix of things all the time, hitting people and playing physical. I like that type of game.”

Freeland’s rookie season was a disappointment. His confidence was dented, his resolve tested. But he’s determined not to be a bust, and the inspirational words of Collison could become the defining message of his career.

“He was in a very similar situation to what I’m in and what I’ve been in the past year,” Freeland said. “I can relate to it a lot. The difficulties that he had coming into the league and realizing that he had to adjust his game if he wanted to stay in the league. That’s what I’m starting to realize. Like I said, I want to be here and I want to be playing in this league for as long as I can. Sometimes you have to sacrifice and check your ego and that’s what I’m going through at the moment.”

--Joe Freeman