Terry Stotts has led the Portland Trail Blazers since the 2012 season, and during that period, the team has won a lot of games and has remained a mainstay in the Western Conference playoff image. Despite this, Portland has failed to make the transition from a consistently strong team to one of the best in the Western Conference, and as a result, Stotts’ tenure with the team could be coming to an end soon, according to a recent article in The Athletic.
Sam Amick and Shams Charania took the temperature of a number of possible coaching vacancies across the league, beginning by stating that Stotts is expected to leave after this season. There is, however, one chance for him to save his job: “If Stotts can’t ‘pull a rabbit out of his hat’ with a playoff miracle of sorts, as one source put it, the Blazers are expected to opt for a new coaching voice,” they wrote.
The situation was compared to how another team under this ownership group, the Seattle Seahawks, brought in Pete Carroll to get the team over the hump and win a Super Bowl years earlier. People with coaching experience and others who will be taking over a squad for the first time are among the names currently connected to the job.
According to reports, Lakers assistant Jason Kidd, Hawks interim coach Nate McMillan, 76ers assistant Dave Joerger, Clippers assistant Chauncey Billups, and Spurs vice president of basketball operations Brent Barry are among the possible coaching candidates for the Trail Blazers.
Portland sits 36-29 on the season and are in seventh place in the Western Conference. The team is a game back of the 5-seed, though, and has a path to avoid the play-in tournament.