The Trail Blazers appear to have retaliated by becoming more aggressive in their wooing of Clippers assistant Chauncey Billups after Dallas rushed to hire the candidate that Portland star Damian Lillard went out on a limb to promote in the media.
Lillard made it clear that he wanted Kidd to replace Terry Stotts when Portland parted ways with him shortly after their first-round loss to the Nuggets. Kidd would eventually withdraw from the race, leaving the Trail Blazers without a clear frontrunner, though Lillard had mentioned Billups as someone he’d like to see. All of that changed late Friday, according to a new report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Sam Amick, and Shams Charania of The Athletic, when Billups emerged as the leading candidate for the job.
Billups brings little coaching experience but enormous pedigree as the 2004 NBA Finals MVP. He was previously a serious candidate to run the Cavaliers’ front office as well as for a head coaching job in Indiana before taking a gig as an assistant on Tyronn Lue’s Clippers staff, where he is currently a key voice on a stacked staff for a conference finalist team.
Much is still expected to be explored in Portland, including the viability of the Lillard-CJ McCollum backcourt and looming free agency decisions on Zach Collins and Norman Powell.
