1:35pm: New Mexico attempted to re-engage Borrego with a head coaching offer today, but the Spurs assistant will stay in San Antonio, as expected, reports Wojnarowski (via Twitter).
12:59pm: According to Jeff Goodman of ESPN.com (Twitter link), two of New Mexico’s top head coaching candidates are now out of the mix, and Borrego is “back in the fray,” so perhaps the school is making a renewed push to hire the Spurs assistant away from San Antonio.
12:22pm: Spurs assistant James Borrego had been considered a potential frontrunner for the University of New Mexico’s head coaching vacancy, but Borrego has decided to withdraw from the school’s search and remain in San Antonio, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.
Although Borrego will stick with the Spurs for now, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll remain in San Antonio for years to come. The 39-year-old assistant was interviewed by the Rockets and Grizzlies for their head coaching jobs last spring before those teams hired Mike D’Antoni and David Fizdale, respectively. Borrego made a good impression on both clubs and will likely remain a top coaching candidate going forward, according to Wojnarowski, who suggests that the veteran assistant will continue to explore head coaching opportunities as they arise.
After joining the Spurs in 2003 and spending seven seasons with the franchise, Borrego spent time with the Hornets and Magic between 2010 and 2015. In Orlando, he was Jacque Vaughn‘s top assistant and even served as the Magic’s interim head coach in 2015 after Vaughn was dismissed. The Magic had a 10-20 record in Borrego’s 30 games as head coach.
Borrego returned to the Spurs as an assistant on Gregg Popovich‘s staff in 2015 and has spent the last two seasons with the team.
While the NBA’s head coaching carousel this offseason likely won’t be as active as it was a year ago, when one-third of the league’s teams made changes, I’d still expect at least a couple teams to be in the market for a new coach in the coming weeks, so Borrego may draw interest once again.