10:01pm: The team has confirmed in a press release that Stotts will not return.
“I have the utmost respect for Terry and what he has accomplished these past nine seasons,” president of basketball operations Neil Olshey said in a statement. “This was a difficult decision on both a personal and professional level but it’s in the best interest of the franchise to move in another direction. Terry will always hold a special place in the Trail Blazer family and the Portland community. We relied on the integrity, professionalism and consistency he brought to the job every day and we wish he and Jan nothing but the best.”
9:40pm: The Trail Blazers and longtime head coach Terry Stotts have mutually agreed to part ways, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN tweets.
Stotts, 63, has been the team’s head coach since the 2012/13 season. Portland has qualified for the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons but only made the conference finals in 2018/19, when they were swept by the Warriors. The Blazers have been eliminated in the first round in two consecutive years, and four of the last five.
Clippers assistant Chauncey Billups, ABC broadcaster and former Rockets/Knicks head coach Jeff Van Gundy, former head coach and current Nets assistant Mike D’Antoni, and University of Michigan head coach and former Heat assistant Juwan Howard are expected to receive consideration for the job, Wojnarowski reports in a separate tweet.
The Blazers’ quick exit in this year’s playoffs was unexpected. They were facing a depleted Nuggets team, missing starting guards Jamal Murray and Will Barton, while all of their own starters were healthy. Despite some stellar performances from Damian Lillard, Portland was eliminated in six games.
Lillard has played under Stotts throughout his career. The All-Star point guard will have a major say on Stotts’ replacement, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets.
In his nine seasons with Portland, Stotts accumulated a regular-season record of 402-318 (.558). However, the Blazers went 22-40 (.355) in those postseason appearances. Stotts had one more guaranteed year on his contract, with a team option for 2022/23.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Blazers had to do something of significance. Couldn’t run it back again after 6 years of this stuff. They might even do more.. like trade cj.
Blazers need a improved vision from the GM First! New Head coach second.
It won’t take long for Stotts to get a new team as he is a good coach who got the ok when it came to leading the Blazers in the playoffs.
The Blazers need to trade C.J. ASAP if they want Lillard to stay on this team
I would agree, I think Stotts gets a new job pretty quick. Boston?
Orlando
Stotts is one of those high floor low ceing coaches, like Thibs or Steven’s.
Too bad. The number one problem of theirs is defensive players, not Stotts imo. They are 29th in defensive efficiency in NBA and it was clear when watching this series. Covington is good defender at SF, not at PF where they play him. Upgrade PF with and actually PF who defends and find a backup defensive guard. Also, Norman Powell is not the answer. Not sure why they traded Trent tbh, thought he had more potential.
Whomever they replace Melo with next season will be a defensive upgrade.
I get that Melo was horrible defensively but I would still keep him as a potential bench option for scoring. They are 2nd best offensive efficiency for a reason. But yeah point is Blazers need to upgrade defensive forwards asap
He’s just butt hurt that Melo didn’t want to play for that bum Houston organization.
It’s not just defense, did you watch the series, there were so many stretches where Dame was the only player on the team that cared to score. They need to get some young hungry good shooters, they need to let go Melo (Good story, bad fit), figure out if Nurkic has the capacity to be healthy (if not move on). I would trade CJ if you can get better, I doubt they can do anything that will result in chips, but they can’t blow it up in a small market, so make the moves to atleast contend for runs.
Portland scored 109 points or more in every single PO game, yet lost 4 of them. Yes, the main problem is defense, as it has been for the last few years.
“Covington is good defender at SF, not at PF where they play him”. I’d say this problem has to do with Stotts. Such as not playing Derrick Jones. Such as playing Dame, CJ and Powell in the same disastrously defensive unit. He has had 9 years to improve the defense of the team and has not been able to do so. It’s about time.
Terry Stotts, Boston Celtics new head coach. Headline and story forthcoming.
Seems like a good fit to me.
This had to be the first step. If its the only step, and they ask a new HC to get more out of the same group, then its next to meaningless. A new HC might help by actually being able to spell the word defense, but this group is destined to underachieve in that area.
Blazers GM is an imbecile… Couldn’t get Dame enough help after all these years???
Seems like a BIG mistake. I’m thinking something like Indiana firing McMillan level of mistake. Stotts will do wonders with a new team. I’d like to see what he could do with the talent in Minnesota.
They can’t fire the entire team except Dame so they blame the Coach.
Yeah, I agree. Not sure what more he could do with the rosters he’s had. Minnesota is an interesting choice and they’d be wise to try to get him.
Despite Lillard being there, this isn’t a very desirable job because the GM will (or at least should) be gone soon, too. They don’t have an abundance of moves they can make to get better, and picking in the bottom half of the first round for so long has prevented them from stockpiling talent or even developing quality rotation players. They need a lot of work.
Posted this on the other thread but I’ll retype here.
Portland and Dame = couple that should have split up two years ago, got comfortable, and keep deluding themselves things will get better with time.
Rip the band-aid off. There’s no avenue to build a contender around Dame there.
Facts! It takes rocket science level thinking to even ponder a way for them to get better in a real way, and there is no way to contend. Everyone saying move CJ, well sure, but his value isn’t nearly as high as you would think, what CJ fetches won’t make them contenders and they have no good young assets period.
dame is teaming up with 2 superstars next season!
He is on a very long term deal, so that will be tough and won’t happen unilaterally, the team would have to agree to move on (& do right by Dame).
POR has a cap problem, stuck with a star they cannot build around, and no defense. Time to tear it down.
Good coach but had to be done
Defense is terrible
They need a legit stopper on the wing
A lot of rumours about CJ plus bits for KAT….
KAT and Dame??? No doubt would be extremely talented and PG/C duos have been good lately but they would need defenders around them
They should of traded CJ long ago but they thought b that small backcourt would pay off. The Blazers eventually traded Drexler they should trade Dame.
Your right they should trade Dame, it would be good for them good for him good for basketball. However small market teams have a tough time and don’t move on from top 10 players.
They don’t have enough for KAT, but Wolves had a run at the end anyway, so he will be good with running it back with his BFF D’Angelo. Y’all are over stating CJ’S value, CJ is 29 and will be 30 when next season starts; 23 4 4 is nice but he disappeared in the playoffs again. I agree move CJ, but don’t be surprised when his value is less than.
They should hire D’Antoni so he can run Lillard into the ground without winning anything. That’s his m.o.
Ben Simmons/McCollum trade would help both teams
I was thinking Simmons, Thybulle, and picks for Lillard. I like CJ, but I don’t think he’d be enough for Ben since they somewhat shored up their shooting by adding Curry & Green (if they bring him back) this past offseason.
100% sir, Dame is a Superstar so 76er would do Dame for Ben, but CJ will be 30 in September he is a border-line star that underperforms in the playoffs and will not fetch a young star with huge potential like Simmions.
Sixers would include a guard like Shake. They wouldn’t deal their only wing defender outside of Ben.
IF you were to trade Dame. Who would you start over with? I don’t know if there are any actual Blazer fans that regularly comment here. Reasonable Trade Packages (excluding picks):
A. Jaylen Brown & Kemba (Add Nurkic to deal)
B. Ben Simmons
C. RJ Barrett & Toppin
D. John Collins & Cam Reddish
E. Brandon Ingram
F. Herro, Nunn, Robinson
If Dame gets traded it will be for a ton of picks and a really good young player that’s no older than 23, even 23 is pushing it, their rebuild in that market will be slow so they would be ultra careful with what they would accept.
All of the players I listed are in that age range and under contract or would be via sign and trade. Picks are a given. At least 1 1st needed in every package.
A) Kemba might be a sticking point. Also, opinions on Brown’s ceiling vary
B) This might make the most sense for both sides. Especially if Morey is feeling like he missed out on Harden (assuming Philly is bounced in the ECF)
C) I feel like Barrett isn’t enough for Portland but it’s also too much for NY.
D) Collins is like Brown, I think the opinions on his ceiling vary a lot. Not sure I’d want him as my best player on a rebuild.
E) One would assume NO has enough Lakers and Bucks picks to make this work. They’d be idiots not to offer everything they have to pair Dame with Zion.
F) If it was last summer, maybe. I can’t see Miami deluding another team into thinking Herro is a franchise guy this summer though.
Strictly from the Blazers’ standpoint, B. But I doubt the Sixers offer up Simmons for Lillard even straight up. C is certainly not available, as long as Rose is there, as the Knicks wouldn’t include Barrett in this type of trade. A is really good in that they would get a younger star (Brown), but taking back Kemba (similar skill set to Lillard, and making max) keeps them in the same guard situation and they may look the same.
@philly – I appreciate the effort, but none of those ideas make sense. A is never going to happen. The rest are light without multiple firsts.
Lillard is worth just as much as Harden was, if not more. Same with Jrue Holiday. It’s going to be insane levels of return.
A defensing coach like Jeff Vangundy, and a upgrade roster like Zack Levine, Duncan from the heat both are free agent can explore options.
Bulls will literally do anything to keep Lavine no way he walks from better money being the man and a franchise based on him. Also Blazers don’t have the money, and would have to move atleast CJ to even have a chance, and and the two guard thing clearly doesn’t work for the Blazers anyway.
The last thing Portland needs is another backcourt star who cannot defend. Players such as Lavine or Beal would do nothing to turn Portland into a contender.
Blazers could tried to trade for Butler and offered CJ and others to Philadelphia. Not sure if that package would be better than the Miami one. Dame and Butler in the same backcourt could of been very interesting.