A Trail Blazers assistant general manager is moving from the front office to the sidelines for the coming season, according to the team, which announced today that Sergi Oliva has been named the new head coach of the team’s G League affiliate, the Rip City Remix (Twitter link).
Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link) and Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report reported the move ahead of the official announcement. Oliva is replacing Jim Moran, the former Rip City head coach who left the organization this offseason for a job with the Kings.
As Highkin explains, the Trail Blazers, with support from head coach Chauncey Billups, want to implement “new developmental strategies” at their G League affiliate that they feel will benefit the franchise in the long term. Oliva will lead those efforts.
While he has been a basketball operations executive since arriving in Portland in 2022, Oliva has previous coaching experience under Quin Snyder in Utah and Brett Brown in Philadelphia. His role with the Sixers was a dual coaching/front office position, Highkin notes.
According to Wojnarowski, the expectation is that Oliva will resume his assistant GM role with the Blazers at the end of the 2024/25 G League season, so the Remix will be in the market for a new coach at that time.
Justin Minaya and Bryce McGowens are currently on two-way contracts with Portland and figure to be regular contributors for Rip City this season. Henri Drell, who is on an Exhibit 10 deal, and Yongxi Cui, who reportedly reached an Exhibit 10 agreement with the Blazers, are other candidates to suit up for the Remix.