According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line, Terry Stotts is gunning for the Portland Trail Blazers coaching vacancy. He would return to Portland – a place he coached for nine years, making the playoffs right times – and re-join Damian Lillard. And ironically, should Stotts make the return, this may be the best roster he and Lillard have ever had in Portland.
Those years with CJ McCollum, Jusuf Nurkic, and even LaMarcus Aldridge were fine. The Blazers even made the Western Conference finals. But this Blazers team has more talent. From Deni Avdija to Toumani Camara to Shaedon Sharpe to Donovan Clingan, it has more depth. Lillard is much older than he was during the prime Portland years, but this could be a new chance at greatness.
And if Stotts returned, it would be like the Blazers finally built an even better roster around Lillard. One they tried to build for years.
Blazers finally have the pieces for a deep playoff run
Stotts’ time in Portland was a relative success. He never helped Portland win a championship, but their Western Conference finals birth in 2019 was the organization’s first since 2000.
However, outside of that, the Blazers were a first-round exit in five of the other seven years. So, they eventually decided to move on from Stotts, and when that didn’t work, they moved on from Lillard, too.
McCollum wasn’t enough. Aldridge wasn’t enough. Enes Freedom, Seth Curry, and Al-Farouq Aminu weren’t enough. Portland just didn’t have enough firepower to get over the hump (especially when the hump at least partially consisted of the Golden State Warriors).
But now, Lillard is back. The Milwaukee Bucks waived and stretched him, and he signed a new deal with the Blazers. And Stotts is eyeing a return, too, after spending one year in Milwaukee and three with the Golden State Warriors, all as an assistant.
“Former Blazers head coach Terry Stotts is indeed trying to get the Portland job for the second time after leaving his post this week as an assistant on Steve Kerr's Golden State staff,” Stein wrote. “Stotts acknowledged as much in the below conversation with longtime Portland columnist Dwight Jaynes via Jaynes' own Substack.”
Avdija is an All-Star. Sharpe looks like he could be one someday. Clingan is transforming into a great big man. Camara is a premier defender. Even Scoot Henderson showed some promise in the postseason. And then there’s Jrue Holiday, who, once upon a time, helped end Portland’s postseason hopes by clamping up Lillard in the first round.
As funny as it may sound, and as old as Lillard now is, this would be the most well-constructed roster Stotts and Lillard would have ever had in Portland.
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