Jay Triano leaves for associate HC position with Phoenix

Time to see if Stotts is the Dame of head coaches.

 

Yeah he's going to be missed big time if he goes (and why wouldn't he?). He always seems to have some great feedback for Dame.

 

Wasn't that Terry Stotts' job title in DAL before he came to POR. I think it's just a way to designate who the lead assistant coach is who will take over when the head coach gets tossed.

BNM

 

Pretty common. When you have a lot of unexpected success the extended coaching staff is going to be the beneficiaries. And Neil was just bragging about the pay structure for the Blazers as well..... But my only problem with this is that it mirror's last year's player defections. Why are we always the leaving point but never the destination? That's troubling.

 

Who the hell is going to replace him, and who will replace Vanterpool if he leaves. This is not good news at all...

 

Who hired these guys? Oh yeah, the same two still in charge. Not worried. You're naive if you think they don't have a list of replacements.

Portland is an ideal landing spot for any assistant coach btw. They should have their pick.

 

Perhaps this is an opportunity to bring in someone like Frank Vogel as a defensive specialist assistant coach.

BNM

 

Exactly

 

Name some names. I'm worried because I'm not aware of anyone out there better than Triano. Dude's coach of the Canadian national team for a reason.

 

You guys think Vogel is looking to go to an assistant coaching position with so many head coaching vacancies around the league?

 

He'd definitely prefer a head coaching job, who wouldn't, but that may not be an option. I mean look at the guy we're losing. He was a head coach in TOR for three seasons, but had to accept an assistant coaching role here, or he'd be out of the league.

The guy who replaced Triano in TOR, Duane Casey, was a head coach in MIN followed by 3 years as an assistant in DAL before he landed the TOR head coaching job.

Our own Terry Stotts has gone from assistant coach to head coach to assistant coach to head coach to assistant coach to head coach over the course of his career. He's a prime example of a guy who accepted his "demotions" from head coach to assistant coach multiple times, but just kept plugging away and learning from each situation he was in to refine his coaching skills.

Hell, even Vogel's rumored replacement in IND had to bide his time as an assistant before returning to a head coaching role.

There are simply way more guys who would like to be head coaches than there are available jobs. That means guys like Triano, Stotts, Casey, McMillan and perhaps Vogel often end up having to accept assistant coaching roles. That's just the reality of their profession.

BNM

 

Good point about Terry and McMillan spending time as assistants before returning to HC duties.

Right now there are what, 2 open head coaching jobs - Houston and Orlando?

Vogel seems to still be in the running for the Orlando position, but I haven't heard anything regarding him and Houston.

Orlando also seems to be considering promoting assistant coach Adrian Griffin to head coach. Seems like Griffin would stay in Orlando if Vogel get's the HC spot. In which case who are we left with to fill the assistant coach position?

I still feel like Vogel as an assistant coach is a bit of a pipe dream. I wont be surprised if Orlando announces his hiring some time in the next two weeks.

 

How about Mike Rice Jr?

 

Good post. Maybe Kaman really was offered an assistant coaching position opposed to big man coach which many suspect. I'm sure Olshey knew about this for a while, don't see any reason why Triano would leave him high and dry.

 

Wouldn't we still have Vanterpool and Tibbetts? I am sure there are lots of other young coaches around who we can grab. Maybe in the D league.

 

Has Kaman said anything about retiring? People keep acting like he is for sure retiring..

 

I think his play answered the question.

 

Not really though. I'm sure he could play another year or two if he got in good shape.

 

No he hasn't, but he did come in to Portland seeking a reduced minutes backup role. I think the fact that he was limited on the court last season means that the team sees him in a coaching position going forward. It just depends on where Kaman see's himself going forward. I don't think he's good for anything other than specialist minutes at this point (such as the LAC series). For that reason he could probably sign a contract with somebody, but my guess is he will choose to be part of the Blazers coaching staff.

 

Where's that over under thread? If Sly is coaching I got under whatever Vegas says