Terry

Stotts

Before Stotts resigned, he held the title of assistant coach in Milwaukee heading into last season. Before that, he was the head coach in Portland for nearly a decade. Stackhouse has been the coach at Vanderbilt for the last five seasons, though that was a disappointing tenure. He had more success as the head coach of Raptors 905, where he won a championship and was the D-League Coach of the Year in 2017. They’ll both bring plenty of experience to Steve Kerr’s staff as they look to reload around Stephen Curry.

This will be Stotts’ second run in Milwaukee, as he was the team’s head coach during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons (146 games). His return will give first-year head coach Adrian Griffin an assistant who has 13 seasons of NBA head coaching experience, most recently leading the Trail Blazers from 2012 to 2021.

Atkinson reportedly accepted the Hornets head coaching job on June 10, agreeing to a four-year deal. But since that agreement, he added an NBA title to his resume as an assistant on Steve Kerr’s coaching staff, and he has decided to remain with the Warriors. Mike D’Antoni and Terry Stotts were the other two finalists for the Hornets job, so it’s likely that one of those two will be the pick of Michael Jordan and GM Mitch Kupchak.

The Jazz have made it clear that they will take their time with this process, and their initial interview list tells us that they will cast a wide net. They have requested to interview a number of assistant coaches including Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant, Bucks assistant Charles Lee, Celtics assistants Joe Mazzula and Will Hardy, and Jazz assistants Alex Jensen and Lamar Skeeter. They will also reportedly interview former Blazers head coach Terry Stots. According to Woj, the list will continue to grow, so don’t expect any decisions from Utah any time soon.

Stotts was a finalist for the Lakers job, which ultimately went to former Bucks assistant Darvin Ham. He is now one of the early candidates for the Jazz opening, with the initial list including two assistants with prior ties to the organization. Johnny Bryant was on Quin Snyder’s staff before moving to New York, where he is now Tom Thibodeau’s top assistant for the Knicks. The other name with prior Jazz connections is current assistant Alex Jensen. Also mentioned in connection with the job search are Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, and Celtics assistant Will Hardy.

Golden State’s Kenny Atkinson, Milwaukee’s Darvin Ham and Stotts have already been named finalists for the coaching job, but Stotts was the first one to complete the in-person portion of the interview. Stotts is reportedly intrigued with potentially coaching Russell Westbrook and believes he can help him be more effective and comfortable with his role than he was last season, which is undoubtedly a main area of concern for the team. The other two should go through with their interviews soon as the Lakers try to find a perfect fit to follow up what ended up being a disastrous 2021-2022 campaign.

Stotts joins Darvin Ham as known finalists for the position. Both have also interviewed to fill Charlotte’s head coaching vacancy. Stotts’ head coaching experience should help him land a job this summer. He made the playoffs in eight of his nine years as head coach of Portland, including a trip to the Western Conference Finals. Could he do more with the Lakers? We’ll see what Jeanie Buss and company decide.

Stotts coached the Blazers for nine years before losing his job and not leading a team this season. He helped Portland to eight playoff appearances, including making the Western Conference Finals in 2019. His experience would help a Charlotte team that has had their season end in the play-in tournament the past two seasons.

Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the Pacers are putting a premium on coaches with previous head coaching experience after going through the debacle with Nate Bjorkgren this past season, and while these three will interview sometime this week, we’d expect more names to be added to the list throughout the summer. The Pacers are just starting their head coaching search, so we wouldn’t anticipate a definitive decision anytime soon.

Earlier Wednesday, Woj reported that the Pacers were looking to hire an “experienced and established” head coach to replace Nate Bjorkgren in Indiana. Stotts would certainly fit that description as he has 13 years of NBA head coaching experience and has been at the helm for the past nine years in Portland that has included 402 wins, the second-most in franchise history, and eight playoff appearances in nine seasons, including one trip to the Western Conference finals in 2019. Oh and to make things even more interesting, Stotts went to high school in Indiana at Bloomfield North. Should the Pacers offer Stotts the job, it would be hard to imagine him turning it down.