Talk to people around the league and the running joke is that new Portland Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon is shopping for the team’s next head coach at the 99¢ Store, trying to find a bargain. Dundon has denied he is trying to hire a coach on the cheap, and the latest report suggests he’s at least looking at a more expensive coach.
Current Clippers assistant and former Knicks head coach Jeff Van Gundy is one of the finalists for the Trail Blazers’ job, reports NBA insider Chris Haynes.
Van Gundy’s name has popped up in several job searches recently, though he hasn’t been a head coach in 19 years (his last head coaching job was with the Rockets in 2007). Since then, he has been a lead broadcast analyst for ESPN/ABC, before becoming the defensive coordinator on Tyronn Lue’s Clippers staff the past two seasons.
It is reported that Timberwolves lead assistant Micah Nori is another of the finalists for this job, as is Utah Jazz assistant coach Mike Williams and Boston assistant Tyler Lashbrook. Jerry Stackhouse is reportedly interviewing for the job. Also, there are multiple reports that interim coach Tiago Splitter is another finalist to keep his job. That comes despite league sources telling NBC Sports early in the process that Splitter — who did an impressive job considering he was thrown into the big chair after the arrest of Chauncey Billups one game into the season — was not a favorite of Dundon and the owner wanted to go in a different (ideally cheaper) direction. Apparently, things have changed.
Also, former Portland coach Terry Stotts — who spent last season on Steve Kerr’s bench in Golden State — said he would love to come back to Portland.
What all four of those coaches — Van Gundy, Nori, Splitter and Stotts — have in common is they are not coming to Portland on the cheap. The Trail Blazers will have to pay the going rate for an NBA coach.
What direction Dundon and the Trail Blazers ultimately go remains to be seen, but this is a roster with some promising young players such as Deni Avdija, plus quality veteran guards in Jrue Holiday and Damian Lillard (expected to return after missing all of last season with a torn Achilles).
