Portland Trail Blazers Extend Terry Stotts’ Contract as Head Coach
For leading the Portland Trail Blazers to a successful season and a nice playoff run, head coach Terry Stotts has been given a two-year contract extension by the franchise.
The new deal has been reported first by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports and reportedly has been finalized on Thursday.
The Trail Blazers went 54-28 in the 2013-2014 regular season and went into the West Playoffs as the 5th seed. They pulled off a minor upset over the fourth seeded Houston Rockets in the first round of the postseason finishing the best-of-seven series in six games.
The playoff series victory was a first for the franchise since 2000.
“Terry has done an outstanding job during his first two years with the organization. This extension illustrates our confidence in him as our head coach as well as the Portland Trail Blazers' continued commitment to building a model of consistency and stability." Portland general manager Neil Olshey said in an official statement.
Stotts, who is a former NBA player, was an assistant coach for the Seattle SuperSonics and Milwaukee Bucks from 1992 to 2002. He had his first head coaching gig for the Atlanta Hawks (2002-2004) before going to the Bucks as head mentor (2005-2007). He has been with the Trail Blazers since 2012.
Stotts continued tenure in Portland should bode well for a franchise which has seen the rise of stars in LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard-- both of whom have had great postseason performances in the 2014 NBA Playoffs.