Portland Trail Blazers to chose between
Terry Stotts and Kaleb Canales as their head coach – NBA Update
As of Wednesday, the Portland Trail Blazers have moved one step closer to finding their new permanent head coach, ending the search that has been going on since March. According to confirmed reports, the franchise has shortlisted
the list of candidates down to two.
The list includes Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Terry Stotts and the present interim Trail Blazers coach Kaleb Canales.
The 54 year old Stotts has been around the NBA for quite some time. Prior to joining the Mavericks last season, he served as a head coach with the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks and held a win-loss record of 114-168 in four
seasons.
He has been a part of the Mavericks franchise for one season only and had come to serve as an assistant to Rick Carlisle following the departure of Dwane Casey from the 2011 Championship winning team.
However when the opportunity to become a head coach with the Blazers presented itself, Stotts could not resist at all and even got a recommendation from Carlisle as reported by ‘The Oregonian’.
"Of all the coaches presently in play, Terry is by far the best available." – Carlisle had said nearly a month back.
According to the same sources, Stotts has been interviewed a total of three times before and had been finalized among the top four candidates for the position following an interview last week.
On the other hand, Canales served as an interim head coach with the Blazers from March, when Nate McMillan was fired due to slide in the fortunes of the team. By taking over the head coaching position, Canales became the first
Mexican-American to achieve that feat in the NBA.
His interim tenure was tough though and saw him take over a team plagued with injuries especially to All-Star big man LaMarcus Aldridge. Despite ending the season with a win loss record of 8-15, Canales had earned the respect of
the Blazers rosters because of coaching style and the ability to get his message through.
Before taking on as an interim head coach, Canales had been the assistant coach – a position he occupied in 2009 after being promoted from a video intern.
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