Portland Trail Blazers: Terry Stotts 2012 -2021
Teresa Powe
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Terry Stotts has been relieved of his duties as Head Coach of the Portland Trail Blazers. Is this a move that should have happened sooner, or is Stotts a scapegoat?
Terry Stotts and Damian Lillard came to the Portland Trail Blazers the same year, 2012. Lillard has been a godsend to the franchise. I’m not so sure about Stotts. In researching this piece, I found that disturbingly, the Blazers have a terrible postseason record that didn’t start when Stotts became the coach. It just continued.
The beginning
Stotts’ job as Head Coach of the Trail Blazers is also his only head coaching job. The best thing that could happen to him was that they drafted Damian Lillard earlier that Summer. Judging from the records, Lillard is the reason Stotts lasted as long as he did. During the same nine years that Stotts struggled during the postseason, Damian Lillard became a superstar.
Ten years before Stotts’ arrival, the Blazers missed the playoffs five times consecutively and exited the first round five times. So they’ve always been a little not good in the postseason.
The regular season
From their regular-season standings, fans would think Portland was a team to look out for and fear. They will take you down in the playoffs. Not so. During the eight years that Stotts took his team to the playoffs, they got out of the first round only three times. The season Dame gave that wave goodbye to Russell Westbrook was one of those times. Portland would go on that postseason to the Western Conference Finals, where the Golden State Warriors swept them.
The Blazers went to the playoffs every season because they finished their regular seasons as the West’s third, fourth or fifth seed. This season was the first time they finished at sixth. Twice they finished at eighth. Why?
Portland has the second-best backcourt in the NBA, second only to Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, the Splash Brothers. They’ve had some Hall of Fame players and still do. Why doesn’t that add up to at least the Western Conference Finals two or three times? At least in the regular season, they were the third seed!
What pieces are they putting around Dame and CJ? Thanks to acquiring Robert Covington, the Blazers have no upcoming first-round draft picks. How’s that working out for them? That’s for another piece.