Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Jason Kidd is expected to draw interest from the Portland Trail Blazers to become their next head coach.
Kidd, who was previously a head coach for the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks, is expected to interview for the Boston Celtics head coach opening and is expected to be a top target of the Trail Blazers with the anticipation that Terry Stotts will be relieved of his duties after nine seasons with the team, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports.
The Lakers front office has “raved” about Kidd’s phenomenal presence in the organization from his innovative ideas to his communicating skills and to his ability to rally the troops, and therefore, believe that he should be a top candidate among all available NBA coaching gigs, Haynes also notes.
Stotts has led the Trail Blazers to eight straight playoff appearances, but they’ve been knocked out in the first-round in five of those seasons, including four times in the last five years.
In the other three years, they were knocked out in the Western Conference semifinals twice (2014, 2016) and Western Conference Finals once (2019).
The Trail Blazers’ playoff record is 22-40 in those eight years.
Stotts, who has one more year on his contract with a team option for 2022-23, addressed his future with the team.
“My job security? I’m under contract … I’m sure just like at the end of every year, we are all evaluated,” said Stotts. “The players, coaches, management, we are all evaluated. We will see what happens. At the end of the season, when you lose, everyone is evaluated. When we lost to New Orleans (in 2018), got swept by New Orleans, we were all evaluated. So we will see what happens.”
