– The Portland Trail Blazers and head coach Terry Stotts have agreed to a contract extension, president of basketball operations Neil Olshey announced today.
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The Trail Blazers held a team option on Stotts’ services for next season.
Stotts finished second to Golden State’s Steve Kerr for NBA Coach of the Year, and has been the head coach in Portland for the past four seasons. The extension, first reported by Yahoo Sports, goes into effect following the season and runs through 2020.
Portland fell in five games to the defending National Basketball Association champion Golden State Warriors during the Western Conference semifinals. “I’m happy to be his point guard, and he’s more than deserving of an extension”.
And with Stotts proving over his four years that he can get the most out of the talent in front of him, the Blazers look like a power in the making in the West.
Despite losing a slew of key players to free agency last offseason including center Brook Lopez, power forward LaMarcus Aldridge and sharpshooter Nicolas Batum, the Trail Blazers finished the 2015-16 season as the fifth-seed in the Western Conference.
However, the Trail Blazers managed to edge the Los Angeles Clippers in six games in the opening-round before eventually clashing with the Warriors in the conference semifinals.
The Blazers faced Golden State in the second round, falling 3-1 to the defending National Basketball Association champions.
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“It’s really hard to put into words what he did with this group, because nobody expected us to do what we did”, Crabbe said. “And we stuck with that throughout the whole year”.
