Blazers Hire New Head Coach With One-Year Guaranteed Contract

The Portland Trail Blazers hired a new head coach to replace the interim coach who led the team to its first playoff appearance since the 2020-21 season. The interim coach left last week to join another team. The new coach spent the past five seasons as lead assistant for a different franchise that posted the fifth-best regular-season record in the league and reached the playoffs each year.

The new coach's contract includes one guaranteed year along with multiple team-option years and a sliding-scale salary tied to incentives and team performance. The president of the National Basketball Coaches Association called the structure a "slap in the face to our value."

“Bickerstaff: Nori's Blazers deal a 'slap in the fa... The new coach has worked in the NBA coaching ranks since 2009 and previously served on the staffs of four other franchises. The team cited the coach's communication and relationship skills as factors in the selection. In the 2024 postseason the coach assumed additional in-game duties while that team's head coach recovered from a knee injury.”