Sources: Blazers, Stotts reach 3-year extension
The Portland Trail Blazers have agreed with head coach Terry Stotts on a contract extension, sources close to the negotiations confirmed.
News of the deal was first reported by The Vertical.
The extension will run three additional seasons past Stotts’ current deal, which expires at the conclusion of the 2016-17 season. The Trail Blazers held a team option on Stotts’ services for next season. The average annual salary of the extension, which will run through the end of the 2019-2020 season, will amount to approximately $5 million.
During his four seasons at the helm in Portland, Stotts has compiled a record of 182-146, and the team has qualified for the playoffs in each of the past three seasons.
This season, in what was expected to be a rebuilding campaign, the Trail Blazers posted a 44-38 record and earned the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference. Stotts finished a close second to Warriors coach Steve Kerr in the NBA’s coach of the year vote.
The Trail Blazers defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 4-2 in the first round of the playoffs before bowing out to Golden State last week in the conference semifinals.
After spending parts of two seasons with the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks, Stotts joined Rick Carlisle’s staff with the Dallas Mavericks in 2008. While on the bench with the Mavericks, Stotts established a reputation as a sharp offensive coach.
When the vacancy in Portland opened in 2012, the Trail Blazers saw Stotts as a logical candidate to sculpt a jump-shooting offense around forward LaMarcus Aldridge, not unlike what Stotts helped construct in Dallas for Dirk Nowitzki. After leading the Trail Blazers to a 54-28 record in 2013-14, Stotts agreed to a multiyear contract extension with the team in May 2014.
