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The Trail Blazers watched Monday morning, presumably with mild disinterest, as the Chicago Bulls hired away Tiago Splitter, the team’s head coach for all but one regular season game last year.
Splitter took over for Chauncey Billups after the team’s opening night loss and Billups’ subsequent arrest for his alleged part in a gambling conspiracy. He led the Blazers to a 42-39 record in the regular season and helped the team return to the postseason for the first time since 2021. The team upset Phoenix on the road in the play-in tournament before losing to San Antonio in five games in the first round—and throughout this period new Blazers owner Tom Dundon was busy rankling the NBA establishment by interviewing other potential coaches.
Splitter was forced to address the situation, telling reporters during the San Antonio series that he was “just trying to be a pro.”
Dundon was reportedly willing to commit to Splitter as the team’s full-time head coach… sort of? The Athletic reported this morning that Splitter “was never formally offered the job” but rather “was told he was welcome to return at a certain price point, which wasn’t agreeable to Splitter and his agent.”
(Note: In covering the trials and tribulations of the Blazers over the past year, we have started to run out of synonyms for the word “bizarre.”)
Splitter, regardless, emerged as one of three finalists for the full-time job, along with Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori and Celtics assistant Tyler Lashbrook. But by multiple reports, including from NBA insider Marc Stein, the coaching search was slowed because Dundon was busy with his other team, hockey’s Carolina Hurricanes, who were in the Stanley Cup Finals.
Dundon’s behavior towards Splitter has been on brand for an owner dubbed “El Cheapo” by national media since taking over the franchise near the end of the regular season. The ensuing months have seen more weird Dundon’s spendthrift antics, ranging from his refusal to fly the team’s players on two-way contracts to San Antonio to his firing of 70 team employees.
On Sunday night, the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. One can imagine that this will not exactly stop him from operating the Blazers as he sees fit.
Neither Nori nor Lashbrook, the remaining two finalists, has previous experience as a head coach. (Nori once coached 12 playoff games for Minnesota after head coach Chris Finch tore his patellar tendon following a collision with one of his players on the sideline, though Finch remained involved.)
However, even this situation may be subject to change.
According to The Athletic, “The Blazers and Dallas Mavericks are the only teams with a coaching vacancy, and if Dallas hires either Nori or Lashbrook, there is a chance the Blazers re-open their search, according to the team source.”
When the process began, Dallas still employed veteran coach and Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd. When the team hired Billups in 2021, Kidd had been one of the names cited by then-peak-leverage Damian Lillard.
With Lillard set to return to the floor, and the organization reportedly in the mix to trade away some of its youth for a veteran co-star, Kidd could be a name that resurfaces as a potential head coach in Portland.
According to Bleacher Report, “Kidd has a relationship with new Blazers owner Tom Dundon and may be willing to accept a low annual salary since the Mavericks still owe him $40M over the next four years.”
With career earnings over $180 million as a player, Kidd would be in a unique position to take the kind of pay cut necessary to coach the Blazers.
