Don’t look now, but the Portland Trail Blazers are one half game out of eighth place in the Western Conference.
The team in front of the Blazers is the Utah Jazz, and so, as we head towards the NBA All-Star break, it looks entirely possibly that Portland will be in a playoff race all spring.
That wasn’t supposed to happen.
Not at all. Not by a long shot.
The Blazers’ rebuilding job started the moment LaMarcus Aldridge bolted for San Antonio, and anyone who said otherwise – namely general manager Neil Olshey – was spinning a cringe-worthy company line.
But here we are, 44 games into the season, and the Blazers are pretty damn interesting. They’re plight has been helped, of course, by total meltdowns in Phoenix and New Orleans, but
We’re still talking about a 19-25 team, but these Blazers are almost never mediocre. From trouncing Cleveland to getting trounced by Philadelphia, there’s hardly been a dull moment this year.
A playoff birth – even if it comes with a losing record – is absolutely worth fighting for. A first round matchup with the world-famous Golden State Warriors or Aldridge’s Spurs would be a fantastic reward for everyone who stuck with this franchise this season.
The Blazers, of course, would get trounced. But they’d also get to take a swing at the NBA’s best on a national stage – and that experience could be much more impactful than a mid to late first round draft pick.
Make no mistake: This is a good spot for the Blazers to be in. The team is consistently entertaining, it’s overachieving, and it’s on pace to be compelling well into the spring.
And if the Blazers make hit the 500 mark or reach the playoffs, Terry Stotts should be in the Coach of the Year conversation.
This has been a mighty impressive coaching job. Stotts has kept his team motivated for long stretches without Damian Lillard. He has squeezed more than any coach ever has out of Ed Davis, and has made Noah Vonleh and Mason Plumlee relevant too. CJ McCollum appears to be thriving.
Stotts’ offense has plenty to do with that. The Blazers are still mixing it up with the league’s upper echelon in several major offensive categories.
But more than all that, Stotts has proven a good fit in a franchise that hasn’t had many good fits in the last decade. Stotts is intelligent, well connected, and easy to work with.
It’s not an easy package to come by – especially in today’s NBA, where recent coaching hires outside of Steve Kerr have been mostly underwhelming.
That’s why signing the coach to a long-term extension has become one of the biggest keys to the Blazers’ second half. Right now, Portland holds a team option for Stotts for 2016-17. Picking up that option isn’t enough.
When Portland extended Stotts for two years after his team knocked the Houston Rockets out of the playoffs, the contract amounted to lukewarm vote of confidence. It was the same lukewarm vote of confidence he got when Olshey originally hired him four years ago, when Stotts was also only given a two-year deal.
Now, it’s time to commit for real. As much as he may loathe to do it, there’s no reason why Allen shouldn’t give Stotts some real job security in the next few months. He’s earned it.
Besides that, continuity is almost always a plus. Olshey doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, and although his LA shtick can be grating, he’s done a pretty good job so far. Stotts has too, and breaking up that group certainly be nothing but counterproductive.
Extending Stotts now – before the trade deadline, before this playoff push and its consequences get real – makes all the sense in the world.
The Blazers’ negotiating position isn’t getting any clearer. Stotts’ reputation has grown this year in NBA circles even more than it did in the last two seasons, when Portland was in the playoffs. If he gets canned – or doesn’t get a multiyear deal – he’ll have no trouble finding new employment.
Remember too, that Olshey and Stotts are both represented by Warren LeGarie – who has some ugly past history with Paul Allen. Needless to say, this regime can still fall apart very quickly.
Letting Stotts dangle is pointless and will only serve to create unnecessary intrigue. Allen and the Blazers should accept that they got the hire right, and double down.
This franchise doesn’t face an easy rebuild. It’s obviously not a free agent destination, and it’s not going to have a top-five pick. But as Golden State showed, those things aren’t necessary to win championships.
The Blazers have a player to build around for years to come in Lillard, a system with Stotts that is as effective as it often is attractive, and a proven brain trust in place. All of the sudden, outside of the Warriors and Spurs, there’s plenty of room for a Western Conference surge.
This has been a winter full of pleasant surprises for Portland. It’s been full of progress. The one surefire way to undo that progress? Letting Stotts slip away. He’s clearly part of the Blazers’ solution – and that’s how he should be treated.
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