After taking over as the Trail Blazers‘ interim head coach following Chauncey Billups‘ arrest one game into the season, Tiago Splitter led the team to a 42-39 record, a play-in victory, and the franchise’s first playoff berth since 2021.
However, Splitter’s future in Portland beyond this season remains up in the air, with one recent report suggesting that new team owner Tom Dundon has held exploratory discussions with approximately 20 college and international coaches. Amid rumors that the Blazers are considering head coaching alternatives, Splitter said on Tuesday that he’s “just trying to be a pro,” according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
“(I) try to focus on my locker room and my staff to stay and think about basketball,” Splitter said. “Same way when I got the job and all the stuff (with Billups) that was going on.”
According to Shelburne, sources close to the situation say that Splitter received a raise when he was elevated from his assistant coaching job earlier in the season and had discussions with the team later in the season about a possible longer-term contract. However, the salary the Blazers were prepared to offer was “far below” a standard rate for an NBA head coach and the two sides decided to table those talks until after the season, Shelburne adds.
Dundon didn’t officially take over as the Blazers’ controlling owner until the end of March, but he reached an agreement to buy the team last August, so it’s safe to assume he would’ve been privy to those negotiations even if they happened before the sale closed.
Since Dundon formally assumed control of the team three-plus weeks ago, there have been several reports about the cost-cutting measures he has taken throughout the organization, as we detailed in a pair of stories earlier this week. Sources tell Shelburne that another one of those cost-cutting measures involved reducing the number of complimentary tickets to home playoff games for support staffers.
Reports that Dundon isn’t willing to pay more than $1.5MM annually for a head coach have received some push-back, with one source telling The Athletic this week that the Blazers owner is focused on finding the “best person” for the job. Still, as Sean Highkin of Rose Garden Report tweets, it’s hard to envision what more Splitter could do to prove he deserves to stick around.
“He got thrown in a difficult situation,” Blazers star Deni Avdija said on Tuesday after Splitter guided the Blazers to a comeback victory in Game 2 to even the series at one game apiece as it returns to Portland. “It wasn’t easy for him to just all of a sudden take the head job. But I think he’s done phenomenal. He’s getting the best out of everybody. He’s believing in each and single one of his players, and we love playing for him. He’s a winner, he’s a competitor. He knows how it is to win a championship. He’s passionate, and he got all the tools to be a great coach, and that’s what he’s doing.”
If Kerr is leaving, maybe Tiago wouldn’t mind moving down the coast about 600 miles.
Dude paid 4 billion. He can do what he wants. It’s not like he doesn’t have a track record. All of this was verifiable, before awarding him the franchise, so the board of governors clearly don’t give af.
Splitter might get a chance in Chicago, now the Billy’s gone. Who knows?
Splitter will definitely have a job somewhere next season.
Basketball fans are getting introduced to the Dundon experience. He’s done this for years in the NHL. If you want a good comparison think of Dan Gilbert not wanting to pay coaches and GMs like what happened with Lue.
In Carolina, Don Waddell resigned as GM after building a team that made the playoffs 6 straight seasons at that point and 2 Eastern Conference Finals including the year he resigned. It was over money. 4 days later, Columbus hires him, makes him president/GM there with a raise.
Rod Brind’Amour has been their coach since 2018. If you aren’t a hockey fan, he is essentially Mr Carolina Hurricane. Was a player for them 10 years, captain of their Stanley Cup team, top 5 in most franchise stat categories. And he’s been arguably their best coach in franchise history. He is also a top 5-10 coach in the league. He was hired for $600k. He got a raise to like $1.8 mil in 2021, which is lower than coaches who have never even coached in the NHL are making. In 2024 he had drawn out negotiations in the playoffs and Dundon “rewarded” him with a raise to $2mil. If he wasn’t so loyal to the franchise there would be teams lining up to pay him more than twice that.
I could keep going with drawn out negotiations for guys like Aho, Necas, etc. All of this to say is he is going to pay as little as he can get away with.