The Trail Blazers are still considering three candidates for their head coaching vacancy, according to Jake Fischer and Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Substack link).
The finalists who remain in the running, per Fischer and Stein, are Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, Celtics assistant Tyler Lashbrook, and Portland’s own interim coach Tiago Splitter.
Those coaches were identified last month as three of the five finalists for the Blazers’ job, along with Clippers assistant Jeff Van Gundy and Jazz assistant Mike Williams. Sources tell The Stein Line that Van Gundy and Williams didn’t advance to the final stage of Portland’s head coaching search.
Assuming another finalist isn’t added to the mix at the 11th hour, it sounds like one of Nori, Lashbrook, or Splitter will become the Trail Blazers’ permanent head coach. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean a decision is imminent.
As Fischer and Stein explain, Portland’s process has been slowed to some extent by the Carolina Hurricanes’ run to the NHL’s Stanley Cup finals. Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon also owns the Hurricanes, who will be looking to get on the board in their series against Las Vegas on Thursday after losing Game 1 on Tuesday.
The Trail Blazers’ coaching search began before their season was over, with Dundon reaching out to candidates while Splitter was attempting to get his team past San Antonio in the first round. Portland technically still hasn’t formally parted ways with Chauncey Billups, who opened the 2025/26 season on the team’s bench, but he was arrested in October in connection with an illegal gambling investigation and isn’t expected to ever coach another game for the Blazers.
Splitter, initially an assistant under Billups, took over one game into the regular season and led the Blazers to a 42-39 record the rest of the way. The team earned the No. 7 seed with a play-in win over Phoenix and then fell to the Spurs in five games in the Western Conference quarterfinals.
Dundon’s decision to look for Splitter’s potential replacement before the season ended reportedly rubbed some potential targets the wrong way, and rumors that the new Blazers owner was looking to pay his new coach a salary well below the going rate likely didn’t help matters, though the team pushed back on those reports.
For what it’s worth, neither Nori nor Lashbrook has NBA head coaching experience, and Splitter’s stint filling in for Billups this season represented his first NBA head coaching job. In other words, it’s unlikely that any of those three candidates would have the leverage to negotiate a high-end salary.
Micah Nori or Tiago Splitter would be great picks. Still think it was disrespectful not to just give Splitter the job after what he did this season.
So the candidate who accepts the lowest salary will be selected?
I’ll do it for minimum wage.
Sorry, your asking price is too high.
They’re only offering it as a non paid internship
Lol
Van Gundy has plenty of money from ESPN, that would be the only reason I think he is fine with el Cheapo offer.
Is Splitter demanding a lot of money?..Why haven’t they selected him yet? He’s familiar with the team and has already gained some respect from the players
After what he did in Europe and with Blazers i think Tiago Splitter will be one of the best coaches in the league. He can think out of box and bring some European basketball mentality to the game
“So, you want me to win games and outcoach the other coaches that make, at MINIMUM, twice as much as I do?”
Splitter did a fantastic job. Imo Scoot could use coaching from Kidd a PG by trade. Scoot should be further along than he is.
Only reason why he’s not further along is because of all the injuries he’s had. He hasn’t really been able to train in the off-season but next year is his telling card
Hopefully lol. I liked him. Thought he was going to be that next big time PG. All these kids man. Tgey should all do a year in G-league. We’ll see.
It’s pretty appalling that Splitter doesn’t have the job already. Get it done.
It’s time tp give Tiago Splitter or Van Gundy the job or both