Warriors hiring ex-NBA coach, 2-time All-Star to boost staff
07/02/2024 09:43 PM
In a busy week that has seen a franchise icon sign with another team in free agency, the Golden State Warriors are making some additions to their coaching staff, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski:
“The Golden State Warriors are planning to hire Terry Stotts as lead assistant coach and Jerry Stackhouse as an assistant, sources tell ESPN. Both come to Steve Kerr's staff with significant head coaching experience.”
The 49-year-old Stackhouse, a mid-1990s UNC basketball icon from Kinston, N.C., who went on to become a two-time NBA All-Star across his 18 years as a powerfully athletic wing in the league, was the head coach at Vanderbilt the past five seasons, compiling a 70-92 overall record.
He and the Commodores parted aways in March following his 2023-24 team’s disappointing 9-23 campaign, the program’s seventh straight season without an NCAA Tournament invite.
Stotts, a longtime NBA head coach with the Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks, and Portland Trail Blazers, joins the Warriors after a brief stint as a Bucks assistant last season. He resigned in mid-October after a run-in with head coach Adrian Griffin, who was later fired from his position.
The alleged incident transpired when Griffin called a coach’s huddle after practice ended. Stotts, who is best known for his nine-year tenure as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, instead went over to talk to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard. He was summoned again but insisted he be allowed some time with the players.
Griffin then used his "boss" voice and yelled at his assistant to join the group as previously instructed.
Terry Stotts joins Warriors after success with flawed rosters
Stotts and the Trail Blazers parted ways in the 2021 offseason after another unsuccessful playoff stint that led to a first-round exit against the Denver Nuggets.
Portland made it all the way to the West Finals in 2018-19 – being swept by the Warriors – and they went to the second round in 2013-14 and 2015-16 seasons. However, given the fact that the Blazers have not shown significant improvements over that span, it is not surprising the front office decided to take another direction.
Of course, it’s not exactly clear that the Blazers’ failures could be pinned on Stotts. Afterall, this is a coach that coaxed a top-10 defense out of a 2018 team that had Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum in the backcourt and was forced to play Lillard, Enes Kanter, and Carmelo Anthony together on defense against the Nuggets in that 2021 first-round series.
Stotts finished his Blazers coaching career with a 402-318 win-loss record in the regular season. He is, unfortunately, an underwhelming 22-40 in the postseason. But after spending some time away from the game, he was able to get himself into a good position as lead assistant with the Warriors under Steve Kerr.
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