Trail Blazers Part Ways With Head Coach; Lillard Wants Kidd

The Portland Trail Blazers have announced they have decided to part ways with head coach Terry Stotts after reaching a mutual decision.

Trail Blazers President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey met with the media on Friday and had this to say about Stotts' time in Portland:

I have the utmost respect for Terry and what he has accomplished these past nine seasons. This was a difficult decision on both a personal and professional level but it's in the best interest of the franchise to move in another direction

Stotts has quite the legacy in Portland and most of it involved regular season success. The Trail Blazers could never seem to find ways to get over the hump of mediocrity.  Stotts leaves the Blazers the franchise's second-winningest head coach with 402 regular-seasons wins. His 402-318 record is quite impressive, and so is making the NBA playoffs eight seasons in a row.

Damian Lillard Wants Jason Kidd

Damian Lillard who is the heart beat of the Blazers has only ever known Stotts as his coach and is going to be given some say about who the next coach in Portland is. Lillard is a huge fan of Jason Kidd and was quoted by Yahoo Sports saying 'Jason Kidd is the guy I want'. Kidd has spent the past couple of seasons as an assistant coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Some other candidates include Chauncey Billups, Jeff Van Gundy, Mike D'Antoni and Juwan Howard.

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