The Portland Trail Blazers are in on Chauncey Billups.
The Blazers will hire Billups their next head coach, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. Billups, an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers, will take over for Terry Stotts in Portland after his departure earlier this month.
The Blazers officially offered Billups the job on Friday, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, with a negotiations for an official long-term deal underway.
From TV analyst to head coach in two seasons
Billups played in the league from 1997-2014. He was selected with the No. 3 overall pick in 1997 by the Boston Celtics. The 44-year-old also spent time with the Raptors, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Pistons, Knicks and Clippers before he retired in 2014.
The five-time All-Star, who helped lead the Pistons to a title in 2004, averaged 15.2 points and 5.4 assists per game throughout his career.
Billups has served as an ESPN analyst before he joined the Clippers’ staff with head coach Ty Lue last year — which marked his first coaching job in the league. He was widely considered a top contender for the Portland job in recent weeks, along with Spurs assistant Becky Hammon and Jason Kidd — who reached a deal to take over with the Dallas Mavericks on Friday.
Stotts spent the last nine seasons leading the Trail Blazers. He compiled a 517-486 overall record there and reached the playoffs in all but his first season, but Portland was knocked out of the first round in four of the past five seasons. The two sides agreed to part ways after the Blazers fell to the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs earlier this month.
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