Tiago Splitter will guide the Portland Trail Blazers for the foreseeable future.
The team on Thursday named Splitter its interim head coach, a team source told The Oregonian/OregonLive, elevating an assistant who only joined the organization this summer.
The move, first reported by ESPN, came hours after coach Chauncey Billups was arrested by federal agents and charged with money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy as part of an alleged poker scheme. The Blazers’ coach, who is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday in Portland, has been placed on immediate leave by the NBA.
After a decorated playing career that spanned 11 seasons internationally and seven seasons in the NBA, Splitter retired in 2018 and joined the Brooklyn Nets as a pro scout. Part of his duties included on-court player development, a pseudo-coaching role. Splitter pivoted into full-time coaching the following season.
Splitter went on spend four years with the Nets and one year with the Houston Rockets, before leaving to coach overseas. He took over the Paris Basketball Club ahead of the 2024 season and brought immediate success, guiding it to a French Basketball Cup championship and into the EuroLeague playoffs.
The success piqued the interest of multiple NBA head coaches, who were intrigued by Splitter’s fast-paced, heavy-movement offense. One of those coaches was Billups, who traveled to Paris to watch Splitter oversee games and practices and pick his brain about his vaunted offense.
Splitter joined the Blazers in June to help overhaul its offense.
“Tiago was great,” Billups said at the Blazers’ media day last month. “His offense was really potent over there in Paris and they played really fast, they got up and down, they tried to play before defenses got set. He had a really good point guard that kind of was the MVP of the league. So he’d done a really good job. I’m really, really excited about that and about our staff.”
The Blazers’ new offense was a blur of speed and pace during the exhibition season and it proved to be fun to watch and prolific in Wednesday night’s season opener against the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Blazers lost, but scored 114 points and played at a breakneck pace that posed all kinds of problems for a team that has reached the Western Conference finals each of the last two seasons.
If not for cold shooting — the Blazers shot 40% from the field, including just 31% from three-point range — they probably would have won.
But now, a day later, the responsibility of winning the next game falls on the shoulders of the 6-foot-11, 40-year-old Splitter.
And much like Billups, Splitter brings a championship pedigree.
During his seven-year NBA career, Splitter, who is from Brazil, played five seasons with the San Antonio Spurs and started 50 games on the team that won the 2014 NBA championship.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Source link
