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The Portland Trail Blazers were clearly one of the most intriguing stories of the 2015-16 NBA campaign. Prior to the season, the Trail Blazers lost their starting shooting guard (Wesley Matthews), small forward (Nicolas Batum), All-Star power forward (LaMarcus Aldridge) and center (Robin Lopez) in free agency. Heck, they even lost the guy who finished the 2014-15 season as their starting shooting guard in relief of Matthews (Arron Afflalo).
Returning just one starter in Damian Lillard, the Trail Blazers were expected to be one of the worst teams in the NBA. However, instead of floundering in obscurity, Portland managed to put together a respectable regular season, going 44-38 to amazingly cement the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference.
The Trail Blazers then caught a break against the injury-plagued Los Angeles Clippers in the first round, and moved on to put up quite an impressive fight against the reigning champion Golden State Warriors.
Despite what was clearly a remarkable showing this season laden with achievements and plenty of steps forward, it was rumored head coach Terry Stotts wasn’t a guarantee to return to the team next season.
Rumor: Terry Stotts ‘isn’t a slam dunk’ to return to Trail Blazers https://t.co/S48IFxXNJa
— Kurt Helin (@basketballtalk) May 14, 2016
Portland had a team option for Stotts next season, but instead finally opted to sign him to a three-year extension on Monday.
Terry Stotts and Neil Olshey now discussing the contract extension. pic.twitter.com/2HkYnka6bz
— Mike Barrett (@blazermb) May 17, 2016
Stotts will reportedly earn $5 million per season, keeping his salary in line with the top 10 coaches in the league. This was the only decision Portland had to make, as parting ways with Stotts — who finished second in Coach of the Year voting behind Steve Kerr of the Warriors — would have been a maneuver no franchise could recover from.
Portland has a plethora of cap space available to improve with this summer, and is expected to be incredibly active in free agency. As my colleague Jeff Shull mentioned, luring Kevin Durant to the Pacific Northwest should be the Trail Blazers’ top priority, and actually makes an abundance of sense for both parties.
Kevin Durant should choose that team in the Pacific Northwest in free agency https://t.co/aSkoxGR0CK #nba
— RantSports (@RantSports) May 16, 2016
The Trail Blazers might not be able to land Durant or any of the other top-three free agents, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do an excellent job of fortifying their roster this offseason. A reunion with the aforementioned Batum isn’t out of the question, as Al-Farouq Aminu far from overwhelmed this season. The Trail Blazers have also been linked to Al Horford, Hassan Whiteside, Pau Gasol and Ryan Anderson as they clearly need to improve in the frontcourt.
With the right additions, this team should be no less than the No. 4 seed in a top-heavy Western Conference next season.
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