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Terry Stotts A Finalist In Portland Head Coaching Search

According to a report from the Oregonian, Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Terry Stotts is one of two finalists for the Portland Trail Blazers head coaching job.

He's up against Portland interim coach Kaleb Canales, who took over the job in the middle of the season after Nate McMillian was let go.

Stotts has been an invaluable assistant for Rick Carlisle since the 2008 season, and he would be Carlisle's second Dallas assistant to move on to a head coaching job in as many years, as Dwyane Casey took over in Toronto in 2011.

Carlisle has emphasized adding assistants with previous head coaching experience, as both Stotts and Casey had previous runs as a head man in the NBA before joining the Mavericks.

As someone on his third job in Dallas, Carlisle understands that the success or failure of an NBA team often has a lot more to do with off-the-court and personnel issues and not the caliber of the man on the sidelines.

Stotts, who has been the head man for the Atlanta Hawks and Milwaukee Bucks, will have to hope the Trail Blazers front office shares a similar philosophy.

Photographs by jamesbrandon, jdtornow, phlezk, flygraphix, mcdlttx, tomasland, and literalbarrage used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.