Throughout his entire NBA career thus far, CJ McCollum has been coached by one person only. That distinction belongs to Terry Stotts. However, that may change next season for the Portland Trail Blazers guard.
Stotts has been rumored to be on the hot seat after guiding the team to eight playoff appearances in his nine years at the helm. During that period, the Blazers' best finish was making it to the Western Conference Finals in 2019.
In an interview with The Athletic's Jason Quick, McCollum dished out on the rumblings concerning the Blazers' brain thrust.
“You have no control over those things. I like Terry. Terry has been great for me, my career, my development, he’s given me a chance. I will forever be grateful for everything he has done for me. But your job as a player is to play. And his job as a coach is to coach. Like, you can’t worry about what could happen. That’s every year. Every year, I could be traded. Every year, a coach could lose his job.”
Stotts has been instrumental in building the foundation of this Blazers squad. He has guided McCollum and Damian Lillard all these years while making Portland a perennial playoff contender. But nine years may already be too long.
McCollum and Lillard are in their prime. The Blazers are hard-pressed to not waste the opportunity of having such talented guards accomplish little in terms of postseason success.
For now, the focus is on the 2021 Playoffs as the Blazers have the Denver Nuggets and MVP favorite Nikola Jokic on their plate. The odds are stacked against them but there's no counting out a team that has, time and again, found ways to overcome the odds.
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