Trail Blazers News: Could Chauncey Billups' Head Coaching Tenure End Soon?

Alex Kirschenbaum | Apr 8, 2024

Apr 5, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups. / Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Third-year Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups, who's been freshly anointed to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2024 as a player, may not be long for his current role, if a recent rumor is to be believed.

Per Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports, several free agent NBA head coaches have been eyeing Portland, after a third straight lottery-bound season under the tutelage of the former five-time All-Star point guard.

Portland has gone 81-161 across most of three seasons under Billups. This year's vintage is currently 21-57, and the No. 14 seed in the West. The Trail Blazers have the fifth-worst overall record in the NBA this year, and though this year's draft class is oft-maligned, the team would surely hope to get into the top four by season's end, to maximize its lottery odds.

For his part, however, Billups expressed optimism to Fischer that this year's banged-up Trail Blazers squad could be playoff-ready come 2024-25.

“It’s been a tough couple of years for us, three now. We’ve just had so much influx on our roster and so much bad luck with health and things like that. And I’m just here every day just grinding through it. Helping my guys the best way I can and just hoping that hopefully the next time around, next year, we’re healthy, we’re better, our roster is ready to really, really compete,” Billups said. “Because I just know personally, myself, I’m light years ahead of where I was when I took the job, obviously being a first-time [head] coach. And I’m really ready for that challenge and that pressure to go out and compete with these best teams and stuff. I’m really ready for that. So, I just hope that we can be in that position, that’s all.”