Former Blazers Guard to Serve on His College Coach’s Staff

The longtime NBA vet is now a long-time coach, and he has found a new destination.

Dec 6, 2013; Portland, OR, USA; Utah Jazz point guard Alec Burks (10) and Portland Trail Blazers point guard Earl Watson (17) battle for a loose ball during the fourth quarter of the game at the Moda Center. The Blazers won the game 130-98. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-Imagn Images / Steve Dykes-Imagn Images

Former Portland Trail Blazers point guard Earl Watson, a former NBA head coach, has a new job.

Sources inform longtime NBA insider Chris Haynes that the 6-foot-1 vet, 45, will re-join his former UCLA head coach Steve Lavin as an assistant coach on the University of San Diego bench.

Watson was selected with the No. 40 pick in the 2001 NBA Draft by the then-Seattle SuperSonics. His point-of-attack defense became a point of pride for the undersized point guard in the year sto come. During the 2003-04 season with the Memphis Grizzlies, he finished tenth in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

After stints with the SuperSonics (on two separate occasions), Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma City Thunder, Indiana Pacers, and Utah Jazz, he wrapped up his career in Portland during the 2013-14 season.

That year, Watson was essentially a deep-bench veteran at age 34, appearing in just 24 contests, while averaging 0.5 points, 0.6 rebounds, and 1.2 assists in 6.7 minutes a night.

That Blazers team, coached by Terry Stotts, was led by a pair of then-All-NBA Third Teamers, in point guard Damian Lillard and power forward/center LaMarcus Aldridge. The 6-foot-2 Lillard was playing in just his second pro season out of Weber State.

The rest of that team's stunningly healthy starting five (each starter save Aldridge appeared in all 82 regular season contests) was comprised of pre-ACL tear shooting guard Wesley Matthews, small forward Nicolas Batum, and center Robin Lopez.

Portland finished 54-28, good for the fifth seed in the Western Conference. In the first round of the West playoffs, the Trail Blazers upset the James Harden- and Dwight Howard-led Houston Rockets in a six-game series. Portland's luck ran out in a second round matchup against the 62-20 San Antonio Spurs. The eventual Finals champs, led by future Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard, and Manu Ginobili, flattened Portland in a five-game series. Just two summers later, Aldridge would ink a lucrative four-season, $80 million then-maximum contract to join the Spurs in free agency.

Watson wrapped up his 13-year playing career with 5,593 career regular season points, 3,871 assists and 873 steals. He began his head coaching career with San Antonio's then-D League (now-G League) affiliate, the Austin Spurs, in 2014-15. He then served as an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns under Jeff Hornacek. Upon Hornacek's firing, Watson was hired as Phoenix's interim head coach to wrap up the 2015-16 season. He had the interim tag removed in 2016-17. Just three games into Phoenix's 2017-18 season, he was fired following its 0-3 start. He moved on to studio analyst work with the Pac-12 Network and NBA TV from 2019-21. Most recently, Watson had served as an assistant coach under Nick Nurse on the Toronto Raptors, from 2021-23.

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