Trail Blazers Hire New Head Coach for G League Squad

Portland makes a bold new hire for the Rip City Remix.

Nov 3, 2023; Portland, Oregon, USA; The Portland Trail Blazers logo at center court before the game against the Memphis Grizzlies at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports / Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

The Portland Trail Blazers have hired assistant general manager Sergi Oliva to double as the new head coach for their G League affiliate squad, the Rip City Remix, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

Oliva is on the cusp of his third season as the Trail Blazers' assistant general manager under Joe Cronin. Per Wojnarowski, after the Rip City Remix's G League season concludes (there is a 50-game regular season and a six-team postseason).

Local player tryouts run from August 31 through October 6, the 2024 G League Draft tips off at 10 a.m. PT, training camps run from October 28 through November 7, and the G League Showcase Cup Season tips off on November 8. There's a Winter Showcase in December, and later that month the G League's regular season tips off. The playoffs start in April.

Oliva earned several degrees from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia — a Master's and Bachelor's in Computer Science, along with a Ph.D. in Computational Complexity. After logging 12 years as a head coach for youth and senior amateur clubs in his native Catalonia, Oliva linked up with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2014. His first title was Basketball Operations Analyst. He would stay with the club on the front office side for six years there, wrapping up as Vice President of Strategy during the Brett Brown era.

Next, Oliva served as an assistant coach under Quinn Snyder with the Utah Jazz from 2020-2022. The club posted a 101-53 (.656) record during that run, including a league-best 52-20 finish in 2020-21 (during a pandemic-shortened season). Oliva was listed on The Athletic's first-ever "NBA 40 Under 40" list, paying tribute to the best coaches, front office executives and agents in the league.

The Trail Blazers lost out on their most recent Rip City Remix head coach, Jim Moran, after just one season. Moran departed the club to join head coach Mike Brown's staff on the Sacramento Kings proper this summer. He had posted an 18-16 record during his tenure with Rip City, and was reportedly well-liked by both Portland brass and the Remix's players.

Read More: Trail Blazers Lose Coach to Western Conference Rival

The main item here that should raise eyebrows is that the team intends to have Oliva pull double-duty, serving as a head coach and then getting back into the team's front office infrastructure during G League offseasons. Can the club not afford to bring on a full-time G League head coach?

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