{"id":716153,"date":"2026-04-22T21:24:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716153\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T21:24:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T21:24:20","slug":"blazers-tiago-splitter-just-trying-to-be-a-pro-amid-nba-rumors-on-hc-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716153\/","title":{"rendered":"Blazers&#8217; Tiago Splitter &#8216;Just Trying to Be A Pro&#8217; Amid NBA Rumors on HC Search"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Tiago Splitter is making a strong argument to become the full-time head coach for the Portland Trail Blazers after leading the team to the playoffs this season. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Asked about the rumors of Blazers governor Tom Dundon exploring other potential candidates for the job, Splitter took a diplomatic approach to the situation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">&#8220;Just trying to be a pro, Splitter <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/48556720\/blazers-splitter-dundon-reports-trying-pro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">told reporters<\/a> prior to Tuesday&#8217;s Game 2 between the Blazers and San Antonio Spurs. &#8220;[I] try to focus on my locker room and my staff to stay and think about basketball. Same way when I got the job and all the stuff that was going on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">The Blazers will look to hire a full-time head coach in the offseason. <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7213935\/2026\/04\/21\/blazers-tom-dundon-nba-owner-expenses-money-cheap\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Jason Quick<\/a> of The Athletic reported that Dundon has previously contacted people like Michael Malone and Tom Thibodeau about potentially taking over. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Malone came off the board after taking the North Carolina job. Thibodeau is &#8220;no longer a candidate,&#8221; per Quick. Josh Schertz of St. Louis University and Ben McCollum of Iowa were also cited as previously having contact with Dundon. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Per ESPN&#8217;s <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nba\/story\/_\/id\/48556720\/blazers-splitter-dundon-reports-trying-pro\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Ramona Shelburne<\/a>, Splitter and the Blazers have tabled their discussions about his future until the offseason. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Splitter, who previously spent time as an assistant with the Brooklyn Nets (2019 to &#8217;23) and Houston Rockets (2023-24), led the Blazers to a 42-39 record in his 81 games as interim head coach this season. They made the playoffs for the first time since 2020-21. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Tuesday night saw the Trail Blazers beat the Spurs 106-103 in Game 2 of the Western Conference first-round series for their first victory in a postseason game since May 29, 2021. <\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Moda Center will host Game between the Spurs and Blazers on Friday at 10:30 p.m. ET. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tiago Splitter is making a strong argument to become the full-time head coach for the Portland Trail Blazers&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-716153","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-portland","12":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","13":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","14":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116450470286255719","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}