{"id":753358,"date":"2026-06-05T19:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/753358\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T19:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T19:03:14","slug":"terry-stotts-joins-the-list-of-head-coach-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/753358\/","title":{"rendered":"Terry Stotts joins the list of head coach candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"

After Jason Kidd<\/a> and the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> parted ways a few weeks ago, the Mavs kicked off the search for his replacement. We previously covered the news that Dallas was exploring potential fits with collegiate stalwarts Jon Scheyer and Dusty May<\/a>, and now word has come out that Terry Stotts is also being considered for the job.<\/p>\n

If Stotts\u2019 name strikes you as familiar, that\u2019s because he was an assistant under Rick Carlisle during the Mavericks\u2019 2011 championship season. Aside from that memorable run, Stotts has held coaching roles at the NBA level since 1994 when he began as an assistant for the Oklahoma City Thunder\u2019s<\/a> former iteration, the Seattle Supersonics. That stint afforded him some NBA Finals experience when the Sonics came up short to the Chicago Bulls<\/a> in 1996. He was then an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a>, and then the Atlanta Hawks<\/a> for whom he eventually took the head coaching job. He then spent a year with the Golden State Warriors<\/a> as an assistant, before returning to Milwaukee for two years as the head coach.<\/p>\n

After that, he was with Dallas as an assistant coach from 2008-2012 where he again returned to the NBA Finals, but with better results. 2011 put Stotts in the rarified air of those that were a part of the pinnacle of Mavericks\u2019 history, playing an instrumental part in the championship run. He parlayed that stint into a long tenure as the Portland Trailblazers<\/a> head coach from 2012 to 2021, then took some time off before returning to the Warriors as an assistant coach for the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

In all, Stotts has accumulated a 402-318 record (55.8% winning percentage) as a head coach in the NBA. Over more than 30 years, he has either coached, or coached against, some of the best coaches and players the league has ever seen. He is a basketball lifer \u2013 you don\u2019t stick around as long as he has unless you both belong and badly want to be there.<\/p>\n

Rumors are that Stotts now only wants to consider head coaching jobs, and will be in the mix for the open position in Dallas. The Mavericks would be well served with Stotts steering the ship. At age 68 and with his resume, he has seen it all. He would instantly command respect simply based on who he is \u2013 there would be no rookie coach inexperience to harp on from either the players or media. He would bring the necessary discipline to what will likely be a young team led by Cooper Flagg, while also knowing full well how to manage the veteran players. Throwing back to the 2011 championship team would also bring a nice connection to the past for the Mavs, who could still afford to bolster good will with the fanbase.<\/p>\n

Stotts would likely be something of a transitional coach, but that too could be a boon to the franchise. He could ably prepare one of his assistant coaches to take the reigns from him in a few years, or Dallas could simply choose to go another way when the time comes. Either way, Stotts brings a safe \u2013 but not mundane or low-ceiling \u2013 coach to the franchise, and one who can help lead the team into the next phase. The Mavs could certainly do worse.<\/p>\n

I invite you to follow me @_80MPH<\/a> on X, and check back often at Mavs Moneyball<\/a> for all the latest on the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After Jason Kidd and the Dallas Mavericks parted ways a few weeks ago, the Mavs kicked off the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,686,149,4057,166,12249,6],"class_list":["post-753358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas-mavericks","tag-basketball","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-mavericks","tag-dallasmavericks","tag-mavericks","tag-mavericks-rumors","tag-nba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116699057595256036","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753358","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=753358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}