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Damian Lillard has taken to social media to spruik former Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach David Vanterpool and current assistant Nate Tibbetts as capable NBA head coaches.
All these Jobs open in the NBA ... if David Vanterpool ain’t in one of these slots when the season start then people ain’t doing they job ♂️
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) October 5, 2020
We needed him in Portland and when he left I thought it was gone be to become a head coach very soon. I know him to the core ... he’s a head coach and so is Nate Tibbetts https://t.co/Wws7fB77Hj
— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) October 5, 2020
CJ McCollum has also given a full-throated endorsement of Vanterpool, who left the Blazers at the end of the 2018-19 season to become an associate head coach with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“I hope he gets a head coaching job. He’s more than deserving and it’s only a matter of time before he is a head coach somewhere.”
A number of teams, including the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans, Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers, are currently searching for their next coach.
Last week, it was reported that Vanterpool had interviewed for the Houston job.
Vanterpool spent seven years as an assistant in Portland between 2012 and 2019. Tibbetts has been with the team as both an assistant and associate head coach since 2013.