Former Blazers Coach Terry Stotts Didn’t Give Much Input in Draft Decisions

Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts has a little more time on his hands from when he coached the team for a decade.

Now in his second season since leaving the team, Stotts sat down with NBA writers Ben Taylor, Mo Dakhil and John Schuhmann in a Twitter space to discuss current trends in the NBA and how different the league is now from when Stotts first started coaching.

During the 46-minute conversation, Stotts’ biggest remarks came from when he revealed his role in who the Blazers drafted.

I did have input on trades and free agency because I knew those players. When it came to the draft, I personally did not want to have any input on the draft. The scouting department and General Manager spend their entire years knowing players from not just that year, but from previous years. So, I personally did not want to have any input on the draft because that was their domain, that was their expertise, and they deserve all the credit for drafting the players, knowing how we play, what needs we may have, things like that. But I never really got involved into a draft decision until it maybe got down to the, you know, it’s we’re coming down to two or three guys, ‘What do you think?’ But beyond that I just I felt I had something to give and I did in trades and free agency but not so much the draft.

You can listen to the full conversation with Stotts here.