Portland Trail Blazers Revamp Coaching Staff for Rebuild

PORTLAND – The Trail Blazers didn’t just tweak the back of the bench this summer. They rewired it.

With Micah Nori preparing for his first full season in charge, Portland has stacked its basketball operations with a blend of deep NBA experience, rising coaching talent, and a sharper analytics edge. The names are familiar in some corners of the league, legendary in others. Together, they signal a franchise trying to accelerate a rebuild with structure, not slogans.

Triano returns as veteran anchor

The headline addition is Jay Triano, a 2026 Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame inductee and one of the most respected coaching voices in international basketball.

Triano arrives with two decades of NBA coaching experience and two previous head coaching jobs, with the Toronto Raptors (2008–11) and Phoenix Suns (2017–18). He’s also a trailblazer in every sense: the first Canadian-born head coach in NBA history and a longtime steward of the Canadian National Team, guiding the program from 1999–04 and again from 2012–19. Before that, he wore the jersey himself, representing Canada in three Olympic Games.

For Portland, this is also a reunion. Triano served as a Blazers assistant from 2012–16, and returns after a recent stint on Jason Kidd’s staff with the Dallas Mavericks in 2025–26. For a young roster still learning how to win, Nori now has a bench voice who has seen just about everything.

Williams comes full circle

On the opposite end of the experience spectrum, Mike Williams brings youthful momentum and a fast climb through the coaching ranks.

Williams joins Nori’s staff after three seasons as an assistant with the Utah Jazz (2023–26). Before that, he was one of the youngest head coaches in the G League, leading the Washington Wizards’ affiliate, Capital City Go-Go. His 2022–23 Go-Go team went 19–13 and reached the postseason semifinals, a run that put his name on front-office whiteboards around the league.

His path started in Portland. Williams broke into the NBA as a player development intern with the Trail Blazers, then moved to Washington as a player development assistant from 2018–19 and held that role for three seasons. Now he returns with a bigger voice and a fuller résumé.

Crawford, Abraham, Black: continuity with a winning edge

Quinton Crawford enters his second season in Portland, but his coaching passport is already crowded.

Before joining the Blazers, Crawford led the Stockton Kings to the 2025 NBA G League Championship in his first year as a head coach. He also logged assistant roles with the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers, including a spot on the Lakers’ 2020 NBA Championship coaching staff. That mix of G League grind and championship-level preparation fits neatly into what Portland is trying to build.

Gilbert Abraham stays on as an assistant coach while entering his third season as the team’s Director of Player Development. His background is rooted in performance and growth: he spent the 2022–23 season as an assistant with the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s G League affiliate, and previously served as Director of Performance for Tandem Sports and Entertainment from 2021–23. For a roster leaning heavily on young talent, Abraham’s dual role is central, not peripheral.

Leron Black’s rise is another internal success story. After working last season as a player development coach, he’s been promoted to assistant coach. Before stepping onto the Blazers’ bench, Black spent two seasons with Rip City Remix, the franchise’s G League affiliate, as an assistant coach. He cut his teeth in the college game at the University of Dayton as a graduate assistant from 2021–23, and played professionally overseas in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico from 2018–21. He knows the margins players live on. That tends to resonate in an NBA locker room.

Jeter and Luhnow deepen the development pipeline

Player development remains the heartbeat of Portland’s plan, and two familiar faces will drive it.

Pooh Jeter enters his fourth season as a Player Development Coach, bringing with him the perspective of a globe-trotting guard who squeezed everything out of his playing career. Before Portland, Jeter spent two seasons (2021–23) with G League Ignite, providing veteran leadership to high-profile prospects. His NBA stop came with the Sacramento Kings in 2010–11, followed by international stints in Spain, Israel, China, France, Turkey and Ukraine. In 2024, he was inducted into the University of Portland Athletic Hall of Fame, a nod to his impact in the city long before he wore Blazers gear.

Jason Luhnow, also entering his fourth season with the organization, shifts into a full-time player development coach role under Nori after splitting duties as video coordinator and player development coach last year. His story is distinctly local: Lake Oswego High School standout, star at Lewis and Clark College, then a pro run with the Woodville Warriors in Australia’s NBL1. He returned home to coach junior varsity and serve as varsity assistant at Lake Oswego High, helping develop collegiate and professional prospects before joining the Blazers as a video intern in 2022. Now he steps into a larger on-court role with players he once might have scouted on film.

Ikenna Smart continues as video coordinator and player development coach, while Ty Vitko returns for a second season as assistant video coordinator. John Townsend remains in place as shooting coach, the quiet specialist whose work shows up in box scores, not press releases.

Bjorkgren shifts roles, Brocato brings the numbers

There’s change higher up the chain as well.

Nate Bjorkgren, entering his fourth season with Portland, transitions into a hybrid role as Special Assistant to the Coaching Staff and Basketball Operations. He brings head-coaching experience from his season in charge of the Indiana Pacers in 2020–21 and multiple stints as an assistant with the Toronto Raptors (2018–20, 2021–23). His new position gives Nori another seasoned voice connecting the locker room to the front office.

On the analytics front, the Blazers have made a significant hire. James Brocato joins as Director of Basketball Innovation after 12 years with the Dallas Mavericks, where he most recently served as Director of Basketball Analytics. His mandate in Portland is clear: use data to sharpen decision-making across basketball operations and carve out competitive advantages wherever the numbers point.

Brocato’s path is as much academic as it is basketball. He holds a Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Washington State University. Law, psychology, analytics—three lenses now focused on one task: helping the Blazers find edges in a brutal Western Conference.

The roster will ultimately decide how far Portland can climb, but this summer’s moves make one thing obvious. The Blazers are betting that smarter structure, deeper experience and a relentless focus on development can close the gap faster than anyone expects.