Micah Nori’s first Trail Blazers staff is now set.
Portland finalized its coaching and basketball operations group for the 2026-27 NBA season, with Nori surrounded by a mix of familiar faces, trusted development voices and a notable addition from one of the league’s more analytics-heavy front offices.
On the bench, the first-year coach will have Jay Triano, Mike Williams, Quinton Crawford, Gilbert Abraham and Leron Black as assistants. Pooh Jeter and Jason Luhnow will work as player development coaches.
There’s also a shift for Nate Bjorkgren, who is entering his fourth season in Portland and was the lead assistant in 2025-26. He’s moving off the bench and into a special assistant role within the coaching staff and basketball operations department.
The Blazers also announced several support and front-office moves Thursday. Ikenna Smart is staying on as video coordinator and player development coach, Ty Vitko will remain assistant video coordinator, and John Townsend will continue as shooting coach.
Portland also added James Brocato as director of basketball innovation. Brocato spent the previous 12 years as the Dallas Mavericks’ director of basketball analytics.
Triano and Williams had already been brought in earlier this summer. Triano brings two decades of NBA coaching experience and has twice been a head coach.
He’s also deeply familiar with Portland, having spent four seasons as an assistant under Terry Stotts, helping the Blazers reach three playoff berths and two 50-win seasons. He and Nori also worked together for years in Toronto.
Triano was the one who gave Nori his first NBA assistant coaching job, promoting him to the Raptors’ bench in 2008 after becoming Toronto’s head coach.
Williams had been in the mix for Portland’s head coaching job before the Blazers chose Nori. He spent the last three seasons as an assistant with the Utah Jazz after two years as a G League head coach. His Portland ties go back to the 2018-19 season, when he started with the Blazers as a player development intern.
In Other News...
Blazers May Already Have A Deni Avdija Problem They Didn't Expect
Deni Avdija has already become one of the more interesting long-range questions on Portlands roster, and not because of anything he has done wrong. CBS Sports analyst Sam Quinn recently framed the forward as a name Dallas could have on its radar when 2028 free agency arrives, pointing out that the Mavericks may need to think ahead if they want a path back toward contention. For the Blazers, that kind of speculation is a reminder that promising talent does not always line up neatly with the salary-cap realities that come with keeping it.
Portlands challenge is less about Avdijas fit than the financial and roster math around him. The Blazers have to weigh how they build around their current core, and recent moves have only made the picture more crowded. If the front office keeps layering talent onto the roster instead of carving out flexibility, retaining Avdija could become a tougher task than it looked when he first emerged as part of the teams future. [Read more 🡒]
Scoot Henderson Just Put The Blazers At A Backcourt Crossroads
Scoot Henderson is at an interesting point with the Trail Blazers, because he is eligible for a contract extension while Portlands backcourt plans seem to be shifting around him. For a young guard who was supposed to be part of the franchises next core, the timing matters. The front office does not have to rush into anything, but the longer this stays unresolved, the more it looks like Portland is weighing what Hendersons next role should really be.
If the Blazers are no longer viewing him as a primary backcourt piece, the conversation moves quickly from development to asset management. Around the league, there are already teams that could make sense as possible fits if Portland decides to explore a move, and that kind of interest usually keeps a players name alive in trade chatter right up to the deadline. The bigger question now is whether the Blazers want to clarify their direction with Henderson before that point arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Damian Lillard Has A Real Case Fans Will Love Debating
Damian Lillard has always lived in the conversation reserved for the leagues great perimeter shooters, and the case for him only gets more interesting when the discussion widens beyond raw volume. His place among the NBAs career three-point leaders, along with his true shooting mark and long-running reputation for making difficult shots look routine, gives Portland fans plenty to argue about when his name comes up next to Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, James Harden and Ray Allen.
What keeps Lillard in that elite tier is not just how often he scores from deep, but how much of it has mattered when the game tightens. His rsum is packed with decisive late-game moments and the kind of shot-making that changes a series or flips a night in an instant, which is why the debate around his place among all-time shooters is still so lively. For Blazers fans, it is the kind of discussion that never really gets old, because Lillard has made a career out of turning pressure into something he seems built to handle. [Read more 🡒]