Erik Spoelstra is Reportedly Staying in Miami, Trail Blazers Rumors Lose Momentum

The Portland Trail Blazers are looking for a new coach to take their current core deeper in the playoffs, and rumors over a potential target are beginning to be disproven.

According to a now-deleted tweet from Ethan Skolnick of Five Reasons Sports, multiple sources had expressed that Erik Spoelstra, head coach of the Miami Heat, had been targeted as a potential candidate by the Blazers for their head coaching vacancy.

It wasn’t much longer after the initial report when Travis Demers, the radio play-by-play reporter for Blazers games, said that according to his sources, interest in Spoelstra from Portland was “dead.”

The Trail Blazers fired former head coach Terry Stotts after failing to get out of the first round of the NBA Playoffs for the third time in the last four seasons. Stotts spent nine seasons in Portland and accumulated 402 wins with the team.

Spoelstra has been the head coach of the Miami Heat since 2008 and has accumulated 607 wins, appeared in five NBA Finals and won two NBA Championships.