Terry Stotts didn't get the Mavericks gig, but he's not sitting on his couch this month either. USA Basketball tabbed the former Blazers, Bucks and Hawks staffer to run the bench for its August World Cup qualifying window, marking his first-ever assignment with the program.
FIBA surprise: After interviewing for the Mavericks' head coaching vacancy in the spring, former Blazers/Bucks/Hawks coach Terry Stotts will be head coach for Team USA's World Cup qualifying games this month against Chile and Colombia. Roster featuring various NBA alumni below:
The timing is what makes this one land. Stotts interviewed for Dallas's head coaching vacancy back in the spring after departing Golden State, where he'd spent two seasons as an assistant under Steve Kerr. Nothing came of the Mavs conversation, but it clearly kept his name in circulation, and now he's the guy USA Basketball trusts to hold down a qualifying window against two South American sides.
Stotts isn't walking into this cold. He was Portland's head coach for 9 seasons from 2012 to 2021, racking up 8 straight playoff appearances and going 517-486 across his 13-year NBA head coaching career. Before that, he spent 4 seasons as a Mavericks assistant under Rick Carlisle, helping Dallas win the 2011 championship. That's a lot of pedigree for a set of qualifiers most casual fans won't even know are happening.
USA Basketball's roster for this window is built almost entirely from NBA alumni and G League talent rather than current stars, which is standard for these qualifying windows — the marquee names stay home while the program leans on pros like Mike James and Orlando Robinson to get the job done. Team USA holds training camp in Miami through Aug. 24 before flying to Santiago to face Chile, then heads to Washington, D.C. to host Colombia to close out the window.
None of this changes the bigger picture for Stotts — he's still a coach looking for his next full-time NBA seat, and a strong showing here won't hurt that case. But for now, the World Cup qualifying path runs through him, and Team USA needed someone who's actually won something to steer a roster this unfamiliar through two road-heavy games in 5 days.