Micah Nori is Ready for What He Signed Up For

📍TUALATIN, Ore. — It wouldn't be a Trail Blazers coaching hire without something else dominating the conversation.

And it wouldn't be a Tom Dundon-era news cycle without a self-created PR disaster by the new owner taking away from a great milestone for the organization.

"The best part of my job, my favorite thing about what I do, is I have a front-row seat to watching people live their dreams," Blazers general manager Joe Cronin said on Thursday morning in introducing Micah Nori as the franchise's next head coach. "It's such a cool and unique thing to watch people do what they love and passionately go on their path."

For Nori, this is the realization of a dream almost three decades in the making as a lifer assistant coach with five different organizations across 28 years in the NBA, most recently with the Minnesota Timberwolves for the last five seasons. He's interviewed for numerous head coaching jobs in that time, including the Lakers and Cavaliers openings in 2024 and the Knicks job that went to Mike Brown last summer, perpetually finishing second or third in those searches.

"I’ve interviewed for so many jobs, I think it was a total of seven, and for about five of them, they probably said, 'Micah, you are No. 2,'" Nori said. "Did I get discouraged? Absolutely not. You don’t stay in this league for 28 years, starting where I started, and continue to do this. I do know this. When you start in this business, it’s 'do your job, do your job well, in such a small way, you don’t tear other people down.' And you continue to work. And then the benefits and the opportunities present themselves. And that’s what I have, is an opportunity."

And as far as opportunities go for new coaches, this is a pretty good one for Nori on the court. He gets a young team coming off its first playoff appearance in five years with a blossoming All-Star in Deni Avdija, two young defensive cornerstones in Donovan Clingan and Toumani Camara, quality veterans like Jrue Holiday and (if he re-signs) Robert Williams III, plus the imminent return of all-time franchise leading scorer Damian Lillard.

In every way, this is a much better roster than the one Chauncey Billups inherited when he replaced Terry Stotts in 2021, and Cronin has their asset pool and cap sheet in the best shape it's been in at least a decade. There's an opportunity here for Nori to make every one of those seven teams he interviewed with regret passing on him and take the Blazers from frisky play-in team to legitimate playoff contention.

"As a first time head coach, you very rarely get an opportunity to coach a roster that has already been in the playoffs," Nori said. "Usually, you’re taking over bad situations and tough situations where you’re going to have some bumps and bruises. Very fortunate to have the roster that we have moving forward."

But...and there's always a but with this franchise...