Portland Trail Blazers Coaching Staff Reshaped for 2026-27 Season
PORTLAND – The on-court product will look different in Portland next season. So will the brain trust behind it.
The Trail Blazers have reshaped and reinforced Micah Nori’s coaching staff for the 2026-27 campaign, layering veteran voices, rising minds, and player-focused specialists into a group that signals one thing: this rebuild is getting serious.
At the center of it all is a familiar face.
Triano returns, bringing Olympic pedigree and NBA miles
Jay Triano is back in Portland, and that alone changes the tone around the Blazers’ bench.
A 2026 Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame inductee, Triano arrives with two decades of NBA coaching experience, including head coaching runs with the Toronto Raptors (2008-11) and Phoenix Suns (2017-18). The first Canadian-born head coach in league history, he has lived just about every version of high-pressure basketball: three Olympic Games as a player, two separate stints leading the Canadian National Team (1999-04, 2012-19), and years of work on NBA sidelines.
Portland already knows what that looks like up close. Triano previously served as a Blazers assistant from 2012-16, then most recently worked as an assistant with the Dallas Mavericks in 2025-26. Now he returns to a franchise that needs both gravitas and guidance as it tries to grow a young core in a ruthless Western Conference.
Young tacticians and G League climbers
Around Triano, Portland has stacked the staff with coaches who have climbed fast.
Mike Williams joins Nori’s group 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, to a 19-13 record and a postseason semifinal appearance in 2022-23.
His story loops back to Portland. Williams started his career as a player development intern with the Blazers, then moved to Washington as a player development assistant from 2018-19, a role he held for three seasons. Now he returns with a fuller résumé and a reputation for connecting with emerging players.
Quinton Crawford, meanwhile, enters his second year in Portland as an assistant coach, but his trajectory already carries championship weight. Before joining the Blazers, he guided the Stockton Kings to the 2025 NBA G League title in his first season as head coach. He has also served as an assistant with the Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, and Los Angeles Lakers, including a spot on the Lakers’ 2020 NBA Championship staff. That blend of development chops and title experience is exactly what a young locker room tends to notice.
Development at the core
The message running through the Blazers’ announcements is clear: player development is not a side project. It’s the foundation.
Gilbert Abraham will continue as an assistant coach while entering his third season as Director of Player Development. His background tracks the modern path of the performance-driven coach. Before Portland, Abraham spent the 2022-23 season as an assistant with the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s G League affiliate, and served as Director of Performance for Tandem Sports and Entertainment from 2021-23. Data, performance science, and on-court teaching all intersect in his lane.
Leron Black is the latest internal promotion. After working last season as a player development coach, he steps up to assistant coach. Black has already put in time with Rip City Remix, the Blazers’ G League affiliate, spending two seasons there as an assistant. Before Portland, he worked at the college level with the University of Dayton as a graduate assistant from 2021-23, following a professional playing career in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico from 2018-21. He knows the grind from every angle.
On the development front line with them: Pooh Jeter and Jason Luhnow.
Jeter enters his fourth season as a Player Development Coach, and his passport tells a story as rich as his film sessions. He played for G League Ignite from 2021-23, offering veteran guidance to top prospects, and logged NBA time with the Sacramento Kings in 2010-11. His international stops stretch from Spain and Israel to China, France, Turkey, and Ukraine. In 2024, he was inducted into the University of Portland Athletic Hall of Fame, a local honor that underscores his standing in the city where he now mentors the next wave.
Luhnow, also heading into his fourth season, transitions into a full-time player development coach after splitting duties as video coordinator and development coach last year. He joined the Blazers in 2022 as a video intern, a classic backroom starting point. His playing roots run through Lake Oswego High School and a standout career at Lewis and Clark College, followed by a stint with the Woodville Warriors in Australia’s NBL1. Before Portland called, he coached at Lake Oswego High School as a junior varsity and varsity assistant and worked directly with collegiate and professional players. Now his journey from local gym floors to NBA practice courts comes full circle.
Ikenna Smart stays on as video coordinator and player development coach, while Ty Vitko returns for a second season as assistant video coordinator. John Townsend continues in his role as shooting coach, the quiet specialist every modern roster leans on.
A bridge between bench and front office
There’s also a new title for one of the staff’s most experienced voices.
Nate Bjorkgren, entering his fourth season with the Blazers, shifts into a hybrid role as Special Assistant to the Coaching Staff and Basketball Operations. His résumé includes assistant coaching stops with the Toronto Raptors (2018-20, 2021-23) and a season as head coach of the Indiana Pacers in 2020-21. That blend of bench experience and head-coaching perspective gives Portland another seasoned mind at the intersection of strategy and personnel.
And in that same space, a new hire arrives with a different toolkit.
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 job in Portland is explicit: use data to sharpen decisions across basketball operations and carve out competitive edges wherever the numbers say they exist. Brocato brings a Juris Doctor from Gonzaga University School of Law and a psychology degree from Washington State University, a combination that fits the evolving world of analytics, contracts, and human performance.
Put it all together and the picture is unmistakable. Portland has stacked its staff with championship experience, G League climbers, global travelers, and analytics minds, all wrapped around a head coach charged with steering a young roster through the next phase of its rebuild.
The roster will decide how high this group can climb. The staff now looks built to push it there.
