Former Portland Path Blazers level guard Earl Watson, a former NBA head coach, has a brand new job.
The sources inform Chris Haynes, a longtime NBA insider that the 6-foot-1, 45-year-old veteran will be part of his former UCLA head coach Steve Lavin as an assistant coach on the bench on the College of San Diego.
Watson was chosen fortieth total within the 2001 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics. His point-of-attack protection turned a degree of delight for the undersized level guard the next season. Throughout the 2003–04 season with the Memphis Grizzlies, he completed tenth in voting for Defensive Participant of the 12 months.
After stints with the SuperSonics (twice), Grizzlies, Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, Indiana Pacers and Utah Jazz, he completed his profession in Portland throughout the 2013-14 season.
That 12 months, Watson was primarily a deep bench veteran at age 34, showing in simply 24 video games whereas averaging 0.5 factors, 0.6 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 6.7 minutes per night time.
The Blazers, coached by Terry Stotts, have been led by two All-NBA Third Group gamers, level guard Damian Lillard and energy ahead/heart LaMarcus Aldridge. The 6-foot-2 Lillard was in his second skilled season out of Weber State.
The remainder of this crew’s surprisingly wholesome beginning 5 (each starter apart from Aldridge appeared in all 82 regular-season video games) consisted of pre-torn ACL capturing guard Wesley Matthews, wing Nicolas Batum and heart Robin Lopez.
Portland completed with a 54-28 document, good for fifth place within the Western Convention. Within the first spherical of the Western Convention playoffs, the Path Blazers defeated James Harden and Dwight Howard’s Houston Rockets in a six-game collection. Portland’s luck ran out within the second spherical towards the San Antonio Spurs, 62-20. The eventual Finals champions, led by future Corridor of Famers Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili, crushed Portland in a five-game collection. Two summers later, Aldridge signed a profitable four-year contract value $80 million, the utmost on the time, to hitch the Spurs as a free agent.
Watson completed his 13-year enjoying profession with 5,593 common season factors, 3,871 assists and 873 steals. He started his head teaching profession with San Antonio’s D League (now G League) affiliate, the Austin Spurs, in 2014–15. He later served as an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns below Jeff Hornacek. After Hornacek was fired, Watson was employed as Phoenix’s interim head coach to conclude the 2015–16 season. He had his interim head coach standing eliminated in 2016–17. After simply three video games of Phoenix’s 2017–18 season, he was fired after his 0–3 begin to the season. He moved on to work as a studio analyst with the Pac-12 Community and NBA TV from 2019-21. Most not too long ago, Watson served as an assistant coach below Nick Nurse with the Toronto Raptors from 2021-23.
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