Portland Trail Blazers hire two assistant coaches in Bjorkgren and Fleming

Published 9:45 am Monday, June 24, 2024

The Portland Trail Blazers announced Monday, June 24, the hiring of Nate Bjorkgren and Chris Fleming as assistant coaches under head coach Chauncey Billups for the upcoming 2024-2025 season.

Bjorkgren has been an assistant coach in the NBA for six seasons and was the head coach of the Indiana Pacers for the 2020-2021 season.

Fleming, from New Jersey, has been with the Chicago Bulls as an assistant for the last five years and has been coaching since 1998 when he began overseas in Germany. He’s also been an assistant for the Denver Nuggets (2015-2016) and Brooklyn Nets (2016-2019).

The spots opened up this summer after the departure of assistants Scott Brooks, Steve Hetzel and Rodney Billups. Hetzel moved to the east coast to join the Brooklyn Nets coaching staff while Brooks and Billups haven’t announced new gigs.

The double hiring leaves one assistant spot still open heading into the NBA Draft this week on June 26-27.

Bjorkgren has been coaching since 2004 when he started at Cactus Shadows High School in Arizona, eventually moving up the ladder as an assistant to the Iowa Energy (2007-2011) in the G League.

He then moved to become the head coach of the Dakota Wizards/Santa Cruz Warriors (2011-2013) and then back to Iowa for one season as head coach in 2013-2014.

Bjorkgren made the move up to the NBA where he was an assistant for the Phoenix Suns (2015-2017) and for the Toronto Raptors (2018-2020), the latter of which he won a championship with and became the first assistant coach to win both an NBA title and a G League title, both coming under Nick Nurse as the head coach.

That opened the door for Bjorkgren to become the head coach of the Indiana Pacers where he only lasted one season, going 34-38 in the 2020-2021 season and missing the playoffs following a loss to Washington in the Play-In Tournament.

Bjorkgren went back to Toronto (2021-2023) but was let go following Nurse’s departure. Bjorkgren spent a year away from the NBA in the 2023-2024 season.

Fleming played overseas in Germany for the Artland Dragons (QTSV Quakenbruck) after a solid career at Richmond in college.

He became an assistant for the team in the 1998-1999 season before retiring from playing in 2000. Fleming stayed on as the head coach for eight years from 2000-2008.

During his tenure with Artland, he coached the Germany U-20 team in 2005 before moving on to become the head coach of Brose Baskets, also in Germany. He led Brose to four German Cup titles, four Bundesliga titles and three German Supercup crowns.

Fleming’s time with Brose (2008-2014) led to an opportunity to coach the German national team from 2014-2017.

Following 2014 though, Fleming came back home to the States where he became an assistant with the Denver Nuggets (2015-2016). He then moved to Brooklyn for a few years (2016-2019) before landing in Chicago for the last five years (2020-2024).