Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts is generally loathe to reveal who is going to be in his starting lineup. His refusal doesn’t necessarily stop media from asking -- after all, that is part of the job -- but those who cover the team regularly know that if you’re curious to find out which five players will start on any given night, you’ll have to get that information from a player or wait around until lineups are submitted some time close to tipoff.
But every now and then, Stotts breaks his self-imposed protocol to tip his own starting hand, as he did during his first NBA “media week” interview Tuesday afternoon from the team’s practice facility in Tualatin.