The Portland Trail Blazers’ G League affiliate, the Rip City Remix, has named Jonah Herscu as its next head coach, the organization announced Tuesday.
Herscu spent the past three seasons as an assistant coach for the Trail Blazers under head coach Chauncey Billups, joining the organization in 2022 shortly before Billups’ second season in Portland. He also served as the head coach of Portland’s Summer League team in 2023 and 2024.
Prior to joining the Blazers, Herscu built up 14 seasons of experience in the NBA, G League and WNBA. Herscu spent three seasons with the Sacramento Kings, starting as an advance scout in 2019 before being named an assistant coach for the 2021-22 season. He also spent one season with the Los Angeles Lakers as an advance scout and player development assistant in 2018-19, as well as two seasons with the organization as an assistant video coordinator from 2016-18.
Herscu’s move to the Remix takes him back to the league where his career began. His first coaching experience came as an assistant for the G League’s Fort Wayne Mad Ants in 2013, before he moved on to work as an assistant coach for the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and as a video coordinator for the Chicago Bulls.
Herscu is filling the Remix vacancy left by previous head coach Sergi Oliva, who returns to his role as a Trail Blazers assistant general manager. Oliva, a Blazers assistant GM since 2022, had always planned to coach the Remix for just one season. Before Oliva took the job, Jim Moran, now the associate head coach of the Florida State Seminoles, served as the head coach during the Remix’s inaugural 2023-24 season.
That means Herscu becomes the Remix’s third head coach in franchise history, as well as the club’s third head coach in three seasons.
Additionally, the Blazers announced Eli Kell-Abrams will serve as the Remix’s lead assistant coach. Kell-Abrams spent the past two seasons as the Blazers’ head video coordinator under Billups. Before joining the Blazers, Kell-Abrams worked two seasons as the head video coordinator with the Philadelphia 76ers from 2021-23. He also spent three seasons with the Miami Heat as an assistant video coordinator (2019-21) and video intern (2018-19).