The head-coaching job in Portland is a great opportunity for Maurice Cheeks, who had an outstanding NBA career as a point guard and is a high-quality person. I hope he succeeds, but he has no head-coaching experience. Coaching the Blazers will be a huge undertaking.

You never know how a former player who has never been a head coach will adapt to the head-coaching role, even under the most ideal circumstances. Doc Rivers has done well in Orlando, but he has a different personality than Cheeks. While Cheeks is a quieter person, Rivers is more outgoing.

Cheeks has served the last four years as an assistant coach under Larry Brown in Philadelphia. In his coaching capacity, he worked mostly to refine the skills of the guards. Brown has given Cheeks credit for some of Allen Iverson's progress, which is worthy of merit. But Cheeks has never had to be the final decision-maker of starting lineups, in-game substitutions, changing tactics, formulating a game plan, organizing practices and determining roles on the team.

My fear is that in Portland management, fans and media believe they have a contending team. Cheeks will inherit a Blazers team that demonstrated last season it can make the playoffs, but not a title run.