Reacting to Phoenix Suns’ coaching search landing on two finalists

Reacting to Phoenix Suns’ coaching search landing on two finalists

[Music] And then there were two two for the Suns head coaching job. That is our top story of the day. It is going to come down to Jordan Au and Johnny Bryant, the two Cleveland Cavaliers. It was reported by Shams this morning that it was going to come down to those two. There were some conflicting reports as to what the actual two were going to be. Yeah. Mark Stein had a report earlier and somebody asked me, “How true is this?” And I said, “This this one’s incorrect. This one is not true.” He had uh two finalists, Jordan Au and Chris Quinn. So I got asked about this this morning before the Shams report came out. Somebody said, “Gambo, is this true?” Chris Quinn, Jordan expected to move on according to Mark Stein. I said, “No, no, that is not true.” Because at that point, I knew it wasn’t Quinn. And then Shams reported it and I was able to say, “Okay, this is it. These are the two guys. It is going to be Jordan A and it is going to be Johnny Bryan.” Um, and I reported earlier today, those two will meet with Matt Ishbia in Michigan tomorrow. Both of them, all of the interviews will be over by tomorrow and we will have a new head coach of the Phoenix Suns by the end of this week. We’re going to see white smoke coming from Michigan when they picked one of their guys. Are we going to see Are we Do you want me to Do you want me to bring you back some like volcanic like uh rock or something? No, I’m okay. I’m I’m okay. Maybe I appreciate that. I appreciate that. How about you guys? You want some volcanic rock? I’m I’m good. Okay. Bring off to bring back volcanic rock from Sicily. Bring us back something cool. Yes. Volcanic rock. Bring back. How about just come back alive if there’s an active volcano? You know, you first of all, come back alive and preferably something sweet. You know, some kind of Switzerland chocolate. Chocolate. Some kind of some kind of sweet treat from overseas. Always speaks to the Burns and Gambo show. right to our So, okay. So, white smoke aside, there’s not going to be whites, but the meetings are going to happen in Michiganello. Uh, oh, please. Um, you say they’re going to take place in Michigan. In Michigan tomorrow, and it’s all going to be over. Then it’s decision time and you think by the end of the week, uh, we will know who it’s going to be. We will know by the end of this week. Yes. The Phoenix that that was the plan all along. We we had said, you know, about going back six weeks ago, this was going to run late June, late May into early June. We expected early June would be the time frame that the Suns would name a head coach based on our reporting, what we knew. Now, um, Brian Gregory has run it all up till now. He has run everything up to now and his responsibility was to get to a couple of finalists and now you bring the owner in and you say, “Okay, Matt Eshbia, I want people to know that Mattbia and and and everybody else in that organization has had nothing to do with narrowing the list to where it is right now.” They put Brian Gregory in charge. He’s the general manager. He vetted everybody. He interviewed everybody. He did a first round. He did a second round. And then what he did was he advanced a couple of candidates that he was really high on. Johnny Bryant being one, Jordan not being the other. And those two candidates will meet with the owner tomorrow in Michigan. Uh they’ll go through a process, an in-person meeting. And at that point, I think they’ll gather up probably the next day, which would be Wednesday, and make a decision. So, um, we’ll either know I I don’t believe we’ll know tomorrow. The earliest is Wednesday. The latest is Friday, but we will know sometime. I’m going to guess Wednesday or Thursday. Okay. So, as we do with stuff like this, there’s what we know and what we think. So, let’s What do we think about this? What do we What do we think about these two guys being the guy? You you you first. First, up to you. Um, go ahead. You go first. I want to write my notes because I wrote some stuff down on each. So, I Okay. First of all, to sit here and say I’m disappointed that Sean Sweeney didn’t get it or that Chris Quinn didn’t get it, you know, understand that that’s going to be like a really minor disappointment. That’s a small disappointment that those two guys did only because when comparing assistant coaches, I don’t know that much about these guys. You know, I know what I read. I know what you tell me about them based off of the calls that you make. But for the most part, when you’re talking about a room full of assistant coaches who have never been the head coaches, it’s hard to sit there, oh, I’m really I like this guy or I want that guy. I would have preferred Sweeney. I would have preferred Chris Chris Quinn. Those are the two guys I think I I mostly had my eye on. I know Sweeney pretty well, so I wanted Sweeney to get the job. I had talked to Sweeney throughout the whole process after he had interviewed and I’ll just say this now because he’s not a candidate, but I had had several conversations with Sweeney throughout this whole thing. He’s a good candidate. He’s a really good candidate. So, so, but I’m also not going to sit here and say I’m profoundly disappointed that it’s not going to be the two guys that I wanted to get it cuz it’s not like, you know, there’s these there’s assistant coaches that we just don’t have that much of like a a foundation of knowledge about. or not. Yeah, I don’t have a lot of I don’t I don’t I don’t have a lot of know. I think what’s interesting is that is that both Cleveland Cavalier guys made the cut and it’s well known that there is a professional rivalry between Dan Gilbert and Matt Ishbia in the mortgage business and that Dan Gilbert owns the Cleveland Caval. I I think the only thing is Matt Ishbia had nothing to do with advancing these two guys to this round. Fine. And you know it fine but still fine but still right like you you could sit there and say that until you literally turn blue in your face and I won’t care. It’s still like wow both of the guys are the and then of course the Michigan State thing which you’re not which again you you’ll say Matt Ishbia had nothing to do with it and you could say it till you’re blue in the face and I still won’t care. I think it’s interesting that the Michigan State guy made the cut and I think it’s even more interesting that the two Cavs guys made the cut given the rivalry between the two owners. I’ll I’ll say it. Um out of out of the two guys that are left, I would prefer that it be Johnny Bryan because he’s been with Snyder in Utah, he’s been with Tibido in New York. Uh he’s been with Atkinson in Cleveland, he’s been a number one in two different places. He’s got all the qualifications. I don’t think you could go wrong with Johnny Bryant. I don’t know enough about Jordan Knot because he hasn’t been a number one. My the research in talking to other coaches are that he is a terrific offensive mind. His offensive executions are fantastic. He’s very creative. Um so I have spoken with different coaches around the league about what do you know about Jordan? Um I think there’s a better understanding and more knowledge out there about Johnny Bryant than there is Jordan Au. So, I would lean towards Johnny Bryant. Uh, again, I’ll say this. They did an extensive search, maybe the most extensive that we’ve ever seen in the NBA to get to this point. They vetted everybody very carefully. Um, if you’re not gets the job, you’re going to get the knock. He’s got a Michigan State tie. You’re going to get that knock. I understand it. If they feel he’s the best candidate for the job, well, then they got to hire him. You can’t If for some reason they believe that Jordan would do the best job and like, oh, we can’t hire this guy. Why? Well, he’s a Michigan State guy and everybody will he’ll just hold his fall back and everybody will be mad at us and screw it. Like, you already hired Brian Gregory. Like, no, this honestly, if he’s the best guy for the job, hire him. I know. It’s just my my skepticism level of this whole thing working goes up a little bit if they hire the Michigan State guy. I would just I’d be, you know, I’m not going to be upset about it. I’m not going to go after the organization with, you know, torches and pitchforks, but my skepticism of this whole thing working, it’d be an eye roll. I mean, it just would be. You just kind Oh, boy. they’ve hired the Michigan State guy and and yeah, you’re right. If they determine that he’s the best candidate, okay, we just got to trust it and believe it and and give into it and say, “Okay, let’s see how this works.” But the degree of skepticism, it goes up dramatically when it’s a Michigan State guy, you know, and they’re going to have to be ready for that. Like like Jordan not during his introductory press conference, if he’s the guy, he better be prepared for Michigan State question after Michigan State question after Michigan cuz it’s coming. Yeah, it’s coming. He better be ready for it. You run you run the risk and not even a risk. I mean, the reality like if you look at my timeline right now, I mean, so many people are pissed about the fact that there’s a Michigan State guy. They don’t even know him. They don’t even know the guy. The guy might end up being the the best coach in the history of the NBA. We don’t know. But you just nobody wants him because there’s a Michigan State tie, which is somewhat unfair, but it is what it is. But if you’re asking me right now who would I prefer to be the coach, I would say Johnny Bryant. I would prefer Johnny Bryant. I’ll say it now because I just think that the being with Snyder, being with Atinson, being with Tibido, being a number one in two different places, he has got all the qualifications to be the head coach of the Phoenix Sun. Thanks for watching Burns and Gambo. Click to see more from the guys and hit the button in the middle to subscribe so you never miss a video from Arizona Sports.

Burns & Gambo react to the final two candidates for the next Phoenix Suns head coach.

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