Hiring two-time MVP Steve Nash as a senior advisor was an easy win for the Phoenix Suns, a fan-friendly move for nostalgia’s sake.
It could be a hollow symbolic addition, a title that allows Nash to pop into the building a little more. But Nash has been on the practice courts since training camp began last week, and so have other current and former head coaches. Former Charlotte head coach Steve Clifford was hired as a Suns advisor as well, while Phoenix has been visited by Alabama men’s coach Nate Oats and former New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau.
More than a PR win, it’s Nash’s presence that represents Ott tapping into all of his resources and relationships from 13 seasons as an NBA assistant to make sure his biggest opportunity goes right.
“Just being in the area and being a Phoenix Sun, (hiring Nash) was a no-brainer,” Ott told reporters this past week. “It was just what opportunity (Nash) wanted and how we can help him feel the best to help this group.”
Nash has a personal connection to Ott. The former Suns point guard retained Ott on the Brooklyn Nets’ staff after Nash followed the Kenny Atkinson era in 2020, and they coached nearly two years together before Nash was fired.
Steve Nash is back here at practice. Collin Gillespie is wise to hover pic.twitter.com/I4iTyuDErk
— Kellan Olson (@KellanOlson) September 26, 2025
The re-connection with the franchise was made easier because Nash still lives close to the Suns’ practice facility.
“The insights that he’s going to be able to give our coaching staff, our players and myself are going to be tremendous,” Suns general manager Brian Gregory said at media day. “I think it will be very, very impactful. There’s an expertise, there’s an ability to analyze, there’s an ability to independently evaluate different things.
“We want to bring in highly intelligent, high character guys, no ego, where the Phoenix Suns mean something. And that’s Steve Nash.”
Two days after Gregory spoke with owner Mat Ishbia about giving Nash a formal title, a conversation with the two-time MVP struck him.
“(We were) just talking about basketball and he says, ‘We,’” Gregory said, “and I was like, ‘Damn.’ It’s pretty special ’cause it’s back to ‘we,’ back to where it belongs. And he’s going to make a huge impact for us. Not only for me and the rest of our front office, but with Jordan and his staff.”
Gregory, like Ott, is in his first year on the job. The general manager went through a thorough process of evaluating head-coaching options coming off the firing of the team’s third veteran head coach in three seasons.
Quickly, it became clear that a first-time head coach would be the pick. When Ott was named Mike Budenholzer’s successor, the resume on paper wasn’t the deepest of even the short-list of finalists, and Ott’s Michigan State tie that is shared with Gregory and Ishbia naturally hung over the decision, fairly or not.
Ott rightfully began his tenure defiantly, saying he earned the job because of his resume.
Unproven as he is individually, his staff lacks even one former head coach. But Ott has flexed a strong Rolodex of contacts early on in camp.
Nash specifically might be the most important voice as a sounding board for the Suns’ best player, Devin Booker.
“Having two-time in the building … just knowing that he’s in the gym, is going to raise the level of everything,” Booker told reporters. “I’m excited to further develop that relationship and pick his brain. Obviously, he’s a mastermind of this sport.
“Even when he’s not playing, he can see what the game is going to be and he can think the game at a level that nobody else can.”
Booker has handled being the franchise face just fine, but this year, he will more than ever act as leader — and as point guard.
That’s where Nash’s “density” of knowledge, as Ott put it, could come in handy.
Booker will be fine either way. Nash’s presence more broadly represents the Suns’ attempts to build something passionately, organically and good enough to survive — and improve — through the likely many losses in 2025-26 under a first-year coach and first-year GM.
