{"id":42117,"date":"2025-05-19T01:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T01:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/42117\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T01:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T01:04:10","slug":"suns-head-coach-search-down-to-narrowed-down-for-2nd-round-of-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/42117\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns head coach search down to narrowed down for 2nd round of interviews."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"play\"<\/p>\n

Suns owner Mat Ishbia ’embarrassed’ by 2024-25 season<\/p>\n

At a Phoenix Suns press conference, team owner Mat Ishbia said he’s setting standards for what he expects from all coaching hires going forward.<\/p>\n

The Phoenix Suns<\/a> are advancing to the second round of interviews to find their next head coach.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, NBA insider Chris Haynes reported<\/a> the Suns have narrowed their search to eight candidates.<\/p>\n

Those he cited included Suns’ current assistant coach David Fizdale and assistants from five other teams: The Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>‘ Jordan Ott and Johnnie Bryant; Dallas Mavericks<\/a>‘ Sean Sweeney; Brooklyn Nets<\/a>‘ Steve Hetzel; Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>‘s Dave Bliss; Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>‘ Micah Nori; and New Orleans Pelicans<\/a>‘ James Borrego.<\/p>\n

Miami Heat assistant coach Chris Quinn also advanced to the next round, per NBA insider Jake Fischer for the Marc Stein Line report.<\/p>\n

The Republic’s Duane Rankin reported last week the Suns conducted more than 15 first-round interviews<\/a>. The Republic previously reported Fizdale, Quinn, Bryant, Nori and Borrego as possible candidates.<\/p>\n

New general manager Brian Gregory said during his introductory press conference on May 6 would be an “extensive process” for their next hire. Gregory also said they are looking for a coach who “aligns” with the ownership and front office for their vision of developing the team’s new identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbelievable basketball IQ,\u201d Gregory said about the type of coach Phoenix seeks. \u201cTremendous communicator. Shares our vision and what we understand needs to be done to be successful in basketball in this new NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the Suns’ end-of-season press conference, owner Mat Ishbia said he wants a coach who’s a “little bit grimy, a little bit grinder, a little bit tough.”<\/p>\n

More: Phoenix Suns offseason to-do list continues with finding head coach, NBA draft, trade talk<\/a><\/p>\n

Fizdale and Borrego have NBA head-coaching experience. Fizdale was the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a>‘ and New York Knicks<\/a>‘ coach for one season each from 2017-19. Borrego coached the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> from 2018-22. Both coaches have been on the Suns’ and Pelicans’ coaching staffs since 2023.<\/p>\n

One of Fizdale’s other attributes is knowing how to deal with star players from his tenure as a Miami Heat assistant from 2008-16. He helped coach LeBron James, Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh during Miami’s back-to-back titles in 2012 and 2013, as well as its four straight NBA Finals appearances from 2010-14. Fizdale is known for his close relationships with the Suns’ Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.<\/p>\n

Ott and Hetzel are have Michigan State connections to Ishbia and Gregory. Ishbia was a walk-on player for Michigan State’s 2000 men’s basketball national title team, and Gregory was on its coaching staff under Hall of Famer Tom Izzo. Ott was a video coordinator for the Spartans from 2008-13. Hetzel got his start as Izzo’s student manager from 2003-05.<\/p>\n

Suns CEO Josh Bartelstein has familiarity with Nori from their mutual days with the Detroit Pistons<\/a>. Bartelstein rose through the ranks of the Pistons front office from 2015 to 2023, the year he joined the Suns in his current role. Nori was a Pistons assistant coach from 2018-21 before he joined Minnesota.<\/p>\n

The Suns’ remaining candidates looks like a departure from their previous plans to have a replacement possessing championship pedigree and previous head coach roles. The last Suns two coaches Mike Budenholzer and Frank Vogel met that criteria. Budenholzer won a title with Milwaukee over Phoenix in 2021, and Vogel with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020.<\/p>\n

Both were fired after just one season leading the Suns, Vogel in 2024 and Budenholzer just a day after this past regular season ended with Phoenix having a 36-46 record and missing the play-in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Suns owner Mat Ishbia ’embarrassed’ by 2024-25 season At a Phoenix Suns press conference, team owner Mat Ishbia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[1085,7,670,247,306,684,473,311,305,193,1364,686,149,296,188,294,685,517,304,516,185,166,293,177,307,152,70,85,6,671,239,470,1090,191,67,310,179,674,61,134,675,2065,472,4045,297,132,66,1935,83,604,312,308,1930,73,1084,303],"class_list":{"0":"post-42117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-az","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-brooklyn","11":"tag-brooklyn-nets","12":"tag-cavaliers","13":"tag-charlotte","14":"tag-charlotte-hornets","15":"tag-city","16":"tag-cleveland","17":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","18":"tag-coaching","19":"tag-dallas","20":"tag-dallas-mavericks","21":"tag-detroit","22":"tag-detroit-pistons","23":"tag-grizzlies","24":"tag-hornets","25":"tag-james","26":"tag-knicks","27":"tag-lebron","28":"tag-lebron-james","29":"tag-mavericks","30":"tag-memphis","31":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","32":"tag-minnesota","33":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","34":"tag-national","35":"tag-national-sports","36":"tag-nba","37":"tag-nets","38":"tag-new","39":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","40":"tag-new-visitors-az","41":"tag-new-york-knicks","42":"tag-news","43":"tag-oklahoma","44":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","45":"tag-orleans","46":"tag-overall","47":"tag-overall-positive","48":"tag-pelicans","49":"tag-phoenix","50":"tag-phoenix-suns","51":"tag-phoenixsuns","52":"tag-pistons","53":"tag-positive","54":"tag-sports","55":"tag-sports-coaching-u0026-training","56":"tag-sports-news","57":"tag-suns","58":"tag-thunder","59":"tag-timberwolves","60":"tag-training","61":"tag-u0026","62":"tag-visitors","63":"tag-york"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}