{"id":545060,"date":"2026-01-18T17:37:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:37:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/545060\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T17:37:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T17:37:19","slug":"suns-lookahead-ott-back-in-brooklyn-as-coach-of-the-year-candidate-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/545060\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns lookahead. Ott back in Brooklyn as Coach of the Year candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/basketball\/nba\/teams\/phoenix-suns\/21\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Phoenix Suns;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Phoenix Suns<\/a> continue their six-game road trip on Monday, Jan. 19, against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center.<\/p>\n<p>This will be Phoenix\u2019s first matchup against the Nets this regular season. The teams met twice during the preseason in China, splitting the matchups.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Suns first-year head coach Jordan Ott spent four seasons (2018-22) in Brooklyn as an assistant. He now finds himself in the Coach of the Year conversation as Phoenix is playing above expectations after a 36-win season under Mike Budenholzer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a guru,\u201d Suns star guard Devin Booker said last week about Ott. \u201cHe studies the game at a high level. I\u2019ve spoken on it before. He\u2019s not just watching our games. He\u2019s watching everybody across the league and what\u2019s working and what\u2019s not. The evolution of it. He doesn\u2019t feel like he has all the right answers. He understands that the game is changing and evolving at the same time and you have to keep up.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Detroit Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault and Toronto Raptors coach Darko Rajakovi\u0107 should also be in the mix for the award.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has a way of connecting with the players,\u201d Suns forward Royce O\u2019Neale said last week about Ott. Putting us in position to succeed offensively and defensively. Connecting us. He&#8217;s also willing to listen. See what we see out there while he\u2019s coaching us and him listening and adapting during the games.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Suns finish the road trip with games Jan. 20 against the Philadelphia 76ers and Jan. 23 versus the Atlanta Hawks.<\/p>\n<p>This will be their first matchup against the Sixers this season.<\/p>\n<p>Phoenix lost to Atlanta, 124-122, at home on Nov. 16 after blowing a 22-point lead in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p>The Suns will then return home to face the Miami Heat on Jan. 25.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/mailto:dmrankin@gannett.com\" data-ylk=\"slk:dmrankin@gannett.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dmrankin@gannett.com<\/a> or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DuaneRankin\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:@DuaneRankin;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">@DuaneRankin<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Support local journalism: Subscribe to <a href=\"https:\/\/cm.azcentral.com\/specialoffer?gps-source=CPNEWS&amp;utm_medium=onsite&amp;utm_source=TAGLINE&amp;utm_campaign=NEWSROOM&amp;utm_content=JEREMYCLUFF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:azcentral.com;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">azcentral.com<\/a> today.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azcentral.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/suns\/2026\/01\/18\/phoenix-suns-brooklyn-nets-road-trip-preview\/88155801007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Phoenix Suns continue marathon road trip against Brooklyn Nets;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Phoenix Suns continue marathon road trip against Brooklyn Nets<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Phoenix Suns continue their six-game road trip on Monday, Jan. 19, against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3791],"tags":[208,7264,7,247,188,2292,3991,189,6,475,207,2065,472,4045,474,604,6445,476],"class_list":{"0":"post-545060","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix-suns","8":"tag-atlanta-hawks","9":"tag-barclays-center","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-brooklyn-nets","12":"tag-detroit-pistons","13":"tag-devin-booker","14":"tag-jordan-ott","15":"tag-miami-heat","16":"tag-nba","17":"tag-oklahoma-city","18":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","19":"tag-phoenix","20":"tag-phoenix-suns","21":"tag-phoenixsuns","22":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","23":"tag-suns","24":"tag-the-suns","25":"tag-toronto-raptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115917320634365133","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545060","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=545060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545060\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}