A fourth head coach is about to lead the Phoenix Suns in as many season. It’s not ideal, but you know what they say, fourth times the charm, right? Close enough. As the Suns sit in turmoil surrounding the future of the franchise, nailing the head coaching hire is paramount. Whether the team turns things back around to work with a Devin Booker and Kevin Durant core or shifts gears back into a rebuild, Phoenix needs to find the right coach. These are the eight candidates The Stein Line’s Marc Stein has whittled down as potential fits for the vacant Suns coaching position
David Fizdale
David Fizdale has been an assistant on both Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer staffs, which some fans may hold against him. Why hire a guy who has been a constant in two dysfunctional staffs? On the other hand, it would be rash to blame one man for an entire staff’s faults and perhaps the continuity he would bring is what the Suns need from the head coaching position.
Once regarded as one of the top up-and-coming head coaches, Fizdale has had two rocky tenures as coach of both the Memphis Grizzlies from 2016-17 and the New York Knicks from 2018-19; he got fired in his second season at both jobs due to a 7-12 start with an eight-game losing streak in Memphis and a 4-18 start to the year with New York. It’s entirely possible Fizdale is better suited as an assistant having won two championships with the Miami Heat in 2012 and 2013 with another two Finals appearances in there. But, one could also argue the Grizzlies were headed towards a rebuild anyway and that nobody was going to do well with that Knicks job.
James Borrego
James Borrego was the head coach for four seasons in Charlotte, guiding the team to two Play-In Tournament losses in 2021 and 2022, the latter of those being a 43-win season. Borrego’s teams are generally more offense-oriented than defensive and his Hornets squad never finished in the top half of the NBA in defensive rating. Since the Hornets let him go, that team has had fewer wins each season than the year prior, bottoming out at just 19 wins in the 2024-25 season. So maybe Borrego wasn’t the problem there after all and could bring his expertise to the Suns.
Aside from Charlotte, Borrego brings time as the interim head coach of the Orlando Magic in 2015 and over two decades of assistant coaching experience in the NBA. His stops include San Antonio where he won championships in 2005 and 2007, the then New Orleans Hornets under former Suns coach Monty Williams, a return to the Spurs and finally a return to New Orleans with the now named Pelicans.
Coincidentally, both Borrego and Fizdale crossed paths at the University of San Diego where Fizdale was an assistant coach and Borrego was both a player and assistant.
Sean Sweeney
Sean Sweeney has been assistant coach with Jason Kidd at all three of his coaching stops in Brooklyn, Milwaukee and now Dallas. Should Sweeney be hired, he’d continue a long list of video coordinators who have made their way into head coaching circles. He’s also been credited as being instrumental in the development of two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Alongside Kidd, Sweeney has been able to build a defensive-stalwart Mavericks team that reached the NBA Finals last year before the infamous Luka Dončić trade. Now with the number one pick in tow, would Sweeney choose to stay with Dallas and the opportunity to coach Cooper Flagg and Anthony Davis, or take his first NBA head coaching gig?
Johnnie Bryant
Just like Sweeney was credited in the development of Antetokounmpo, Johnnie Bryant has been credited with molding Donovan Mitchell into the star he is today. Much like Mitchell, Devin Booker is one of the best shooting guards in the NBA in part due to both of their abilities to slither through a defense and versatility to shift to playing point guard at times. Could Bryant implement a similar system to the ones he’s coached under in Utah and Cleveland to help Booker and the Suns succeed?
At only 39 years old, Bryant would become one of the youngest coaches in the association and could potentially make himself more relatable to a roster that has seen its last three coaches aged 50 or older. However, that lack of life experience could also play to his detriment in some situations. He may not be a wunderkind of coaching, but there’s a reason he’s among those in serious consideration for the Suns job.
Jordan Ott
Jordan Ott has been in NBA circles since 2013 as a video coordinator under Mike Budenholzer with the Atlanta Hawks, and later as an assistant under five different coaching regimes with the Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers. He has experience coaching under the reigning Coach of The Year in Kenny Atkinson, and has been part of some coaching turmoil like the Suns are going through right now.
During his time with the Nets, the franchise went through Atkinson, Steve Nash and Jacque Vaughn as their head coaches. Ott also coached Durant during his time in Brooklyn. The only concern for Suns fans who are worried about team owner Mat Ishbia making a bunch of Michigan State hires is that Ott spent five years as a video coordinator at Michigan State.
Steve Hetzel
Similar to Ott, Steve Hetzel also has his own Michigan State connections. Hetzel was a student manager under Tom Izzo and majored in kinesiology at the school. Hetzel has been in NBA circles since the mid-2000s when he started out with the San Antonio Spurs as, you guessed it, a video coordinator before moving on to the Cavaliers and earning assistant coaching jobs with the Pistons, Hornets, Magic, Trail Blazers and Nets, as well as a season coaching the Canton Charge, Cleveland’s G-League team.
In his coaching stops, Hetzel hasn’t had the experience coaching superstars like Booker and Durant, so that could be a knock against him. The Suns likely don’t want someone who hasn’t dealt with star players before as their first time coaching in what is a crucial hire for the franchise.
Micah Nori
Most fans likely know Micah Nori for his witty humor during mid-game interviews, but he’s more than just a soundbite on the sidelines. Last year Nori filled in for Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch when he went down with a ruptured patellar tendon after point guard Mike Conley fell into his leg during their first round series against the Suns. Under Finch and Nori’s leadership, Minnesota reached their first Western Conference Finals since 2004. T
his year the Timberwolves have done more of the same despite trading star Karl-Anthony Towns, making it back to the Conference Finals yet again. New Suns general manager Brian Gregory said he wants to build a tough, determined basketball team. Does Nori have it in him to match that?
Chris Quinn
Bench players tend to make good coaches, and Chris Quinn was one of them in his playing career, averaging just 13.7 minutes per game in his 241 appearances. Quinn has become the personification of “Heat Culture” since joining the Miami Heat coaching staff in 2014.
While he doesn’t have any official head coaching experience, he did fill in for a game for Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra and the Heat players said Quinn sounded just like their head coach. If what Gregory says about wanting to create a gritty team is true, then Quinn bringing over some of that from Miami to the Suns will surely be welcomed, at least at the front office level, and certainly by the players.
