The Phoenix Suns, who have played musical chairs with their coaches over the last several years have chosen Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as their new head coach, sources confirmed with The Arizona Republic.
Ott and fellow Cavaliers assistant Johnnie Bryant were lead candidates for the position.
ESPN’s senior NBA insider Shams Charania first reported the hiring on Wednesday, June 4.
They both wrapped up their debut season in Cleveland under 2024-25 NBA Coach of the Year Kenny Atkinson and were instrumental in the Cavaliers having the best record in the Eastern Conference at 64-18, but the Suns chose Ott over Bryant.
The Suns went through an expansive interview process, talking to more than 15 candidates for the position. Ott and Bryant met with Suns team governor Mat Ishbia in Michigan this week, the state where he played college basketball under Tom Izzo. Sources told The Republic that superstar Devin Booker, who the team wants to build around for the future, supported the hire as the Suns all-time leading scorer was involved in the process of hiring a head coach.
Phoenix last had a first-year NBA coach in 2018-19 when hiring Igor Kokoskov. The Suns gave Kokoskov his walking papers after one season, as the team went 19-63.
Ott will be the Suns’ fourth head coach in four seasons. The Suns are coming off a losing season in which they went 36-46 under Mike Budenholzer and failed to make the playoffs or even qualify for the play-in tournament.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Arizona Republic was informed that the Suns mulled over firing Budenholzer during the season. The Suns started 8-1, but they went a dismal 10-21 in their last 31 games.
Phoenix gave the axe to Monty Williams, Frank Vogel and Budenholzer after each of the last three seasons under team owner Ishbia. A billionaire, Ishbia bought the Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury for a record $4 billion during the 2022-23 season, replacing the disgraced governor, Robert Sarver.
Ott has a Michigan State connection with Ishbia and new general manager Brian Gregory.
Gregory was an assistant on the Spartans’ 2000 men’s national championship team under Izzo, and Ishbia was a walk-on player on that squad featuring Mateen Cleaves.
Ott was later Michigan State’s video coordinator for five years as he earned a master’s degree in athletic administration from the university.
He left the program in 2013 for a video coordinator position with the Atlanta Hawks, where he worked under Budenholzer for three seasons from 2013 to 2016.
Ott has been with three NBA teams since, Brooklyn Nets (2016-22), Los Angeles Lakers (2022-24) and Cavs to reunite with Atkinson, whom he worked under in Brooklyn.
The Suns are the latest NBA team to hire a coach after the 2024-25 season. The Sacramento Kings (Doug Christie), Memphis Grizzlies (Tuomas Iisalo), Denver Nuggets (David Adelman) and San Antonio Spurs (Mitch Johnson) removed interim tags from their names after their respective seasons.
Mike Brown (Kings), Taylor Jenkins (Grizzlies) and Michael Malone (Nuggets) were all let go in surprising fashion during the 2024-25 season. Hall of Famer Gregg Popovich stepped down from being a head coach after 29 seasons with a medical reason and moved upstairs to San Antonio’s president of basketball operations.
The New York Knicks are now the only team without a commander and chief as they announced the firing of Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday, June 3.
The third-seeded Knicks lost to the fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers in six games in the 2025 Eastern Conference finals. The Pacers will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals beginning Thursday, June 4, at Paycom Center in Oklahoma. The Thunder are the No. 1 overall seed in the 2025 playoffs.
