Suns fans are blessed! Fitzdale and three rookies pass the final

On May 30, the Phoenix Suns' head coaching position selection process entered a critical stage, and the second round of interviews ended successfully. Four candidates, David Fitzdale, Johnny Bryant, Jordan Ott and Chris Quinn, stood out and entered the third round of offline interviews.

One and a half months ago, the Suns fired Mike Budenholzer, the coach who led the Milwaukee Bucks to win the championship in 2021, delivered only 36 wins and 46 losses in the Suns' first season. The team missed the play-off, and his sad departure disappointed the fans. Fortunately, there are no vacancies for coaches in the league at present, so the Suns have been able to start their journey of coach selection. In the early stages of the coaching election, the Suns cast extensive nets and conducted preliminary exchanges with 15 to 20 candidates, just to find a coach who can guide the team in a new direction. Team owner Matt Ishbiya made it clear at a press conference after the season that he hoped that the new coach could inject more "hard spirit" into the team.

Fizdale, as the assistant head coach of the Suns, successfully entered the third round of interviews. The first two rounds of interviews will be conducted online with Zoom, while the third round will be transformed into face-to-face in-depth communication. Fitzdale has a rich coaching career. He started as an assistant coach in the Warriors, and later went to the Hawks and the Heat. He took charge of the Grizzlies in 2016 and coached the Knicks in 2018. Although both were dismissed due to poor record, he later served as assistant coach in the Lakers and deputy general manager of the Jazz, and accumulated valuable experience. He has played for the Suns for more than two years and has also received support from some key players, which has become an important weight for him to enter the final interview. However, while Fitzdale is flexible in tactics and good at motivating players, his locker room management ability is poor, his defensive tactics ability is outstanding, but his offense is slightly insufficient, and his career leadership record is mediocre, which is more suitable for rebuilding the team. If he is finally hired, Suns fans will be blessed and will suffer another tormented season.

Except for Fitzdale, the three candidates, Johnny Bryant, Jordan Otter and Chris Quinn, are recruits and have no coaching experience. Bryant competed at the University of Utah as a player. After retiring, he joined the coaching circle. He started his coaching career with the Utah Jazz since 2012. He gradually promoted from a player development coach to an assistant coach. He joined the New York Knicks in 2020 as Tom Thibodeau's chief assistant coach, played an important role in the team's reconstruction, and transferred to the Cleveland Cavaliers as associate coach in 2024. Ott started as a video coordinator at Michigan State University. After entering the NBA, he served as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and other teams, focusing on tactical arrangements and game preparations, and joined the Cleveland Cavaliers coaching staff in 2024. Quinn is a former NBA player. After retiring, he started his coaching career at Northwestern University in 2013 and joined the Miami Heat as an assistant coach since 2014.

At present, the Suns are close to making the final appointment decision, but the coaches who become the final candidate are not very good, and they are not as good as Redick of the Lakers. Is the management really choosing a coach?