PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns have hired Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott to become their next head coach, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wednesday.
The Suns fired previous coach Mike Budenholzer the day after the 2024-25 regular season ended — a massively disappointing campaign for Phoenix after finishing 36-46 and missing the playoffs despite having the highest team payroll in the league.
It was Budenholzer’s lone season with the Suns following the firing of Frank Vogel after his only season with the team. Vogel replaced Monty Williams, who led the Suns to the NBA Finals in 2021 but was fired after losing in the 2023 playoffs.
Now it’s Ott’s turn.
Ott has never been a head coach before despite having 12 seasons of experience on an NBA staff. Coincidentally, he began his career under Budenholzer as a video coordinator for the Atlanta Hawks from 2013 to 2016. He then worked as an assistant for the Brooklyn Nets from 2016 to 2022, and then as an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2022 to 2024.
Ott’s most recent stop was this past season with the Cavaliers as an assistant under Kenny Atkinson, who was awarded the 2024-25 NBA Coach of the Year award. Atkinson and Ott helped lead the Cavaliers to an Eastern Conference best 64-18 record, highlighted by the highest-scoring offense in the entire league.
The hiring of Ott was the first major organizational move made by new Suns general manager Brian Gregory after he was named to the position on May 1. In his introductory press conference, Gregory mentioned his preferences in a head coach.
“This is very, very critical for us moving forward,” Gregory said. “Finding that head coach that has the attributes that are important to us: unbelievable basketball IQ, tremendous communicator, shares our vision and understands what needs to be done to be successful in this new NBA.”
Ott, 40, appears to be the coach whom Gregory believes fit those qualities, and may also represent a philosophical shift to a younger coach that can be with the organization long term – as opposed to the previous hires of Williams, Vogel and Budenholzer, who were 47, 49 and 54, respectively, when they were hired.
“We’ve talked about changing, doing things different, not just doing the status quo within this league,” Gregory said. “We need to find somebody that thinks this way.”
Another significant talking point about the hire is Ott’s connection to Michigan State University. Ott earned his master’s degree in athletic administration from Michigan State, which is relevant because it’s the same university Gregory attended and coached at, as well as where Suns majority owner Mat Ishbia played at.
Whether it’s coincidental or actually part of Ishbia’s vision for the organization, the Michigan State connection is an apparent commonality that fans and media have noticed. Social media influencer and Suns fan Brandon Awadis poked fun at the amount of Michigan State alumni that have joined the organization.
Suns star Devin Booker, a native of Michigan, was reportedly involved and had a key voice in the coaching search. Ott will be Booker’s eighth coach in his 11 seasons with the Suns.
“There’s been so many twists and turns in this search,” NBA expert Marc Stein said on PHNX Sports. “The process was certainly weird.”
According to Stein, Gregory’s initial round of interviews included more than 15 candidates. The search narrowed down multiple times before ultimately ending with two candidates: Ott and fellow Cavaliers assistant Johnnie Bryant.
“Jordan Ott is a very well-regarded coach,” Stein said. “Steve (Nash) worked with Jordan Ott in Brooklyn and has always regarded him well. I had another source describe him as very reminiscent of Taylor Jenkins, which I think is also high praise because I think Taylor Jenkins did a tremendous job in Memphis.”
The next step for Gregory, Ishbia and the Suns is to figure out what to do with star forward Kevin Durant, as it has been rumored that both sides are working toward a trade this offseason in hopes of retooling the roster around Booker, a roster now led by Ott.