The Suns have narrowed down their head coaching search to four finalists according to Adrian Wojnarowski and it consists of a couple of championship head coaches and assistant coaches that are looking to get their first head coaching job.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!ESPN Sources: The Phoenix Suns are advancing four coaches to meet for interviews in the coming days: Nick Nurse, Doc Rivers, Kings associate HC Jordi Fernandez and Suns associate HC Kevin Young.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 24, 2023
With these four coaches, the Suns are combining their search for playoff and championship experience, familiarity with players and coaches, and respect from other top-tier coaches for the role they’ve been in. Here’s a look into the four coaching candidates.
Nick Nurse:
Nick Nurse is a well-respected head coach that has won a championship with the Toronto Raptors back in 2019. He’s won everywhere he’s been as a head coach including his time at the D-League as well as internationally in BBL (British Basketball League).
Nurse during his time with the Raptors won 58% of his games and only missed the playoffs once. He’s in high demand with the three top teams in search of a coach with the Suns, 76ers, and Bucks. We’ll see how well the final interviews go with him.
Doc Rivers:
Doc Rivers has been a coach in the NBA for 24 seasons after coaching in Orlando, Boston, Los Angeles, and his recent stop in Philidelphia. Like Nurse, he’s an NBA champion and coach-of-the-year winner and was listed on the NBA 75th Anniversary top 15 coaches list.
A lot of drama has happened with his time in Los Angeles and Philidelphia before leaving, but Rivers brings a lot of toughness and veteran structure to his team specifically on defense. It would be interesting to see if that could be a fit with this current Suns roster featuring Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.
Jordi Fernandez:
Jordi Fernandez has been a big up-and-coming coaching candidate for quite some time now. He’s a coach that has served under Michael Malone in Denver for 7 seasons and’s now coaching in his first Finals.
He’s currently the associate head coach under Mike Brown in Sacramento and served under Mike Brown during his time in Cleveland back in 2009-2013. He would bring up-tempo offense as well as a new philosophy that the Suns haven’t had in a while. He would be an interesting hire if the Suns decided to go that route.
Kevin Young:
Kevin Young has been with the Suns over the past three seasons and has been instrumental in the pick-and-roll offense that the Suns run. He would also be a safe hire from the standpoint that the Suns know him really well and he understands the players really well.
Devin Booker, in particular, has praised Young for his X’s and O’s and his ability to scout opponents going as far as calling him a genius in the coaching room. Young even made adjustments this past year by wanting the Suns to crash the boards a lot more. By doing this they ranked fifth in offensive rebounds and eighth in second-chance points.
Young would be a great hire based on the fact that he knows the team well and he can use his own philosophy to make the small changes they need to eventually get over the hump.
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Buckle up Suns fans as the offseason is about to get going as soon as Ishbia makes this hire to see who’s going to be the Suns’ next head coach.
