Introductory news conference for new Suns GM Brian Gregory
The Phoenix Suns hold an introductory press conference for their new general manager, Brian Gregory.
The Phoenix Suns have chosen Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as their new head coach, sources confirmed with The Arizona Republic.
Ott, 40, and fellow Cavs assistant Johnnie Bryant, 39, were finalists for the position.
ESPN’s Shams Charania first reported the hiring on June 4.
They both completed their first season in Cleveland under Kenny Atkinson, the 2024-25 NBA Coach of the Year, and were instrumental in the Cavs having the best record in the Eastern Conference at 64-18, but the Suns chose Ott over Bryant.
The Suns interviewed more than 15 candidates for the position. Ott and Bryant met with Suns team owner Mat Ishbia and Josh Bartelstein in Michigan this week.
League sources inform The Republic that Devin Booker is in favor of 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 head coach in 2018-19 when hiring Igor Kokoskov. The Suns fired Kokoskov after one season, as the team won just 19 games.
Ott will be Phoenix’s 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.
League sources informed The Arizona Republic that the Suns considered firing Budenholzer during the season in February. The Suns started 8-1, but they went 10-21 in their last 31 games.
Phoenix fired Monty Williams, Frank Vogel and Budenholzer after each of the last three seasons under Ishbia. A billionaire, Ishbia bought the Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury for a record $4 billion during the 2022-23 season.
The Republic has reached out to league sources from the time the Suns narrowed down their coaching search to nine candidates to hiring the new coach. When asked about Ott, league sources described him as a grinder who is “ready” to be an NBA head coach.
League sources said Ott is “really smart” and a student of the game with very sound offensive, defensive philosophies. He’s viewed as someone who is “innovative,” a teacher of the game and strong in player development and the film room.
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 under Tom Izzo, and Ishbia was a walk-on player on that squad.
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 Spartans in 2013 for a video coordinator position with the Atlanta Hawks, where he worked under Budenholzer for three seasons from 2013 to 2016.
New Suns GM Brian Gregory on relationship with team owner Mat Ishbia
Gregory: “Mat is an owner that is involved, and I like that. But he has also empowered me to build this team.”
This hire certainly falls in line with Ishbia and Gregory wanting to stay aligned moving forward with the franchise when considering the Michigan State ties between those two and Ott.
Ott has been with three NBA teams since Atlanta — Brooklyn Nets (2016-22), Los Angeles Lakers (2022-24) and Cavs to reunite with Atkinson, whom he worked under in Brooklyn.
Ott also has a connection with Suns superstar Kevin Durant, who was with the Nets from 2019 to right before the 2023 trade deadline when Phoenix acquired him in a blockbuster deal.
Durant’s future in Phoenix is up in the air as the Suns entertained trade talks before the 2025 trade deadline and will enter free agency looking to sit down with teams about the two-time finals MVP.
Durant has one year left on his four-year, $194-million deal as he is due $54.7 million this upcoming 2025-26 season. The 15-time NBA All-Star led the Suns in scoring at 26.6 points a game as he became the eighth player in NBA history to reach 30,000 career points.
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) had interim tags removed after their respective seasons.
Mike Brown (Kings), Taylor Jenkins (Grizzlies) and Michael Malone (Nuggets) were all fired during the 2024-25 season. Hall of Famer Gregg Popovich stepped down from being a head coach after 29 seasons and transitioned to San Antonio’s president of basketball operations.
The New York Knicks are now the only team without a head coach after they announced the firing of Tom Thibodeau on June 3. Bryant may very well end up in the running for the position as he worked three seasons under Thibodeau in New York (2021-24) before joining the Cavs as an assistant.
The third-seeded Knicks lost to the fourth-seeded Indiana Pacers in the 2025 Eastern Conference finals. The Pacers will face the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Finals beginning June 5 at Paycom Center in OKC. The Thunder are the top overall seed in the 2025 playoffs.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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