Shams [BREAKING NEWS] Phoenix Suns hire former Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as head coach
[Music] Breaking NBA news. For the second straight day, it’s head coaching news. The Suns naming Cavs assistant Jordan Aut as their new head coach. According to ESPN, he’s been an assistant in the league for about a decade, most recently spending one season in Cleveland on Kenny Atkinson’s staff. He replaces Mike Buddenhoer, who was fired back in April. Suns missing the playoffs last year. A and New Suns GM Brian Gregory facing some big decisions this off seasonason including what to do with veterans like Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. The Knicks now the only team without a head coach after firing Tom Tibido yesterday. All right, we’ve got Ashley Nicole Moss and Brad Botkin. I’m be honest, I don’t know who Jordan Au is. Do you guys? Um, no. But I was able to do some power research on him. Obviously someone who has, you know, a substantial amount of experience, obviously not as a head coach, but on coaching staffs, it says here the Lakers, the Brooklyn Nets, uh, actually began his career as a video coordinator for the Atlanta Hawks. The Eric Spolster, took the Eric Schultz route, you know, and it’s just taken him a little longer to be a head coach. But I think the thing the thing that stood out to me the most when I was researching it was that Devin Booker was very hands-on um, in the coaching search for the Phoenix Suns. So this obviously does not happen with Devon without Deon Booker’s approval. I think also the biggest thing that I noticed in the article that I read is that Kevin Durant’s name was no mentioned was nowhere mentioned I should say which means what we kind of already know that Kevin Durant is on his way out where we don’t know but I will say this we were having the conversation about Tibs earlier on in the show and yeah because you thought he might be good in Phoenix what that was one thing that we said but we also said that Tibs is a coach where you know you consider him a bridge coach was the terminology I used not going to win you a championship ship, but he is going to get down, do the dirty work, build a a a rep a relationship with guys in the locker room. He’s going to also uh establish a culture and do all the things that ultimately lead to a championship. The hiring of this particular coach for the Phoenix Suns lets me know that that’s kind of where they are in this stage of of their venture, if you will. I don’t think this is a coach that’s going to help them win a championship. They’re also very far removed from that with their roster and the lack of pieces that they have. They’re going to have to do a lot. They’re dealing with a lot of rebuilding and obviously the uncertainty surrounding Kevin Durant. Um, but I think that this is going to be a coach much like Tid that’s going to get in there, do the dirty work, establish a culture, and hopefully reap some benefit of whatever that means for the Phoenix Suns. But I I don’t think this is, you know, going to be the uh celebratory. It’s not knocking my socks off. I’ll tell you that. It’s not It’s not Be careful, though. just because he don’t know a lot about a guy. You know, you look at these hires we were talking about in the last segment. Is Tom Pibido going to get another job? This the trends aren’t maybe trending the right way for him. These teams are going with these new guys. Mitch Johnson, Doug Christie, you know, here’s another new though. No, but he’s an assistant. He’s coming on these are not previous head coaches that are retreads like a Buddenhoer or a Frank Vogle or Michael Malone and all these guys that always come up in every coaching conversation. and teams are moving to new voices, new faces, guys who certainly have been around the league. You know, when you talk to players around the league, you talk to scouts, you talk to these people who are behind the scenes doing the work. Assistant coaches are often the guys that the players have the best relationships with. They’re they’re the guys that are working out before the game with them. They’re the guys over the summer that are changing their jump shot with them, that are setting screens for them, passing balls out to them, talking to them, communicating with them. These are guys that have real relationship the playbook and you’re seeing that as they get hired as head coaches now where sometimes in the old days maybe the head coach was a little more handsoff in terms of relationships and you just managed the X’s and O’s and you and you and you were kind of the voice of the team uh almost more of a figurehead. That’s maybe how it used to be. These guys now are the dirty work guys. the guys that have established the relationships, the guys that are in crunching the analytic numbers and doing all these things that are so important in the modern game. So when you talk about the trends and now we’re talking about Johnny Bryant who’s coming up, another Cavaliers assistant who his name has been talked about with the Knicks and other he was also in the running for this particular job as well from might want to snap him up real quick because you know these guys are going now and and you never know who’s going to get fired next who how these teams are looking to move on to a new coach. I think it’s actually a pretty cool trend that teams are giving these new faces, new voices. Again, not baby faces. They’re not guys who haven’t been around the league, but not experienced head coaches giving them their shot. They’ve earned it. And I don’t necessarily think it means that you don’t think you can contend. I don’t think it signals that, oh, we’re going into a rebuild because we got a young coach. I think these young coaches have proven they can win. I don’t know if I would say it means you’re going into a rebuild, but I do think that if you were on a specific timetable, you would hire a specific kind of coach. And I think that maybe, but that’s what the Bucks did. They’re like, “Oh, we got to win now, so let’s go get Doc.” You know, like, well, you know how I feel about Doc, but maybe maybe the the league is changing on that. I but I do think that you can make the assumption that the Phoenix Suns maybe are a little bit more aware of where they are in the league, where they are specifically in the Western Conference. Again, the uncertainty around Kevin Durant. You have Bradley Beal who hasn’t really been a gold mine for the Phoenix Suns. You have Devin Booker who’s been in the organization his entire career and still hasn’t won. And you have a roster that doesn’t really have much of anything. I think that this is a coach that is willing to get in there and do the dirty work to figure out what this team can be, but I do think it’s safe to say that the Phoenix Suns know this is not a championship team and this is probably not a champ. You would hope they know that. You would hope it’s kind of bare on paper. You know, Jeff Gund Jeff Van Gundy’s famous for saying every team should have like a CEO of common sense and and the common sense would tell you here that you don’t hire a first time head coach and assistant guy to have a one your two-year runway. You’re hiring them. It’s not to say you don’t think you can go out and compete right now, but you are you are saying like we’re committed to a you know four or five year process here, right? And so many things to figure out. We have an article right now at cbsports.com on on what to do with with Kevin Durant. Do do you ship him to New York for Carl Anthony Towns? No. No. You don’t want him as a Knicks fan? Okay. I mean, he’s getting up there. I’m okay. This isn’t Kevin Durant Kevin Durant from 10 years ago. Fact, he didn’t make the playoffs, but Paul George played for both teams and helped build these rosters with his trade value. Let’s go back to 2017. The Pacers trading George to Oklahoma City. They got back Victor Oladipo and Damont Sabonis. And in 22 they flipped Sabonis to Sacramento to get their now superstar Tyrese Hallebertton. The Thunder on the other hand used Paul George to get SGAA and a whole lot more. Seven draft picks or swaps. One turned out to be Jaylen Williams who has now teamed up with SGA to lead one of the youngest teams ever to the NBA Finals and they are minus 750 favorites to win the finals. So, let’s get Ashley Nicole Moss and Brad Botkin in here. Uh, are we being fair to Paul George? I feel like he’s catching a lot. Everybody Everybody catching some strays. Everybody deserves their but but it’s true. Both of these both of these teams are built on the backs of those trades. Ashley, I was surprised to hear you say last week that you didn’t think the Clippers necessarily got fleeced in that deal where they sent SGAA for Paul. Yeah, because you got to think about the version of Paul George they were getting at the time, right? when they were getting Paul George from OKC, he was top three in MVP voting. I mean, he was having a phenomenal season. He was fresh off the Indiana Pacers, which you know, Brad and I disagree on, which had prime Paul George, but we can both agree both teams had very good versions of Paul George. So, when you make that trade, especially when you have Kawhi Leonard, who was very adamant about wanting Paul George, uh, on paper, you thought, okay, we got Kawhai fresh off of a championship. We got Paul George fresh off of top three in MVP voting. he’s having a phenomenal season. Nobody, you know, knew what SGA was going to become, but you already knew what Paul George was as a player. It just went downhill so fast. So, I don’t know if I would say that the Clippers got fleece essentially because when I think of the Paul George that they got, I actually thought the Clippers were going to be a lot better and have a lot better tenure with that tandem of of Leonard and George than they ultimately did. It’s unfortunate, but at the time they were getting a very, very, very good basketball player. Yeah, you’re important to point out the Kawhi Leonard part of it. They didn’t just make that trade for Paul George. They made it for Paul George and Kawhi. Their hands were essentially tied. All reporting indicated at the time that they were a package deal. So, that was not just for Paul George, but looking at that package and that hindsight hindsight has not been kind to that decision. Teams can’t make that kind of move now with the second apron. have to have cheaper contracts at your disposal. You can’t give up five, six, seven picks when you include swaps. No teams do those deals anymore. You can’t do it. At that time, that was okay. That was the way it happened in the NBA. If you want a superstar, you give up the ranch for it and you worry about the future later. To your point, it didn’t work out with the Clippers. But I actually agree at the time the rationale behind that trade because it was a package deal for Kawhi Leonard was there. Nobody thought SJA would turn into maybe the best player in the world. So, how do you make sense of what the Sacramento Kings did then? Because they sent the Kings, they passed on Luca Donic. The Kings are a different conversation because I think that the Kings with Tyrese Hallebert in I think the you you saw what the team could be if you continue to build around Hallebertton and the pieces that they had. So that was just uh trying to rush the process of once again what the Kings do and what they do notoriously and that is try to rush the process of thinking they’re better than they actually are instead of just staying the course and trying to fight through it because with Tyresese Hallebertton they were a team that had a lot of potential and had a high ceiling. They were but again I’ll actually still defend this trade. They had Dear Fox that was the whole point. They didn’t have a big to go with Dear Fox. They thought we can’t really run back run out Hallebert and Fox together. There’s diminishing returns on those guys. So again, relative to their context. They were just trying to become a playoff team. They weren’t trying to win a title. Damonte Sabonis actually did that for them. He fit with Fox. Now the problem is now they’ve lost Fox. So they they they passed on Luca Donuch, but it’s like, okay, we got Fox. Then they got rid of Hallebertton. We It’s okay, we have Fox. Now they don’t have Fox either. So again, hindsight makes it look really bad. But at the time playing Hallebertton and Fox was going to bring about diminishing returns on both of those guys. They both need the ball. I think at the time that was actually a justifiable trade. I do think though there could have been different solutions to what the Kings problem was. I I don’t think they fully gave Tyrese Hallebertton the time that he needed to mature into the player that we are now. Do you think Hallebertton would have become that player as with Fox controlling the team or did he need full control of a team? So I would say he did. Uh, yes and no. Because when you look at Tyrese Hallebert and now he’s not all I mean from a floor general standpoint. Yeah, I get what you’re saying. He’s constantly the one even if he’s not scoring, he’s constantly facilitating. That would have been a little bit of of a contention issue when you talk about Fox and and Hallebertton. But I just don’t know if you saw both of those players develop enough to really determine which one was the piece. You maybe Fox Maybe Fox was the guy, you know what I mean? I just think it wasn’t enough time. I think one of them had to go. Maybe they did choose wrong. But either way, man, trade Paul George and you’re good. I love this. Okay, so the Sixers Sixers right now are sitting there like we [Music] video. Come on now. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Yeah. Heat. Take them all. Big. Okay. Seven minutes. Stop. Hey winner [Music] [Music] Get busy. Okay. [Music] Thank you, Jay. Leave it alone. [Music] You got something.
Shams [BREAKING NEWS] Phoenix Suns hire former Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as head coach
