The Phoenix Suns are planning to hire Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Jordan Ott as the team’s next head coach, according to sources who spoke to ESPN’s Sham Charania earlier today. This comes just one day after sources said that the job had been whittled down to two finalists: Ott and fellow Cavaliers assistant coach Johnnie Bryant.
Both Ott and Bryant met with the Suns’ leadership in Michigan yesterday. Sources said that Devin Booker, Phoenix’s all-time leading scorer, was involved in the head coaching search and gave his stamp of approval on Ott.
Last off-season, Phoenix hired former Milwaukee Bucks head coach Mike Budenholzer to lead the team. After a promising 8-1 start, the Suns finished the season with a 28-45 record, which caused them to miss out on the NBA Play-In Tournament as the 11th seed in the Western Conference. This led to Budenholzer being fired on April 14th.
On May 1st, Brian Gregory was hired as the new general manager of the Suns. He led a multi-round head coaching search that eventually resulted in Phoenix selecting Jordan Ott over Johnnie Bryant.
Just In: The Phoenix Suns are hiring Cleveland Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as the franchise’s new head coach, sources tell ESPN. Ott has been an NBA assistant since 2012 and has a strong background of offensive and defensive creativity, player development and communication. pic.twitter.com/doDE6Fahdj
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 4, 2025
Jordan Ott began his NBA coaching career in 2013 when he worked as a video coordinator for the Atlanta Hawks under Mike Budenholzer. This led to Ott taking an assistant coaching position with the Brooklyn Nets from 2016 to 2022, where he worked under Kenny Atkinson, Steve Nash, and Jacque Vaughn. Eventually, Ott left the Nets to work for Darvin Ham and the Los Angeles Lakers from 2022 to 2024. Then, this past off-season, he was hired as an assistant coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers to once again work under Kenny Atkinson.
In his lone season with the Cavaliers, Jordan Ott helped Kenny Atkinson lead the team to the number-one seed in the Eastern Conference as well as the second-most regular-season wins in franchise history. Under Ott, the Cavs finished with the number-one scoring offense in the NBA.
With their head coaching vacancy now filled, the Suns can begin to prepare for an off-season of “changes to the roster,” as Shams Charania describes it. Though nothing has been officially announced, it is believed that the Suns will work with All-Star forward Kevin Durant and his business partner, Rich Kleiman, to find “his next landing spot.”
