The Phoenix Suns will add former Memphis Grizzlies and New York Knicks coach David Fizdel to new coach Frank Vogel’s staff, ESPN Adrian Wojnarowski reports.
Fizdel, 48, spent last season as assistant general manager for the Utah Jazz. He left his position at Utah after, according to Lognarovsky, “the Suns made a big money game.”
He knows current Phoenix President of Basketball Operations and General Manager James Jones from his career with the Miami Heat in 2008-16. Jones played for Miami from 2008 to 2014.
Led by LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, Fisdel and the Heat won the 2012 and 2013 NBA titles under head coach Erik Spoelstra.
Fizdale was also an assistant coach under Vogel in 2021-22. Prior to this position, he was the coach of the Knicks (2018-19) and Grizzlies (2016-2017) but did not get into his sophomore season with either of those teams.
He has a 71-134 record as a head coach.
According to reports, Fizdale interviewed the Suns for a vacant in-course coach ahead of the 2018-19 season leading up to a one-year run under Igor Kokoskov. Phoenix was also reportedly interested in Mike Budenholzer, Jason Kidd and James Borrego during that process before Kokoskov only survived one season, which led to the hiring of head coach Monty Williams.
The move comes after Phoenix committed to making his top assistant Kevin Young the highest-paid coach in the NBA. Young, who had been Williams’ top aide, was reportedly one of the finalists to replace his former boss.
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