Could Suns Follow Kings' Footsteps and Hire Next HC Internally?

PHOENIX -- The Sacramento Kings elected to hire their interim head coach Doug Christie as the franchise's head coach moving forward Tuesday, according to ESPN's Shams Charania.

The Kings bypassed going through a coaching search, which the Phoenix Suns currently find themselves in after firing Mike Budenholzer, to hire Christie, who led the Kings to a 27-24 record as head coach after Sacramento parted ways with former coach Mike Brown in December, but missed the playoffs after losing in the play-in.

Phoenix is looking for its fourth coach in four years after Budenholzer's firing as none of their past coaching searches have turned out. Owner Mat Ishbia and general manager James Jones both said in their end-of-season press conferences on April 17 that this search would be a longer process than the previous searches.

The past two coaches hired with Ishbia in charge, Frank Vogel and Budenholzer, were outside candidates who had both won a championship and been out of the league for a year before the Suns hired them.

Based on reports, there seems to be a growing belief now that the Suns could go in the direction of a younger coach, either one with limited head coaching experience or a respected assistant coach with no head coaching experience.

However, Phoenix could also look internally like the Kings, and there is one candidate that clearly stands out from the past two coaching staffs if it did go this route in David Fizdale.

After being brought in by Vogel in 2023, the Suns lured Fizdale back under Budenholzer to play a prominent role on his staff. He was very well-respected throughout the organization and was one of the reasons many thought Budenholzer should have been fired during the season to give Fizdale the interim job.

Ishbia was asked on Arizona Sports' Burns And Gambo Show after his end-of-season press conference if the Suns considered firing Budenholzer during the season and clearly the thought did cross his mind.

"Maybe we should have (fired Budenholzer late in the season). Maybe we should have done something different with that," Ishbia said. "In retrospect, could we have done something to spur a little bit of a jumpstart in the team? Maybe, I don't know."

Fizdale has been an NBA head coach twice with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2016-17 and New York Knicks in 2018-19. Before that, he was an assistant with the the Golden State Warriors (2003-04), Atlanta Hawks (2004-08) and Miami Heat (2008-16).

He also was on Vogel's staff with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2021-22 and once that staff was let go, Fizdale spent the 2022-23 season as an assistant general manager for the Utah Jazz.

The Suns had a chance to go internal with Fizdale last year as well, but chose Budenholzer instead very quickly. Going back one year, former assistant Kevin Young, who Devin Booker was very fond of, was a leading candidate for the head coaching job before Vogel was hired.

Phoenix instead elected to give Young the associate head coaching position next to Vogel. Young then left the Suns following the 2023-24 season to be the head coach at BYU.

This time around, it seems unlikely the Suns go internal with Fizdale given the massive changes and restructuring that is likely to come from front office to players, but it is an interesting route to explore especially if the players are on board.