After losing the playoffs, the Suns are destined to usher in a new look next season, especially the uniform group off the court, who first fired meritorious coach Monty Williams and then found championship coach Vogel.
After the head coach was decided, the Suns began working on the assistant coach thing, and just today, according to ESPN, the Suns hired Jazz deputy general manager David Fizdale as the team's assistant coach for a big contract.
To let the deputy general manager of other teams leave, and willingly be my assistant coach, I have to admire the Sun's "banknote" ability, as for how much that contract is, it is unknown at present, but it will certainly not be less than $2 million.
Previously, when Monty joined the Pistons, he wanted to pry away Suns assistant coach Kevin Young, but at that time the Suns used a "banknote" ability to keep the latter with an annual salary of $2 million, which also broke the annual salary record of an NBA assistant coach.
Fitzdale is more famous than Kevin Young, after all, he is also a former head coach, so there will definitely be no shortage of big contracts, and his opportunity to coach Booker and Adu is also difficult for him to refuse.
In addition, Fitzdale has a very good relationship with Vogel and Suns general manager James Jones, and the two have partnered together during the Lakers period, and the cooperation is also very good, in addition to him, there were Kidd, Hollins, Handy and others at that time, and the assistant coaching group was quite luxurious.
In 2008, Fitzdale served as an assistant coach for the Heat for many years, and spent a total of 6 seasons with the Heat as a player, during which time the two sides developed a very strong friendship.
So Fitzdale's joining the Suns, in addition to the big contract, can be regarded as a reunion with an old friend.
Fitzdale has extensive coaching experience in his own right, having spent 13 years as an assistant coach in the NBA before officially becoming the Grizzlies' head coach in 2016, finishing a 43-39 record in his first season and helping the team reach the playoffs.
But at the beginning of the second season, the Grizzlies suffered an eight-game losing streak, and Fitzdale was fired halfway, not only that, but he also had a lot of friction with Gasol Jr.
In his more than one season, the Grizzlies went 50-51.
Then in 2018, he came on again as the head coach of the Knicks, but he also left the Knicks after just over a season, where he was 21-83 and a 20.2% winning percentage.
Two coaching trips, Fitzdale's coaching record is 71-134, it can be seen that he is really not suitable to be a head coach, he himself can be considered to understand, and then joined the Lakers in 2021 and became an assistant coach again.
The Suns are already bent on change, can they succeed next season?