It didn’t take long for Phoenix Suns first-year head coach Jordan Ott to get the respect from NBA players. According to The Athletic’s latest player poll, Ott finished fifth in most impressive NBA coach, only behind Joe Mazzulla, Mark Daigneault, J.B. Bickerstaff, and Erik Spoelstra, all coaches who have either led their teams to 60-win seasons or won a championship.
In Ott’s first season as an NBA head coach, he led the Phoenix Suns to a 45-37 record, good for the 7th seed in the Western Conference. They earned the eighth seed via the Play-In tournament, where they were swept by the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs.
Going into the season, Phoenix was projected to be one of the worst teams in the NBA after trading away Kevin Durant and buying out Bradley Beal in the offseason.
After the team went 11-5 in January, Ott received his first career Coach of the Month award after the team beat both the one-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder and Detroit Pistons in a 30-day span.
Throughout the season, NBA coaches praised Ott for his work with the Suns, including Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr.
Before becoming the coach of the Suns last year, Ott was an assistant for the Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers, and Cleveland Cavaliers. He enters this offseason as the first coach to retained their status with the Suns’ organization since Monty Williams in 2023.
