On Bright Side, it’s always about the players. Whether it’s analyzing Devin Booker’s playmaking, Dillon Brooks’ defensive impact, or Collin Gillespie’s floor spacing, we’re always giving you the latest on the team and their main contributors. But something we don’t do often is give a glimpse of the people who put the players in spots to succeed and operate on the court.
This is why we’ve made a coach’s guide. Almost a mini-Wikipedia page. Take a look at Jordan Ott’s staff and their basketball and personal
backgrounds. Of note: there is full continuity from last season, both in the names and roles for these assistants.
Chaisson Allen
Allen coached the 2026 Summer League Squad, leading them to a 3-2 record, and saw Khaman Maluach receive All-Summer League second-team honors. The second-longest-tenured assistant behind Brian Randle, Allen’s background is in prospect development, as he’s spent time coaching at both the college and G League levels. Some of the main players he’s been around are AJ Green, Lonnie Walker IV, and Christian Wood.
After going undrafted in 2011 out of Northeastern, Allen spent his basketball career overseas until he retired and went to the University of Miami to work on their player development staff. He’s been coaching or playing at the collegiate or professional level for 20 straight seasons.
DeMarre Carroll
Playing ten years in the NBA, Carroll joined the coaching staff when Jordan Ott took over last year. Carroll played for the Nets when Jordan Ott was an assistant in Brooklyn and was an assistant alongside him in Cleveland and with the Lakers. Coaching the 2025 Suns Summer League team, Carroll played a large part in the development of Ryan Dunn, Oso Ighodaro, Khaman Maluach, and Rasheer Fleming.
When Carroll played in the NBA, he was known for his ability to space the floor and guard players on the perimeter was a veteran alongside some of the NBA’s most dynamic passers in the 2010s, including Kyle Lowry and Mike Conley. A member of the 60-22 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks team that is one of the only teams in NBA history to have four all-stars, Carroll can reference what it’s like to contribute to elite teams that share the basketball.
Sean Dwyer
Dwyer coordinates game planning, video coordination, and tactical analytics. Much like Jordan Ott, there is a Michigan State connection – as a student manager during his four years in East Lansing. He did college basketball video coordination at Florida and Alabama (2009-15) before taking various assistant coaching roles through 2024-2025. In today’s NBA, video coordination is underrated. Several prominent NBA coaches, including Eric Spoelstra, Mike Brown, and Ott, took on video and planning as early career responsibilities.
Recently he made these comments about working his way up the coaching ladder on the Rising Coaches podcast.
John Little
Little acts as a conduit with the League Valley Suns and the NBA club. After playing at Northern Iowa (Kurt Warner, anyone?!), he had a pro career for a decade in Germany before returning to his alma mater as a video coordinator. Counting experience as the Valley Suns head coach in their first season, he’s had a total of six years of G-League coaching experience. That’s essentially a whole career playing and coaching one level below the “big leagues”. He knows all about hard work and the mindset of players on the cusp of really making it.
This season, two-way players such as CJ Huntley, Koby Brea, and Pat Spencer will be his focus, as well as managing any changes there, such as Kennedy Chandler, who shows enough to replace one of those players.
Jesse Mermuys
Mermuys is the lead assistant coach and also has primary responsibility for the defensive specialists. In his last stop before joining the Suns last season, he was recognized for developing the Orlando Magic’s defense into a top-three-ranked unit in back-to-back years. Overall, he has 18 years of NBA coaching experience spanning six teams prior to the Suns, plus an assignment with USA Basketball. Those roles were under mostly defensive-minded head coaches (George Karl, Kevin McHale, Dwyane Casey, Luke Walton, Dave Joerger, and Jamahl Mosley) as noted in last year’s article by Brandon Duenas.
Last year, we saw significant improvement in the Suns’ defense. With added defensive skills from Miles Bridges and more minutes in year two with Khaman Maluach, Mermuys has the ingredients to cook up a special defense this season.
On the Coaches Site podcast this offseason, Jesse discussed coaching at a high level while not having been a college or pro player.
Mike Muscala
The most recent NBA player on the coaching staff, Muscala can be seen actively working with players before games in warmups. Playing under Ott as a video coordinator with the Hawks, Khaman Malauch has a strong blueprint for how he can complement Devin Booker by spacing the floor and playing alongside ball-dominant scorers.
In his NBA tenure, Muscala played alongside LeBron James, Jayson Tatum, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jaylen Brown, mostly serving as a backup center and reserve. Playing for the Thunder from 2019 to 2023 and then returning in 2024, he helped mentor many of the main players who led the 2025 champions and was there when the team was struggling all the way to them becoming the first seed in the Western Conference.
Brian Randle
Randle’s focus is on front-court development, a role that is, in some ways, complementary to Muscala’s. He had been an assistant on the NBA Finals team under Monty Williams and was brought back as part of Ott’s staff last year.
As noted in last year’s team press release about the coaching staff, Randle is a graduate of the University of Illinois, where he played four seasons on the men’s basketball team before playing professionally overseas, winning the Israeli Basketball Premier League’s Defensive Player of the Year award a league-record three times.
In limited TV interviews, he’s seemed intelligent, backed by a pedigree that includes a bachelor’s degree in agri-finance and a master’s in sports management. That, combined with the on-court experience above, positions him well for this role.
Players like Rasheer Fleming, Ryan Dunn, and Koa Peat are within Randle’s scope. Those are three of the team’s most important developmental pieces, making his coaching a key determinant of near and long-range team success.
Are there other areas of the organization you’d like a deep dive on? Let us know!
