Just as Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia reportedly agreed to hire Jordan Ott as the new head coach, he has promised to double down on his unconventional leadership style with the goal of pursuing a championship.
A letter Ishbia sent internally to basketball operations members, obtained by Arizona Sports’ Kellan Olson, suggests that he is going to change his ways of doing things by becoming more involved to ensure the product on the court matches his ambitions.
“Let me start with the most important point – the Phoenix Suns will do things very differently than most other NBA franchises,” a part of Ishbia’s letter reads. “I will be extremely active in the decisions and management of this organization, on and off the floor … While I won’t be reviewing film, designing offenses, or running the draft room, I will be deeply involved in ensuring that basketball operations, like every other area of our organization, is performing at the highest level.
“I’m aware that this approach is different from most other NBA franchises,” the letter adds. “I’m not the conventional NBA owner and I don’t want to be. I’ve tried running the typical NBA owner playbook – hiring the experts, signing the checks, and getting out of the way – and none of us were happy with the outcome. Making the playoffs two out of three years, and only winning one playoff series, is not good enough for this franchise and this community.”
Ishbia sent the memo on Wednesday after reports broke that the Suns have agreed to hire Ott, a Cleveland Cavaliers assistant, as head coach.
In the letter, he praised Gregory’s early days as general manager and Ott’s abilities as coach. Ishbia also expressed an awareness that his decisions would be met with “hot takes” and criticism, but that is not a concern of his.
Ott follows the nontraditional hire of general manager Brian Gregory, who was a Michigan State assistant basketball coach from 1990-96 and again from 1999-2003. The current Suns owner played for the Spartans from 1999-2002.
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Ott was video coordinator for Michigan State from 2008-13 under legendary head coach Tom Izzo, who previously acted as Ishbia’s coach and Gregory’s boss.
The letter, as it reads, follows a similar trend of Ishbia sticking to his guns.
He took the same approach from Day 1. Ishbia was heavily involved when he pushed a trade for Kevin Durant to the finish line within hours of formally transitioning to owner, following Robert Sarver.
From there, the Suns opted to purposely blow past the second tax apron — an act of outright defiance of the NBA’s goals — only to see the win totals deflate in the past two seasons.
As the non-taxpaying Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers are set to tip Game 1 of the NBA Finals, Phoenix has been forced to reset in a big way, with a Durant trade seemingly the best way to hit the eject button and find some form of sustainability.
Resetting first started with Ishbia hiring Gregory, who had a contract gig with the Suns’ front office two years ago before he was elevated to vice president of player programming in 2024-25.
He had only college coaching experience prior to his time in Phoenix with Ishbia’s Suns.
Ott adds another first-time leader to the mix.
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