The Suns plan to hire Patrick Mutombo as an assistant coach, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Mutombo has been the head coach of the Raptors 905, Toronto’s G League affiliate, for the past two seasons.
A former Division II player for Metro State, Mutombo made several international stops in his playing career prior to becoming a coach. His first NBA job came in 2011/12, when he was named player development coordinator for Denver.
Mutombo was promoted to an assistant coach the following season and stayed with the Nuggets until 2015, when he had a one-season stint with the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s G League affiliate. After Austin, he was hired by the Raptors as an assistant and stayed in that role from 2016-20.
In 2020, the 42-year-old was promoted to head coach of the Raptors 905. In each of Mutombo’s two seasons at the helm, the team finished with the best regular season record in the G League (12-3 in ’20/21 and 24-8 in ’21/22).
The Suns held the best regular season record in the NBA in 2021/22 at 64-18 and head coach Monty Williams won Coach of the Year after finishing second in ’20/21. Josh Lewenberg of TSN Sports (Twitter link) believes that Mutombo could become an NBA head coach in the future.
Im surprised it wasn’t mentioned. Is he of any relations to Dikembe?
According to Wikipedia, no relation
No
At first glance, I thought the name read “Patrick Mahomes” and I nearly had a stroke
Patrick Mutombo holds no known relation to Dikembe Mutombo, although he is frequently asked if he does.
No need to google now.
Upon frequently being asked *finger wag emoji*