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Suns Announce Mike Budenholzer’s Coaching Staff

August 6th, 2024 at 1:44pm CST by Luke Adams

The Suns have issued a press release formally announcing their coaching staff for the 2024/25 season under new head coach Mike Budenholzer.

As is typically the case, most of these hires were reported earlier in the summer, but the Suns waited until now to officially confirm them all at once.

Here are Budenholzer’s assistants:

Chad Forcier, who has worked as an NBA assistant in Detroit, Indiana, San Antonio, Orlando, Memphis, Milwaukee, and Utah since 2001, winning titles with the Spurs (2014) and Bucks (2021).
David Fizdale, formerly the head coach of the Grizzlies and Knicks, who was first hired as an assistant by the Suns in 2023 and decided to remain with the team following its head coaching change.
Vince Legarza, who worked under Budenholzer in both Atlanta and Milwaukee and also served as an assistant coach in Utah from 2019-22.
Mike Hopkins, a longtime assistant coach under Jim Boeheim at Syracuse and the head coach at the University of Washington from 2017-24.
Brent Barry, a former NBA sharpshooter, TNT analyst, and front office executive. He was most recently the Spurs’ vice president of basketball operations and the Austin Spurs’ general manager.
James Posey, who won titles with the Heat and Celtics as a player and has served as an assistant coach in Cleveland and Washington since his retirement.
Schuyler Rimmer, who won a championship with Budenholzer in 2021 as a Bucks player development assistant and also worked under Budenholzer in Atlanta. He has been a Lakers assistant for the past two seasons.

Fizdale is the lone holdover from Frank Vogel‘s 2023/24 staff.

Suns To Hire Mike Hopkins As Assistant Coach

June 11th, 2024 at 7:14am CST by Luke Adams

The Suns have reached a deal with Mike Hopkins to bring the former University of Washington coach aboard as an assistant on Mike Budenholzer‘s staff, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski and Pete Thamel of ESPN.

Hopkins, who played college basketball at Syracuse from 1989-93, rejoined the Orange as an assistant coach in 1995 and spent over two decades in that role, briefly serving as acting head coach during Jim Boeheim‘s nine-game suspension in 2015/16.

In 2017, Hopkins was hired by Washington as the head coach of the school’s men’s basketball team. He earned Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors in his first two seasons on the job (2018 and 2019) and won a regular season conference title in 2019. However, the Huskies announced earlier this year that he wouldn’t be returning for the 2024/25 season after posting a 122-110 (.526) record across his seven years with the program.

As Wojnarowski and Thamel point out, Hopkins has worked with NBA players before, having been involved with the coaching staffs of several Team USA squads over the years.

Since being hired by the Suns last month to replace Frank Vogel, Budenholzer has been slowly building out his staff for his first year in Phoenix. David Fizdale, Vince Legarza, Chad Forcier, and Chaisson Allen are among the other coaches expected to be Suns assistants under Budenholzer.