Suns Lose a Coach, Gain a President/GM
Two big pieces of news outside of Phoenix today (or one from Memphis & one from Phoenix). Both stories and changes to the Suns organization will affect the team almost immediately and for years to come.
- Suns assistant coach Mike Iavaroni accepts head coaching job w/ the Memphis Grizzlies. This is a pretty big blow to Suns coach Mike D'Antoni's day-to-day team operations, as Iavaroni was his lead assistant.
- The Suns are set to hire current TNT analyst and part Suns team owner, Steve Kerr, as their next President & General Manager (GM) soon - it's still a rumor at this point.
Ok, so you might be thinking this is nothing... Wrong.
While Phoenix may still be a solid team next year, they will seriously miss Iavaroni's 17 years of coaching experience and his relationship w/ the current core of players. Another assistant may step right in and fill the spot, but it won't be at the same level as it was w/ Mike.
The bright side, hopefully, is that Kerr will be in charge of the team now. He should do a fair job, although it will be tough to match the success of the Colangelo's.
To top it off, there were some rumors this week of a possible Kobe Bryant trade, but 99.9% of current Suns fans would've been upset had anything really transpired. Kobe backed on his statement - trade rumors go away.