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Is David Blatt an option at HC for the Phoenix Suns?

By Khaleel Abdullah

ATHENS, GREECE - APRIL 05: David Blatt, Head Coach of Olympiacos Piraeus react during the 2018/2019 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 30 game between Olympiacos Piraeus and Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul at Peace and Friendship Stadium on April 5, 2019 in Athens, Greece. (Photo by Panagiotis Moschandreou/EB via Getty Images)
ATHENS, GREECE - APRIL 05: David Blatt, Head Coach of Olympiacos Piraeus react during the 2018/2019 Turkish Airlines EuroLeague Regular Season Round 30 game between Olympiacos Piraeus and Darussafaka Tekfen Istanbul at Peace and Friendship Stadium on April 5, 2019 in Athens, Greece. (Photo by Panagiotis Moschandreou/EB via Getty Images) /
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The Phoenix Suns are searching for their next head coach. After just releasing one well decorated internationally, could they bring in another?

Igor Kokoskov was recently fired as head coach of the Phoenix Suns and the franchise is looking for their next leader on the sidelines.

In addition to Igor’s time in the NBA as an assistant, Kokoskov had 9 years of international head coach experience and is known for leading Slovenia to Gold.

Could Phoenix look for someone along the same lines in their next hire?

Enter David Blatt.

At 59, he’s 12 years older than Kokoskov but that isn’t too old for a coach and with that comes more experience, which is not a bad thing.

He’s Israeli-American and a former professional basketball player overseas. Similar to Kokoskov, an injury ended his playing career and that’s what led him to coaching.

Blatt is quite a bit more decorated than Igor as he is one of the most successful American coaches in European basketball history. He’s been named the Israeli Super League Coach of the Year four times, the Russian Super League Coach of the Year once, and the EuroLeague Coach of the Year once.

A couple seasons ago, Blatt took over as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and led the team to the 2015 NBA Finals in his first season. Yeah, he had LeBron James but that’s extremely valuable experience. He guided them to the top of their conference the next year, but was fired mid-season (see : didn’t get along with LeBron), and subsequently returned to coaching in Europe.

His international resume, in addition to the Coach of the Year honors, features SEVENTEEN different championships. As head coach, he’s won one EuroLeague,one EuroCup, one Italian League, one FIBA EuroChallenge, one Adriatic League, one Italian Cup championship, FIVE Israeli Super League championships and SIX Israeli Cups.

That type of winning, at any level, deserves a lot of respect and praise.

In his short tenure as an NBA head coach, he picked up 83 wins on a .675 winning percentage.

He may be the shot in the arm that this franchise needs and the right coach to build them into a winner again.

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He is currently the head coach of Olympiacos of the Greek Basket League and the EuroLeague but I think he would be willing to come back over to be an NBA head coach again. The Suns should make the phone call and gauge his interest in the position.

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