David Fizdale, Jared Dudley Reportedly Among Suns HC Candidates After Budenholzer Exit
The Phoenix Suns are casting a wide net to find their next head coach after firing Mike Budenholzer after just one season.
Longtime NBA insider Chris Haynes, citing sources on the latest edition of "Haynes Briefs," relayed a list of coaching candidates that will reportedly be looked at to fill the vacancy (9:35 mark).
They include Suns assistant head coach David Fizdale, Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jared Dudley, ex-Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown, current New Orleans Pelicans head coach Willie Green, Miami Heat assistant coach Chris Quinn, Cleveland Cavaliers associate head coach Johnnie Bryant, Mavericks assistant coach Sean Sweeney, Houston Rockets assistant coach Royal Ivey and ex-Suns assistant (and current BYU head coach) Kevin Young.
The Suns just finished a bitterly disappointing season that ended with a 36-46 record and an 11th-place tie in the Western Conference, three games outside the play-in tournament picture.
The championship visions after the Suns added Kevin Durant and later Bradley Beal via trade to join Devin Booker have gone up in smoke, and now the team has to figure out its future plans with reconstructing the roster, too.
But finding a head coach is obviously an important task as well. Phoenix has now had three head coaches in three seasons after parting ways with Monty Williams in 2023, Frank Vogel in 2024 and now Budenholzer in 2025.
There are certainly some interesting names on the list, including Fizdale, who was previously a head coach with the Memphis Grizzlies and New York Knicks from 2016-2019. Dudley played in the NBA for 14 years, including seven seasons with the Phoenix Suns). He's been an assistant with Dallas since 2021.
Green was an eye-opening name considering he's still employed by the Pelicans, but as Haynes said, it's unclear what the future holds in New Orleans after the franchise parted ways with executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin.
Elsewhere, Brown was the NBA's Coach of the Year in 2023 for the Sacramento Kings but was fired after a 13-18 start in the 2024-25 campaign. He's enjoyed great success as a coach, including with the Cleveland Cavaliers as their leader, so he could be the pick in Phoenix.
Ultimately, the Suns certainly hope to enjoy any sort of continuity here as the team will now hire its fourth head coach in four seasons.
