After a long and diligent search, the Phoenix Suns have chosen their successor to Mike Budenholzer. On Wednesday, it was announced that the team would be naming Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Jordan Ott as their new head coach.

This decision is ironic for two reasons. First, both Ott and Mat Ishbia (the majority owner of the team, who has become known for questionable decision-making) are Michigan State Spartan Alum (as am I, for the record). And second, so long as he doesn’t get traded this offseason, this will be Devin Booker’s seventh non-interim head coach since being drafted by the Suns in 2015. That is tied for the most coaches in a tenure with one team in NBA history.

The Suns Had A Good Process With This Decision

Despite the comedic value sprinkled into this situation, the Suns did a good job with this hiring. No matter what anyone tells you, we never know how these things will play out with absolute certainty. So, all we can do is focus on having a good process for our decisions and hope that fate smiles in our direction.

In this case, the Suns exercised some good process. As mentioned in the reporting around this signing, the Suns interviewed 15 different candidates for this job. Juxtapose this with the Sacramento Kings, who didn’t interview a single other coach before removing Doug Christie’s interim tag. Even if Christie ends up being the better hire than Ott, the Suns’ strategy was far more commendable and will lead to better results over a larger sample.

The Suns also made sure to avoid star-hunting this time around. With their last two coaches (Frank Vogel and Mike Budenholzer), it seemed like they were more amused with their championship pedigree than confident that they were the right guys to lead their specific roster.

Ott is on the opposite end of this spectrum. He’s a rising star whose best days are still in front of him. Ott was a part of the staff that took the mismatched Cavaliers roster and made them one of the best offenses in the history of the sport. Ott didn’t do it all on his lonesome, but it seems like he did play an integral role in their success. Here is a quote from Shams Charania in his newsbreaking story:

“Ott has been an NBA assistant coach since 2012 and has been rooted in principles of strong offensive and defensive creativity, player development and toughness. He’s known around the NBA as a strong communicator with his players and coaching staff and someone who spends an incredible amount of time studying trends and pathways to adjust based on new patterns, sources said.”

The key here is that Ott was able to take a team with an imbalanced roster and figure out how to best maximize their strengths while also minimizing their weaknesses. With most of their money tied up in three players who share more or less the same set of skills (albeit to varying degrees) and a bunch of flawed complimentary pieces, the Suns have arguably the least cohesive roster in the league. Ott is the perfect person to tackle this unique challenge.

With this said, it does look very likely that Kevin Durant has played his last game with the Suns. So, he won’t be dealing with exactly the same core that Vogel and Budenholzer worked with him before him. Still, given their limited draft resources and lack of young talent, this is still quite the mess for Ott to clean up.

Regardless of whether or not Ott ends up being the savior this franchise desperately needs, the Suns did a good job with their hiring process this time around, and we need to remember this moment when we are reviewing this situation in the future.