Basketball
2:49pm: In addition to officially promoting Gregory and moving Jones to an advisory role, the Suns have also named Oronde Taliaferro as assistant GM and CIO Paul Rivers will now have basketball operations responsibilities, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link via Gerald Bourguet of PHNX Sports).
“Brian has been a valuable member of our front office, playing an integral role in drafting and developing our young players,” said Ishbia. “I am excited for him to step into the role of general manager. He is a brilliant basketball mind, and he will transform and elevate our team.”
2:37pm: The Suns are making a major change to their front office, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania, who reports that vice president of player programming Brian Gregory will become the team’s new head of basketball operations, with an official title of general manager.
Sources tell Charania that former NBA veteran James Jones, who has been the Suns’ GM since 2019, will become a senior advisor in Phoenix.
Gregory, 58, played four years of college basketball in the late-80s before transitioning to coaching. He had two different stints as an assistant at Michigan State — the second overlapped with Suns owner Mat Ishbia‘s time with the Spartans, Charania notes.
After 13 years as an NCAA assistant, Gregory landed his first head coaching job with Dayton back in 2003, remaining with the Flyers until 2011, when he was hired away by Georgia Tech. He stayed with the Yellow Jackets until 2016, when he was let go, serving as a special a consultant to Michigan State’s Tom Izzo during the ’16/17 campaign. Gregory was head coach of South Florida from 2017-23.
It’s a rapid rise for the longtime coach, who was hired by the Suns last June. Gregory has been credited for drafting Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro in 2024, according to Charania, and has been in charge of college scouting and the pre-draft process this year, per Jake Fischer (Twitter link).
According to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link), Josh Bartelstein will remain in his role as CEO. Gregory will report directly to Ishbia, Gambadoro adds.
Marc Stein first reported that Gregory could be in line for a promotion.
Despite having the NBA’s highest payroll, the Suns are coming off a disastrous season, finishing with a 36-46 record and not even making the play-in tournament. That led to the firing of head coach Mike Budenholzer, who had four years left on his contract.
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