The Memphis Grizzlies caused heads to turn around the league earlier this season when the team decided to fire head coach David Fizdale. While there were rumblings that Marc Gasol didn’t see eye-to-eye with his coach, Fizdale is a respected coach whose name was almost certainly going to get kicked around as coaching vacancies opened up around the league.
Now that we’ve officially reached coaching search season, it looks like that’s going to be the case. Fizdale was in Oakland this weekend for the start of the series between the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs.
But before things tipped off, Fizdale attended Warriors practice on Friday. While there, he dropped an interesting tidbit about his future. Fizdale told the press that he has a pair of interviews lined up in the coming week: One is with the New York Knicks, the other is with the Phoenix Suns.
The Suns have had a coaching vacancy since October, when the team fired Earl Watson and made Jay Triano its interim head coach. The Knicks have been in the market for a new coach for a far shorter period of time, as New York parted ways with Jeff Hornacek earlier this week.
Both jobs would mean Fizdale would get the opportunity to see through a rebuilding effort, and both squads have a young centerpiece for him to build around: Devin Booker in Phoenix and Kristaps Porzingis in New York. It wouldn’t be a stretch for more teams that need a coach to get in touch with Fizdale, but for now, the Knicks and Suns are trying to get ahead of the field.
