Suns shifting ahead in teaching search with Nurse, Rivers atop record

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We can surmise that the Phoenix Suns’ coaching search is moving forward and some big names – Nick Nurse and Doc Rivers – are high on the list.

Additionally, reports of the Suns’ coach search, which stalled late Tuesday, were somewhat unclear. That’s because three reports from the NBA’s top three news reporters on the search were all slightly different. Maybe it’s a phone game, and when the information got to each man through agents and sources, things were a little different. If you want a real conspiracy theory, owner Mat Ishbia and GM James Jones may have made a Lord Tywin Lannister-level move and told different employees/agents different things to see what was popping up where in the media.

Initial reports – from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and The Athletic’s Shams Charania – were similar, saying the Suns had reached the final stage of their coaching search with four or five names in the mix.

The only real difference between the two is the addition of Frank Vogel. The Arizona Republic’s well-connected Duane Rankin had the same five-man roster as Charania.

However, Bleacher Report/TNT’s Chris Haynes comes later and essentially contradicts the notion that the Suns are nearing the final stages of their quest.

Since Ishbia is considered league-wide in charge of this search (and basketball operations), this is considered unpredictable. That said, as much as the Bucks’ Lee, the Suns’ Young and the Kings’ Fernandez deserve a shot at the NBA head coaching position, it’s hard to imagine that Phoenix — with a short championship window as planned — would give the job to one first head coach.

Nurse and Atkinson are also two of the last contenders for the Bucks’ head coaching job, although given Atkinson’s past with Kevin Durant in Brooklyn, it’s hard to imagine the Suns going down that route. That could put pressure on the Suns to make up their minds and, if Nurse is their man, sign him before the Bucks. (The Bucks could lean on Atkinson, who served as Atlanta’s Mike Budenholzer’s assistant coach for four years, allowing Milwaukee to bring in a new voice and someone who’s seen as a more creative coach without radically changing the system, like Nurse could do it.)

Is Doc Rivers the coach you hire to guide a team on their last trek to the title?

Meanwhile, despite the keen interest in his services, excitement is growing in the league that former Suns coach Monty Williams could be stepping down from the NBA coaching circuit for about a year.

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