Phoenix Suns: 5 candidates to be the long-term head coach

5. Mark Jackson

Hear me out.

These days, Mark Jackson is known for the same repeated catch phrases as an NBA broadcaster, for being a head coach who preached as much as he actually coached, and for being the guy who inadvertently held back a talented young core that now runs the league after being unleashed by Steve Kerr. That description alone sounds hauntingly similar to Earl Watson’s time in Phoenix.

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However, it’s also true M-Jax helped implement an elite defense that’s still a major part of the Warriors’ success to this day. Part of that has to do with having better personnel than the Suns have, but at the time of his firing from Golden State, a lot of people — including Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson — were shocked and displeased with the decision.

Jackson is not the long-term solution for the Suns, but like Doug Collins with the Chicago Bulls years before him, he’s the good coach that would eventually need to be upgraded to the proverbial Steve Kerr or Phil Jackson.

For a Suns team so dependent on youth, development under Jackson — particularly on the defensive end — would be helpful in eventually unlocking this team’s potential. Maybe Mark Jackson’s time with the Dubs really was overrated, and he wouldn’t have as much talent to work with in Phoenix, but unlike Watson, there’d actually be some substance behind this preacher man’s words.