PHOENIX — Las Vegas is the center of the basketball universe this week with the WNBA All-Star festivities beginning and NBA Summer League action ramping up.
The Phoenix Suns (1-2) are preparing to face the Utah Jazz on Friday with their fifth game and opponent still yet to be determined. Summer League not only provides young players with an opportunity to showcase their skills, it gives assistant coaches and transitioning head coaches experience at the helm with their group.
Phoenix’s Summer League team is being led by assistant coach Quinton Crawford.
The 32-year-old comes to Phoenix from the Dallas Mavericks where he worked under Jason Kidd last season. Crawford is one of the new assistants in Phoenix, but he’s been on head coach Frank Vogel's staff, previously in Orlando and Los Angeles.
Crawford was working with Vogel when he led the Lakers to a Championship in 2020 and now they’re working to bring Phoenix its first NBA title.
Phoenix will be the sixth stop on Crawford’s NBA journey which began when he was a video coordinator for the Sacramento Kings. Crawford was a walk-on at the University of Arizona from 2011-13, playing under former head coach Sean Miller. He credits Miller and his staff with helping him jump start his transition into coaching.
“Those guys took care of me, and they helped me learn and grow as a coach,” Crawford said. “After I finished up my last season with the Wildcats that summer, they let me sit in the video room with the managers and learn how to cut video, which allowed me to get my first job as a graduate assistant at Pepperdine, which allowed me to get my next job, which was an NBA, so I owe a lot to those guys.”
Now, 10 years after being celebrated on the court at McKale Center in Tucson, Crawford is getting two weeks’ worth of reps as an NBA head coach in Vegas. Crawford also served as head coach of the Lakers Summer League team in 2021.
According to data from FiveThirtyEight, Summer League has helped propel several individuals into head coaching positions within the NBA, G-League, WNBA and NCAA. Current NBA head coaches who cut their teeth during Summer League in recent years include New Orleans’s Willie Green, Memphis’s Taylor Jenkins, and Orlando’s Jamahl Mosley.
“I’m a guy that doesn’t turn down the option to take head coaching reps. People don’t understand when you’re the head coach, you make a lot of decisions that normally go over your head when you’re not.” Crawford said. “My [coaching] style is I treat people with respect. I don't think I have to get after everybody every say you know every practice, but I do have demands that have to be met. Right? And one of that is playing hard and playing with effort and exerting themselves and if they're not doing what I'm asking, and I have to get on somebody, I will.”
Crawford isn’t the only Arizona Wildcat on Vogel’s Championship-caliber coaching staff. Miles Simon, who led the Wildcats to the 1997 NCAA National Championship, is back in Arizona after spending two seasons as head coach of the NBA G League’s South Bay Lakers.
David Fizdale joins Vogel’s staff after serving as associate general manager for the Jazz. Fizdale has served as head coach of the Grizzlies and New York Knicks during his 20-year NBA coaching career.
Vogel’s associate head coach, Kevin Young, has been in Phoenix for the last three seasons and was reportedly among the finalists for the top job with the Suns. From the star-studded roster to the familiarity amongst the highly experienced coaching staff, The Frank Vogel Era appears to be off to a strong start in the Valley.
“We’ve taught this system in Orlando, we’ve taught this system in L.A., a lot of us have a lot of comfort with Frank and Frank does a good job of allowing us to coach,” Crawford said. “He puts a lot of demand on us coaching it the right way, but he also trusts us to do it the right way. He doesn’t micromanage us.”
The Suns and Jazz tip off at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas.
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