Suns Assistant Kevin Young To Become Head Coach At BYU

Phoenix Suns assistant Kevin Young has been a candidate to become a head coach in the NBA on multiple occasions and it’s never once happened.

So it appears he is taking his talents to the college game. More specifically, Young is taking the coaching job at Brigham Youn University in Provo, Utah, per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

“Young — the highest paid assistant in the NBA — had been a significant candidate for league head coaching jobs in the past two hiring cycles, but BYU landed him with a sizable commitment to lead the Cougars into their second Big 12 Conference season and beyond,’ Wojnarowski wrote.

The Cougars have been traditionally competitive and an NCAA tournament regular. They were sort of Gonzaga before Gonzaga. But it’s been a while since they made a deep tourney run, losing to Duquesne this past season.

Young will be replacing Mark Pope, who left for Kentucky.

“Young, who was born in Salt Lake City, will continue working with the Suns in the playoffs, but will begin assembling a coaching staff that’ll immediately start recruiting for BYU, sources said,” Wojnarowski wrote.

Interestingly, before joining the Suns, Young coached in the NBA G League for eight seasons — and that included a stop with the Utah Flash. He reportedly was in the running this season for the head-coaching vacancies with the Charlotte Hornets and the Brooklyn Nets. (It appears the Nets are instead hiring Sacramento Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez.) 

Young’s coaching career actually began at Utah Valley, now a Division I program.

He has long been considered a favorite of players with the Suns, particularly All-Star shooting guard Devin Booker. Young just finished his first season under coach Frank Vogel after several years under Monty Williams, now of the Detroit Pistons.

The Suns finished sixth in the Western Conference and will face the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs.