Sean Dwyer joins Jordan Ott's coaching stafff as an assistant after serving as as associate head coach last season at Loyola University Chicago.
Loyola University Chicago men’s head basketball coach Drew Valentine can relate to Phoenix Suns first-year head coach Jordan Ott hiring Sean Dwyer as an assistant.
Trust.
Valentine tapped into the same thinking when becoming the Ramblers’ head coach in April 2021.
Promoted at age 29 after four years working under Porter Moser, Valentine made Dwyer his first assistant.
“I wanted somebody from the family to help me as I started my journey,” Valentine said.
The Michigan State family.
Dwyer’s last year as a student manager at Michigan State was Ott’s first year as a video coordinator for the 2008-09 season when the Spartans reached the national title game under Hall of Fame coach Tom Izzo.
The previous season, Ott and Dwyer were student managers together as pictured in the 2007-08 Michigan State media guide. Ott was a graduate assistant.
Now they are reunited in Phoenix with this being Dwyer’s first year as an NBA assistant.
“Thankful for an amazing 4+ years at Loyola Chicago,” Dwyer tweeted Aug. 12. He was the team’s associate head coach last season.
“Forever grateful for Drew, the coaches and all of the players. The administration, university community and fans made it an awesome place to live and coach. On to Phoenix!”
Dwyer joins Jesse Mermuys, DeMarre Carroll, Brian Randle, Chaisson Allen, John Little and Mike Muscala on Ott’s coaching staff, which also includes Mateen Cleaves as a player development coach/leadership assistant. Cleaves led Michigan State to the 2000 national title, part of a roster that included Suns team owner Mat Ishbia.
“I think he’ll be great,” Valentine said about Dwyer. “He’s unassuming. Isn’t a guy who is going to be the loudest guy in the room, look at me, look at me. Once people get to know him, his character, his work ethic, he always ends up being a favorite of players and coaches.”
First-year Phoenix Suns head coach Jordan Ott on building a coaching staff: "I know we're building something unique here. I want those guys around me that I can lean on because I don't know what this is exactly going to be. I don't know all these steps in it. Guys who have been… pic.twitter.com/Xd1u9FOE1p
— Duane Rankin (@DuaneRankin) July 8, 2025
The Michigan State influx continues to grow and expand within the Suns organization, with Dwyer being the latest edition.
“Sean is a relentless worker,” Valentine said. “Everybody that has ever worked with him or been around him, every single person, I guarantee you, the first thing they’ll talk about is his work ethic and how thorough he is, how detailed he is. He’s going to do whatever it takes. He’ll take something he read in a book or analytics and use that in player development or decisions to try to help another coach. Whatever it might possibly be, he’s going to do that to try to help the coaching staff come up with the best solution to be successful.”
Like Dwyer, Valentine was a student manager at Michigan State (2013-15). His brother, Denzel, starred at Michigan State (2012-16) and played five NBA seasons.
Their dad, Carlton, put in work for the Spartans in the 1980s.
Dwyer joined Drew Valentine at Loyola after working at Alabama, Florida, Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati. With Dwyer in charge of defense, the Ramblers ranked 17th in points allowed per game at 61.5, limiting seven opponents to fewer than 50.
NBA assistants tend to have specific tasks on a coaching staff, like player development, frontcourt or backcourt work, offensive or defensive schemes or analytics.
Dwyer comes to Phoenix with experience in those areas. He helped Philip Alston make the jump from NCAA Division II’s California (Pa.) to average a team-high 12.6 points his senior year at Loyola in 2023-24 to landing an Exhibit 10 deal with the Milwaukee Bucks last year.
“Sean was his primary development guy,” Valentine said.
Dwyer also saw a bright future for Rasheer Fleming when the Suns rookie was a freshman at Saint Joseph’s. Loyola and St. Joe’s both are in the Atlantic 10 conference.
“Sean was like, man, I think that kid has a chance to be special one day,” Valentine said. “True story.”
Two years later, Fleming was the first player taken in the second round of the 2025 draft.
Ishbia decided to make changes, with several moves directly tied to Michigan State after experiencing a 36-win season in 2024-25. He fired Mike Budenholzer as head coach after one season.
He promoted Brian Gregory from vice president of player programming to general manager in May. Gregory was also part of Michigan State’s 2000 national championship team. Gregory served as an assistant while Ishbia was a walk-on.
A month later, Ishbia hired Ott to replace Mike Budenholzer.
These moves fueled the “Michigan State Suns” narrative.
And?
“I hope and pray (Ott) keeps some of what we did because we had great success when he was here, but it’s not a Michigan State Southwest in the standpoint of he didn’t get the job because of me,” Izzo said in June. “He earned the job. He went through the process.”
Starting his NBA coaching career in 2013 with the Atlanta Hawks as a video coordinator under Mike Budenholzer, Ott served as an assistant for the Brooklyn Nets, Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers before landing the Suns head coaching job.
Now he had to start building his staff as a first-year head coach.
“You want your staff to be high character and high care,” Ott said as his introductory press conference in June. “So, who they are as people. Loyal. Trustworthy. Then, do they do the work? If we can consistently find that in our staff, we’re in good shape.”
Dwyer fits that description.
“He’s committed to serving the players, first and foremost,” Valentine said. “He’s a guy that’s super reliable. The players, I always felt, they could call him at any time of the day and he was going to be there for them as people. He’ll be there whether it’s to watch film, workout with them on the floor or go out dinner. Have him over to his family home. Whatever it is, he’s committed to them.”
Valentine knows how close Ott and Dwyer are.
So naturally, he asked Dwyer his interest level in working for Ott in Phoenix.
“He was like, nah, I’m good here,” Valentine said. “I see a real pathway to things working out at Loyola.”
Oh, how quickly things can change.
“The week of the draft, Jordan actually reached out to Sean and kind of started the dialogue as far what that could possibly be,” Valentine said.
That call began a six-week process as Ott offered Dwyer the job Aug. 3, Valentine said.
“When (Dwyer) brought it up and finally talked about some of things that he could be doing with the organization, I was like, 'Man, I think this is something that you got to at least consider and look at,'” Valentine said. “‘If you can get that job, I think it might be something that you can’t turn down.’ I was excited for him.”
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at [email protected] or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: New Phoenix Suns assistant latest Michigan State connection hire
Category: Basketball
