Starting a new career, Mike Muscala's first year as a Phoenix Suns assistant ended poetically. It ended via the hands of the team he spent his best years with in the Oklahoma City Thunder. The reigning NBA champions had another ho-hum Round 1 sweep.
The Thunder made quick work of the Suns. They won all four matchups with relative ease — even with Jalen Williams' latest hiccup of a third hamstring strain in four months. But just because there's a galaxy-sized talent discrepancy between the two, doesn't discredit what the latter did.
The Suns had one of the better feel-good seasons. After Kevin Durant's departure, Phoenix was stuck in the desert. But a bunch of new faces helped them find an oasis. Suns head coach Jordan Ott was one of them. He helped several role players enjoy career years across the board.
Part of his coaching staff included Muscala. Fresh off his retirement after OKC's 2024 NBA playoff run, He only took one gap year before he returned to the NBA world. This time, as a Suns assistant coach. After their Game 4 win, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault singled him out in his opening comments.
“I just saw Mike Muscala on the court and it reminded me that he was such a huge part of our build early on. There are more than a few people that were a huge part of that that weren’t here for the last couple of years to see the fruits of that labor, but he’s certainly one of them," Daigneault said. "I’m happy to see him coaching. He’s a great man. He’s going to have a great career in coaching. Congrats to him on his first season."
Cool to see Daigneault give Muscala that confidence boost. I imagine being an NBA assistant coach involves grueling hours with few baselines to success. It's a billion-to-one odds to get out of it and advance to being an NBA head coach. But seems like he's just happy to find a new sense of purpose in life after he hung up the sneakers from a lenghty playing career that featured many stops.
This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: Mark Daigneault shouts out this NBA assistant coach for having bright future
