Trail Blazers assistant Jay Triano will become associate head coach with the Suns, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical. Triano, who has three seasons of head coaching experience and 10 years as an assistant, will join the staff of Earl Watson, who was formally hired last month after serving as an interim coach for 33 games.
Triano, who doubles as head coach of the Canadian national team, went 87-142 in nearly three full seasons as coach of the Raptors before being dismissed in 2011. He was the first Canadian-born coach in league history.
The 57-year-old Triano has been an assistant in Portland since 2012. He will be expected to help turn around a Suns team that hasn’t reached the playoffs since 2009/10.