Joe Prunty
Joseph Michael Prunty is an American professional basketball coach who was most recently the lead assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association. Previously, he served as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks during the 2017–2018 season. In 37 games of the Prunty era, the Bucks went 21-16, the fourth best win percentage in franchise history among 16 head coaches. At one point, Prunty owned the Milwaukee record for playoff wins for a head coach in their first season. Prunty also was the head coach of the Great Britain men's national basketball team from June 2013 until September 2017. Prunty is a three time NBA Champion as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs and is a 2006 Western Conference Champion with the Dallas Mavericks. Prunty has spent 23 seasons in the NBA with 7 different organizations. He has been a part of a remarkable 17 playoff appearances and is renowned as one of the best teachers in the American professional game. Prunty has coached the likes of some of the all time greats including Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, and Giannis Antetokounmpo to name a few.
Early career
Prunty was born in Sunnyvale, California and graduated from Fremont High School in 1987. He was great high school player before going on to play college basketball at De Anza College in Cupertino, California. He then earned a bachelor's degree in Speech Communications from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1991. He began his coaching career in 1992 in San Diego, California, coaching at University of San Diego High School. During his time as a high school coach, Sacramento Kings head coach Luke Walton and former Chicago Cubs pitcher Mark Prior, were among his players. Walton and Prunty would meet up 16 years later, but this time with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA. Prunty was the freshman head coach and a varsity assistant during his time at University High, helping the program to 3 straight CIF San Diego Section titles.NBA coaching career
While University of San Diego High School, former University of San Diego head coach Hank Egan informed Prunty of a possible opening in the San Antonio Spurs organization. Based on this tip, Prunty joined the coaching staff of the Spurs as an assistant video coordinator. He left briefly in April 1997 to become an assistant coach at the University of San Diego, where his brother, John Prunty, had played college basketball. He returned to the Spurs for the 1997–1998 season, eventually being promoted to assistant coach in 2000. During his time with the Spurs, the team won championships in 1999, 2003, and 2005.In 2006, he left San Antonio to become a Dallas Mavericks assistant coach, becoming a part of the staff of former Spurs assistant coach Avery Johnson. The team made it to the 2006 NBA Finals, losing to the Miami Heat in six games. The team ended the 2006–07 season with the best record in the league, led by MVP Dirk Nowitzki, but were upset in the first round of the playoffs by Don Nelson's Golden State Warriors. Prunty left the Mavericks for the Portland Trail Blazers in 2008 when Avery Johnson was fired and replaced with Rick Carlisle.
While Prunty was a member of the Trail Blazers' coaching staff, the team had back-to-back 50 win seasons for the first time since the 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 NBA seasons. He also served as the Blazers' head coach during the NBA Summer League in 2008 and 2009. He joined the Cleveland Cavaliers as an assistant coach in 2010, spending three seasons as a member of Byron Scott's team. On August 20, 2013, he was hired as an assistant coach by the Brooklyn Nets. Nets' head coach Jason Kidd was suspended for the first two games of the season after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor DWI charge stemming from an incident in July 2012. Kidd named Prunty to serve as acting head coach for the team's season opener against Cleveland Cavaliers and their home opener against Miami Heat. The team went 1–1 in these games with a loss against Cleveland and a win against Miami and LeBron James. The Nets had previously lost 13 straight games against the Heat before Prunty ended the streak in his first game against them.
Kidd left the Nets for the Milwaukee Bucks in 2014 and Prunty joined the staff there. On December 20, 2015, Prunty was named the interim head coach for 17 games as Kidd underwent hip surgery. The team went 8–9 during that time, a significant improvement after beginning the season 10–18. With Prunty at the helm, the team played at a faster pace with a greater emphasis on offensive rebounds, which resulted in a much improved offensive rating. The Bucks reached the playoffs during the 2016–17 season, losing to the Toronto Raptors in six games. After beginning the 2017–18 season with a disappointing 23–22 record and falling to the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference, head coach Kidd was fired, and Prunty was named interim head coach on January 22, 2018 before they began their game against the Phoenix Suns. After winning that game, for the rest of the season onward, the Bucks would improve just enough to gain the 7th seed of the Eastern Conference in the 2018 NBA Playoffs, facing against the Boston Celtics in the first round. While Milwaukee would be competitive throughout the series, they would ultimately lose the first round 4–3. Prunty would remain with the Bucks until May 17, when Mike Budenholzer would be named his replacement. On June 4, 2018, it was announced that Prunty would join the Phoenix Suns as their leading assistant coach. He along with other Suns assistants were relieved of their duties in April 2019, following the firing of head coach Igor Kokoškov. In those 23 seasons, Prunty's teams have amassed a record of 1,027-811.
National team career
Joe Prunty was named the head coach of the Great Britain men's national basketball team on June 2013 after an extensive interview process following Chris Finch's resignation. The choice was initially somewhat controversial as Prunty had little previous international coaching experience. Prunty's first campaign as GB head coach was summer 2013. Despite being without top players Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Joel Freeland, and Pops Mensah-Bonsu, Prunty began his tenure with a 61–55 win over Puerto Rico in an International Test Match at The Copper Box Arena, London. The team went on to upset Israel in their first game of Eurobasket 2013, earning a dramatic overtime victory. However, Great Britain ended the group phase with a 2–3 record, not good enough to advance. Because of this result, UK Sport cut its funding for the team.Despite the future of the Great Britain National Team looking bleak due to the budget constraints, Prunty stayed on as coach as the team attempted to qualify for Eurobasket 2015. The cut in funding meant the team could not afford the insurance costs required to recruit top players, had to cancel training camp, and required players to sleep in dorm beds and live on £15 a day. After losses to Bosnia and Iceland, the team failed to qualify for the tournament.
With funding from Sport England, the team set out in 2016 to qualify for Eurobasket 2017. Their 3–3 record in their group was good enough to ensure that they were one of the four top runners-up
in all of the qualifying groups. For the 2017 tournament, they ended up in the very tough Group D, facing off against Belgium, Latvia, Russia, Serbia, and hosts Turkey. Despite keeping most of the games close, the team went 0–5 at the tournament and were not able to advance to the knockout phase.
Due to changes from FIBA in the qualifying process for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics that conflict with the NBA, Prunty was forced to step down as head coach of the Great Britain men's national team after Eurobasket 2017. Under Prunty's tenure, the team went 11–37 with a 5–15 record in competitive games. Despite the lackluster record, Prunty is credited with creating a close communication culture within the team that kept the program afloat during difficult times, with at least one player on record saying he would not have considered playing for the team without Prunty as head coach.