Confirm! The man who changed to Zubac alone will be retired for one year and then hired

It is not uncommon for NBA players to become coaches after retirement, but it is rare for cases like Mike Muscala to quickly take up their posts in just one year after retirement.

According to well-known journalist Michael Scotto, the 33-year-old former NBA insider will join the Phoenix Suns coaching staff to become the assistant coach of new coach Jordan Ott. Behind this appointment is a master-disciple friendship spanning 12 years, and also a "Zubac trade tragedy" that Lakers fans are still worried about.

Muscala's player career can be called an "NBA homeless" - he has been to seven teams in 11 seasons, averaging only 5.8 points and 3.1 rebounds per game, but what made him "famous" was the 2019 deal that made Lakers fans beat their chests and stamp their feet. At that time, in order to get him, the Lakers sent young centers Ivica Zubac and Michael Beasley to the Clippers.

As a result, Muscala left the team six months later, while Zubac grew into a high-quality center with an average of 12.4 points and 9.3 rebounds in the Clippers, and signed a four-year contract of 28 million. This deal is regarded by Lakers fans as a classic negative textbook for "sending away the core of the city's mortal enemy for free."

The Sun chose Muscala. The intersection of new coach Jordan Ultra and his began in the Hawks period from 2013 to 2016, when Ultra was a video analyst and Muscala was a rotation player.

Now that Ultra is the first to take charge of the Seal, he urgently needs to form a "personal" team, and the newly retired Muscala just meets the standard of "understanding football + trustworthiness". Despite zero coaching experience, Muscala's technical characteristics as a space-based insider (37.3% career three-point shooting percentage) may help the Suns develop the shooting ability of young center Kaman Malachi and others.

What is more intriguing is the Sun's "coach salary black hole". In the past three years, they have successively fired Monty Williams (21 million for three years), Frank Vogel (26 million for four years) and Mike Budenholzer (40 million for four years) and have to pay nearly $90 million for laid-off coaches. In comparison, Muscala's annual salary as an assistant coach is only 500,000-1 million, which is a cost-effective choice.

For Muscala, this transformation is a big gamble for her career. If you can prove your coaching potential in the Suns, you may complete a counterattack from a role player to a famous coach like Steve Cole; if you fail, you may lose your job like many assistant coaches and get out of work.

But no matter what, this man who was once nailed to the Lakers' pillar of shame for "single-for-selling Zubac" finally ushered in a new opportunity to rewrite the reputation.

The Suns' performance next season is full of unknowns, and Muscala's transformation from player to assistant coach also provides a reference sample for those role players in the league who are about to retire. In the NBA, Vanity Fair, how to plan the second half of your career is also a compulsory course.