Former Phoenix Suns coach Igor Kokoskov says the franchise never truly opened the door to drafting Luka Doncic in 2018, and that the decision to take Deandre Ayton No. 1 overall was already essentially locked in.
Speaking on the “X&O’s Chat” podcast, Kokoskov said the Suns did not have meaningful internal debate about the pick.
“We never, literally never, had a single serious strategic conversation about who we were going to draft, which gave me more than enough of an indication that the decision had already been made. So, (former Suns owner) Robert Sarver went to Arizona, so he had an emotional connection to Ayton,” Kokoskov said on the “X&O’s Chat” podcast (h/t Basketball Network's Bruno Feliks).
Kokoskov, who had coached Doncic with the Slovenian national team before joining Phoenix that offseason, said the Suns viewed the young star through the lens of fit with Devin Booker.
“We had signed Devin Booker, and we projected Luka, I’m guessing here, as a high-usage shooter who could pass, but not a pure point guard to put alongside Booker at shooting guard, meaning they’d overlap as two off-guards.”
He also said Sarver had not spent much time around Doncic before the draft.
“Their skill sets wouldn’t complement each other. That was probably Sarver’s logic.
Sarver only watched Luka play live once and had one dinner with him. think if he had spent more time tracking him and watching him, things might have been different. He had already made up his mind, and everything regarding Luka was just him looking for reasons to justify taking Ayton as the number one pick.”
Later, Kokoskov recalled a blunt moment on draft night when Sarver asked who the team was taking.
“As (Sarver) was leaving the office, he turned to Corliss Williamson, who is now an assistant coach in San Antonio, a great guy and a good friend of mine, turned to Corliss and asked, ‘Corliss, who are we drafting tonight?’ He asked it so brazenly, right in front of everyone, including the coaches,” Kokoskov said (h/t Feliks).
“He asks him who we’re drafting! Corliss looks at me, and I tell him, ‘Do I tell him the truth, or what he wants to hear?’
He turns to me and says, ‘Coach, what are we doing?’ I say, ‘We draft Luka, sign Capela in free agency, and see if Atlanta is willing to trade their pick.’
And Sarver says, ‘Okay.’ I told him, ‘I’m really glad you asked me, the first time you’ve asked me, half an hour before the draft, but I’m glad you asked.'"
Phoenix’s choice has lingered for years because Doncic has become one of the league’s best players, while Ayton is now on his fourth team in five years. The debate only grew louder after Dallas routed the Suns in Game 7 of the second round in 2022, one year after Phoenix reached the Finals and then entered the playoffs as the favorite after a franchise-record 64 wins.
The missed opportunity also fits a larger pattern from Sarver’s time running the team. He was known for not spending heavily, and in Sept. 2022 he announced plans to sell the franchise after serving a one-year suspension following an NBA investigation that found a long history of racist and sexist behavior.
Kokoskov’s account adds another layer to one of the Suns’ biggest what-ifs: a local big man in Ayton, a generational talent in Doncic, and a draft-night call that, by his telling, never really had a real debate behind it.
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