The Phoenix Suns don’t have many options to make changes to their team for next year, as they have a disastrous cap situation with their three stars — Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal — all locked in long-term to max deals. Moving any of those stars would be difficult, especially because Beal, who is the guy they’d most likely want to trade, still has a no-trade clause.
As such, they have to hope things just click better next year, and they’ll hope a new coach can bring some fresh ideas on how to make this roster work. On Thursday, word emerged that Frank Vogel would be out as head coach after one year in Phoenix, going 49-33 in the regular season before being swept by the Timberwolves.
ESPN Sources: The Phoenix Suns dismissed coach Frank Vogel. The Suns — who won 49 regular-season games with league’s third-highest payroll and tax — were swept in opening-round series to Timberwolves. Mike Budenholzer will be prominent part of search. pic.twitter.com/SDTRkXxkrG
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 9, 2024
As Adrian Wojnarowski notes, former Bucks and Hawks head coach Mike Budenholzer will be a leading candidate for the Suns job, but it will be a very difficult gig given the expectations and limitations. Still, a team with three stars will have coaches believing they are the ones that can coax their full potential out of them, and the Suns will hope someone will come in with a plan to maximize their stars.
That’s easier said than done, but it shouldn’t be a huge surprise that’s the move they are making, given there aren’t really any other levers to pull to make significant changes.
