3 reasons keeping Kevin Young was masterstroke move by the Suns

The Phoenix Suns look to have gotten their next head coach in Frank Vogel, the former Los Angeles Lakers main man who helped lead LeBron James to his fourth championship back in 2020. Vogel wasn’t the top name on everybody’s lists for the job, but there can be no doubt that he is the right coach who has come along at the right time.

Vogel will bring with him the experience of that championship run in Hollywood, as well as a tenure overseeing a really good Indiana Pacers team that was closer to contention than a lot of people remember. Sandwiched in between that was a stint with the Orlando Magic, but even that two-year run showed that Vogel’s strengths lie in taking teams over the top, not rebuilding them.

Alongside the appointment of Vogel, lead assistant Kevin Young has also been kept on with the coaching staff, and this is just as important for the Suns.

Young was one of the finalists for the top gig himself, and came with the endorsement of superstar Devin Booker. It is clear he is respected both by the Suns and around the league, which was why they saw fit to give him a new, $2 million a year deal to sticking around, making him the top paid assistant in the entire NBA.

This was far from the no-brainer move that some fans think it was, and it means that the current front office and owner Mat Ishbia had to confer with Vogel to ensure he too was alright with Young staying as a holdover from the Monty Williams era.

The importance of this cannot be overstated, as incoming head coaches typically like to pick their staff and begin with a clean slate with an organization. It says a lot about the standing of Young that this wasn’t the case with the Suns. If this team does win a championship in the next few years, being able to keep Young will be seen as a notable moment on their journey. Here is why.

3 reasons keeping Kevin Young was masterstroke move by the Suns.

3. He has the trust of the locker room

As already mentioned, Young went for the head coach’s job with the Suns, and had the backing of Booker in doing so. For a star player to back a coach in this way is huge for them, because the biggest names in the league have considerable sway with the organizations they play for.

To keep Young around means Booker is still happy, and both he and Kevin Durant will need to be fully bought into what the coaching staff are trying to implement if they want to win a championship. It also speaks volumes that a player like Jae Crowder didn’t work out when Williams was in town, despite being everything the Suns need, and will again need this summer.

With Williams gone and Booker still wanting Young to stick around means he knows how to communicate with the star, and also has Booker’s backing to put together an offensive game plan that the players can get behind. It likely also means whatever issues were going on behind the scenes last season, the players didn’t think Young was the issue.

Young can now also act as a link between the new faces on the coaching staff, as well as Vogel himself, and the players. On top of that, the issues surrounding the Suns and their depth has been well documented, and it will be hard for them to remedy the situation without making big roster changes this summer.

Should the organization do that, the incoming role players will have a member of the coaching staff who the star players already turn to, and who they too will be able to establish a connection with. Young could also gauge the temperature of these potential roster moves with Booker, Durant and Chris Paul, to get a feel for their thoughts as well.

3 reasons keeping Kevin Young was masterstroke move by the Suns.

2. He fits perfectly with coach Vogel

Coach Young has come a long way from beginning his career in Ireland, and in that time he has established himself as one of the top offensive minds in the NBA today. He is responsible for some of the pretty and effective plays that the Suns have run so well in recent years, and why they still rank third in offensive rating (116.1) this postseason.

Going back to the 2021-22 season, before Durant was on the roster, and the Suns were top five in this category in the regular season (114.2), while in the playoffs they again jumped up to third (114.9). It helps when you have high end talent on the roster to execute a strategy, but Young rightly still gets a lot of credit for the ability of the Suns to score.

On the other side of the coin, coach Vogel has always been a defensive maestro. When the Lakers won a championship in 2020, they had the third best defense in the league (106.1). A year later, and with the team missing James and Anthony Davis for large periods of time, they somehow led the NBA in this category (106.8), which was even more impressive again.

Vogel also had superb defensive-minded teams while coaching the Pacers, and will once again lean into his expertise in that area to try and lead the Suns to a championship. It would be ideal if his top assistant was much more comfortable on the other side of the ball, and in putting together offensive sets that mesh well with what Vogel has in mind defensively.

Young possesses exactly that, and in coming back as the highest paid assistant in the league, will know that he has the backing of the front office to use his voice to have the group humming when in possession. This is not always the case, and Vogel will ultimately have the final say. But with the Suns fighting hard to keep Young and Vogel being ok with it, this duo are perfectly balanced.

3 reasons keeping Kevin Young was masterstroke move by the Suns.

1. He can take over as head coach if needed

It is the unspoken truth in the room right now, but it is obvious that if the Suns both had Young as a finalist to be their next head coach, and also paid him a lot of money to stick around, that they have high hopes for his future. There is no doubt that he could have decided to look for a top job elsewhere, and he eventually would have gotten one.

But in staying with the Suns, Young must know that if things go sideways with Vogel, that he will be given the next opportunity to be the head coach of the team. In one way this is a negative, because right from day one Vogel could be looking over his shoulder. A prized assistant who gets on well with star players is exactly the kind of person who one day takes over as the top coach.

On the other hand, the front office need to do all they can to ensure they maximize the championship window that they have created for themselves. Keeping Young represents exactly that, because if Vogel gets off to a rough start or the wheels come off altogether, he can step in as the interim head coach right away and keep the train moving.

We’ve seen this happen with Joe Mazzulla and the Boston Celtics this season. The 34-year-old going from the second row last season, to being thrust into the spotlight as the Celtics made a run to the Eastern Conference Finals. It is not yet known if he will get the job on a full-time basis, but what we do know is that Young already has a better reputation as an assistant than Mazzulla did.

So the Suns getting a proven head coach in Vogel as their plan A was a smart move. But just as impressive was slotting their plan B in right behind him in a harmonious way. If the Suns need to break glass in case of emergency, then the familiar face of Young will be there if the Vogel appointment goes wrong. You quite literally can’t ask for anything more than that from the Suns.