3 reasons Mike Budenholzer will succeed with the Phoenix Suns
By Luke Duffy
1. He's one of the best coaches this century
You don't win a Coach of the Year award in the only two places you've been a head coach - as well as being an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs from 1996-2013 - and not become one of the best coaches the NBA has seen this century.
Budenholzer is exactly that - and while Vogel joined with a known eye for defensive schemes - his successor is simply smart in every area of the game. Having Giannis on your roster is always going to help, but the Bucks did rank fourth in defensive rating (110.9) last season, and the year they won the title they had the fifth best offensive rating (116.5).
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The point is, Budenholzer can get the most out of this limited Suns roster on both ends of the court. If you cast your mind back to his firing last season, the manner in which that happened was not without controversy, and was pinned on the coach. The Bucks did exit the playoffs in the first round - losing to the Miami Heat in five games - but there were two key factors at play here.
The first was that Antetokounmpo was injured for most of the series - just like he was this season when the Indiana Pacers sent them packing at the first hurdle - while the Heat would end up going all the way to the NBA Finals. The second was that Budenholzer had some personal issues going on at the time that were a massive distraction. He's a brilliant coach, and he'll thrive with the Suns.