The NBA's postseason is still in full swing, and already the Phoenix Suns have fired one head coach and hired another. Frank Vogel getting his marching orders after an underwhelming season, with Arizona native Mike Budenholzer taking over ahead of a hugely important 2024-25 campaign.
Budenholzer will become the seventh head coach Devin Booker has had since being drafted by the franchise back in 2015 - and as we have already broken down in some detail - is in all likelihood going to be the best he's had as well. Vogel doesn't necessarily need to receive a lot of sympathy either, given Suns' owner Mat Ishbia will be paying him millions of dollars for years to come.
So while coach Vogel is going to be just fine and will likely get another job down the road, there's reason to believe the Suns will actually regret letting him go.
After all, this is the same coach who won a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers as recently as 2020, and who was made a scapegoat for the failure of that organization to seriously compete for a championship after that. This despite the front office making some questionable roster decisions, which made Vogel's life more difficult.
Indeed many Suns fans feel that - until General Manager James Jones is no longer calling the shots in The Valley - that there is only so far any head coach can take this team. In any event, here are the reasons why the Suns are going to regret firing Vogel down the road.
3. He did well given the circumstances
When you consider all of the factors surrounding the Suns this season, Vogel actually did an excellent job with what he had at his disposal. Of the many issues surrounding the group, he dealt with the following... Kevin Durant being unhappy with his role offensively, Eric Gordon being unhappy with his role overall, having no point guard and a lack of center depth.
Bradley Beal missed a good chunk of time with an array of injuries, while lead assistant Kevin Young jumped ship right as the playoffs were starting to go and coach BYU. Although Young stuck around for the postseason, having that going on in the background was not ideal preparation for a team that eventually got swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
"It's going to be a mistake."@Rachel__Nichols does not think Frank Vogel deserved to be fired pic.twitter.com/Q0wdFFkJa7
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) May 10, 2024
Yet despite all of this - and so much more - the Suns somehow won 49 games and avoided the play-in tournament, despite having an extremely up-and-down regular season. You could make the case that a roster boasting Booker, Durant and Beal should be able to achieve this as the bare minimum, no matter who is in charge.
But when you consider Vogel had to try and get actual minutes out of the enigmatic Bol Bol - and that Drew Eubanks was the backup big man for the team - you begin to see the uphill task he was faced with. To actually turn Bol into a rotation player is among the most impressive achievements of Vogel's time in The Valley, and that man-management will be missed.