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.
2. He never made the season about him
An extremely underrated aspect of Vogel's tenure with the Suns was how little he ever made the bizarre season about him. It would have been very easy to get caught up in the constant media attention having three stars gets you - and with the season unfurling in front of everybody - Vogel could have taken to the media to save himself.
Or if not that, certainly try and pin the blame for the shortcoming of the season on the front office or the star players who weren't pulling their weight. Vogel did try and tell everybody how difficult this season was in his own subtle way - David Roddy at point guard anybody? - but never making it about him was huge for the organization.
That would have created another unnecessary subplot to the season, but instead Vogel was nothing but professional, kind and courteous to the media whenever there was availability to speak with him. Then again, he probably thought he was going to get more than one season to try and bring a first championship to the Suns.
Given the difficult situation he was put into - and the fact his next head coaching job is far from guaranteed - that Vogel kept quiet speaks volumes about the kind of character he has. The very type in fact, that the Suns really need at the top, with outspoken stars continuing to get chance after chance in the league.
1. He's an excellent defensive coach
One of the main selling points of going and getting Vogel to replace Monty Williams last summer was the eye he had to build an elite defensive scheme. The offensive side of things was meant to be overlooked by Young, while any team with the aforementioned three stars should be above average in that area, no questions asked.
The Suns did finish 10th in offensive rating, yet the 12th they managed defensively (113.7) was somehow overlooked. This despite Vogel managing to put together an above average defensive group with his three best backcourt players being Booker, Beal and Grayson Allen, while Durant spent some time playing the five.
Indeed Durant had an All-Defense case that we tried to make when he didn't receive a single vote for Defensive Player of the Year, while Nurkic and Eubanks as the center rotation isn't going to strike fear into many legitimate contenders. Yet despite all of this - and players like Keita Bates-Diop being sent packing at the trade deadline - Vogel had them playing reasonably well on that end.
Coach Budenholzer is going to come in with a more free-flowing offensive scheme, and the Suns will likely benefit from that. Then again, scoring never really seemed to be the problem. To finish 10th in a poor season for them proves that. On the other side of the court however, Vogel is going to be missed immediately, and only then will we truly see what miracles he was working with this roster.