3 times Frank Vogel tried to tell Suns' fans something was wrong this season

Phoenix Suns' head coach Frank Vogel has come under the microscope after a poor season but if you read between the lines, he was telling us this team had problems.

Minnesota Timberwolves v Phoenix Suns - Game Four
Minnesota Timberwolves v Phoenix Suns - Game Four | Christian Petersen/GettyImages
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2. Benching Nurkic in fourth quarters

This looks like it is going to be linked to the previous point, but Vogel was actually going in a different direction entirely with this one. Nurkic exceeded expectations during the regular season both by staying healthy and giving this club 11/11 each night. Yet despite this - and the aforementioned lack of center depth - he was still bench for entire fourth quarters on more than on occasion.

Nurkic was without doubt the best big this team had, and jumbo lineups featuring himself, Durant and Bol Bol had joy against beefier opponents like the Lakers as well. But rather than go small and bench Nurkic on occasion - which you could understand - the only logic behind sitting Nurkic when Vogel did was simply because he didn't think he was good enough in the moment to help.

To Nurkic's credit he never complained and going back as far as media day had hinted that this could happen and that he would be ok with it. But if you want to win a championship, your fourth best player has to be somebody you can trust in the fourth quarter in November. As it was Nurkic wasn't even that, as Allen quickly became the next best player after their "Big 3".

Sitting Nurkic when he did was Vogel's way of telling the fans and the front office that the drop off from the three star players to the rest of the roster was massive. So big in fact, that the extreme lack of depth was going to get exposed in the postseason. Which it did, as the Timberwolves picked on the limited Nurkic and he had a bad series.

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