The 2023-24 NBA season was a disaster for the Phoenix Suns and head coach Frank Vogel is going to be a casualty of that. The team has announced that they are firing Vogel, ending his tenure after only one season with the franchise.
This is a very bold move by the Suns, as they will be looking for their third different head coach in as many seasons. He signed a five-year, $31 million deal when he was picked to replace Monty Williams during the 2023 NBA offseason.
The writing was on the wall for Frank Vogel when reports began surfacing that he didn’t have a great relationship with Kevin Durant. Getting swept in the first round by the Minnesota Timberwolves certainly didn’t help his chances of returning for a second season either.
Phoenix went all in over the last year and change, acquiring Durant from the Brooklyn Nets ahead of the 2023 NBA Trade Deadline and Bradley Beal from the Washington Wizards ahead of the regular season. That left Vogel without a traditional point guard to run the team, something he voiced concerns over.
That wasn’t a debate Frank Vogel was going to win, as owner Mat Ishbia believed adding a point guard would take the ball out of the hands of their Big 3. While that would be true, it was evident the Suns were lacking a player capable of getting the team in position consistently to find success.
The Phoenix Suns went 49-33 in the regular season, narrowly avoiding the NBA Play-In Tournament and landing the No. 6 seed. They went into that first-round series against the Timberwolves as favorites but lost three out of the four games by double-digit points.
According to sources at ESPN, the Suns are going to target Mike Budenholzer as the replacement for Frank Vogel. Whoever is hired will be entering a bit of a messy situation, as Phoenix enters the offseason with a $209 million roster. That is the largest payroll in the NBA and will incur a projected luxury tax penalty of $116 million.
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