Frank Vogel’s Suns assistants get harsh updates amid Mike Budenholzer takeover

The Suns had a roller-coaster regular season after giving Frank Vogel a five-year, $31 million contract last offseason and trading for Bradley Beal. Injuries marred the start of the campaign, and the team never consistently looked like the dominant squad some were expecting given the presence of talents like Beal, Kevin Durant and Devin Booker.

Phoenix still won 49 games to secure the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference, only to run into a hungry Minnesota Timberwolves team that pulverized them in a four-game sweep. The Suns lost three of the four games by double digits and looked nowhere close to contender status.

It was reported at the end of the series that Vogel was on the hot seat. Vogel had apparently lost the locker room, so the writing was on the wall, but a final decision wasn’t made for another week-plus.

Mike Budenholzer’s Suns hiring

It didn’t take long for the Suns to hire Mike Budenholzer. It was clear he was the guy from the moment Frank Vogel was fired, and Bud’s hiring was reported a day after the former coach got the boot.

Budenholzer comes to Phoenix with an impressive resume. Coach Bud started his coaching career with the Atlanta Hawks and went to the playoffs in four out of five seasons, including one Eastern Conference Finals trip. He then moved to the Milwaukee Bucks and coached there five seasons as well, going to the playoffs all five year and winning an NBA title in 2021.

While Budenholzer enjoyed a lot of success in Milwaukee, he faced a lot of criticism throughout his tenure and the first-round series loss to the eighth-seeded Miami Heat in 2023 was the nail in the coffin. Bud took the 2023-24 season off, while ironically enough, the Bucks lost in the first round again. This came after Budenholzer’s replacement, Adrian Griffin, was fired midseason and replaced by Doc Rivers.

Budenholzer now enters a pressure-filled situation in Phoenix. The Suns have an expensive roster with a pair of aging stars in Durant and Beal, Booker in his prime and not all that much quality depth. Given the massive payroll, the front office doesn’t have many pathways to improve the roster this summer, but they plan on forging ahead with this core group while hoping Coach Bud will be a major difference.