THIS BUD’S FOR YOU
Budenholzer going to need to have Booker, Durant buy in to plan Suns likely hiring Budenholzer as head coach, sources say
Mike Budenholzer isn’t a bad pick to become the next head coach of the Phoenix Suns.
Good luck to him, though.
It’s championship or bust around here, and the coach seems to be the only person who has to face any accountability if those expectations aren’t met.
That’s just how it works in the
NBA, where coaches are hired and fired with about as much regard as a guy with allergies shows to a Kleenex.
In the NFL, hires take weeks, thanks to safeguards like the Rooney Rule.
In college sports, hires typically go through search committee and board of regents review processes.
But in the NBA, all it takes is for a team owner to feel a little embarrassed and need someone to blame.
It’s not fair, but usually fairness doesn’t have much to do with it.
That said, Budenholzer is a good pick. Devin Booker should want to listen to him. Coach Bud smoked him in the Finals a couple of seasons ago. Kevin Durant should listen, too. Easy Money Sniper’s reputation for getting buckets is rivaled only by his status as a coach killer.
And is it crazy to suggest that Bradley Beal could become a Hall of Famer under
See MOORE, Page 3B
That didn’t take long. Less than 24 hours after firing Frank Vogel, the Phoenix Suns are set to hire Mike Budenholzer to mark their third head coach in a 12-month span, sources confirmed to The Republic on Friday morning.
They fired Monty Williams on May 13, 2023, and named Vogel head coach on June 6, 2023. The Suns then let go of Vogel on Thursday and are now moving to land Budenholzer, the franchise’s 22nd head coach.
The Athletic first reported the news as Budenholzer as his salary is “expected to approach eight figures per year.” Sources inform the The Republic that Budenholzer is scheduled to speak to the players over the next couple of days.
Phoenix had the NBA’s third-highest payroll in the 2023-24 season at $193.8 million, going over the second tax apron. The Suns are projected to have the league’s highest payroll next season at essentially $206 million and go over the second tax apron again.
Devin Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal are set to make a combined $150 million for the 2024-25 season.
The Athletic is also reporting Suns assistant David Fizdale will move to a role in the team’s front office. The former NBA head coach with the Knicks and Grizzlies was in the front office with the Utah Jazz for a year before joining the Suns as an
assistant under Vogel.
Sources inform The Republic that Fizdale brings positive energy and his vast amount of coaching experience will serve him well in this new role with Phoenix.
Budenholzer coached Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks to the 2020-21 NBA championship as they beat the Suns in the 2021 finals in six games. Budenholzer, who carries a strong Arizona connection being from Holbrook, has posted a 484-317 record in the regular season, a 56-48 mark in the playoffs.
Milwaukee fired Budenholzer two seasons after winning the 2021 finals. The Bucks were eliminated in the first round of the 2023 playoffs. He had signed an extension with the Bucks after the finals run through the 2024-25 season.
A head coach for 10 NBA seasons, Budenholzer, 54, fits the championship criteria Suns team owner Mat Ishbia preached when hiring Vogel, who coached LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers to the 2019-20 NBA championship.
Phoenix came into the 2023-24 season with championship expectations as Ishbia said the Suns had the “best team” in the NBA. They struggled with turnovers all season, started slow on defense despite playing for the defensive-minded Vogel and dealt with injuries that led to 21 different starting lineups.
The Suns closed the regular season strong, going 7-3 in their last 10 games to land the sixth seed in the West and face the third-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round. Phoenix went 3-0 against the T-Wolves in the regular season, but wound up getting swept by them in the playoffs by an average margin of 15 points.
Under Vogel, who signed a five-year, $31 million deal last summer with the franchise, the Suns were the first team eliminated from this year’s playoffs.
Phoenix not only underachieved with Booker, Durant and Beal leading the squad, but there was a clear disconnect between the players and Vogel that
likely led to his departure.
The Suns will now enter next season with Budenholzer looking to become only the fourth coach in NBA history to win an NBA championship with two different franchises. Phil Jackson (Bulls, Lakers), Pat Riley (Lakers, Heat) and Alex Hannum (St. Louis Hawks, 76ers) are the only three to achieve that feat.
Budenholzer was a longtime assistant under a Hall of Famer, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich, before becoming a head coach in Atlanta going into the 2013-14 season. He won NBA Coach of the Year twice in 2014-15 with Atlanta and 2018-19 with Milwaukee. The Hawks and Bucks each won 60 games in those respective regular seasons.