‘Super Team’ can lead to coaching job insecurity
Suns’ Vogel latest NBA coach to get fired while leading a star-studded lineup
PHOENIX – In the NBA, the head coach of a “Super Team” can quickly become a scapegoat if the team implodes without the expected fast success.
Phoenix Suns coach Frank Vogel was among them after the team was swept out of the Western Conference playoffs’ first-round playoff by the Minnesota Timberwolves, despite winning 49 games in his first year with the team. Vogel was fired on Thursday. It also was the first year of the “Big 3” – Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal – playing together.
The 2023-24 Suns were an example of a roster built around three or more All-Stars via blockbuster trades and free agency drawing championship expectations. When things don’t work out, it’s easier to get rid of the coach than a star player who carries a hefty contract.
Here are some more examples of coaches fired from Super Teams that fell short over the past decade.
Monty Williams, Phoenix Suns
Making the Suns relevant again in the tough West and league overall, plus Williams’ personal achievements during his four years in Phoenix didn’t matter when he was fired last year. Those achievements included a trip to the 2021 finals, which Phoenix lost, and a recordsetting 64 franchise wins the following year. He earned the 2021 NBCA Coach of the Year and 2022 NBA Coach of the Year, and had the third-best winning percentage in Suns’ history (.628).
After the Suns, under new owner Mat Ishbia, acquired Kevin Durant from the Nets in February 2023 to form their first version of the Big 3 with Booker and Chris Paul, expectations soared. But Phoenix was demolished at home for the second straight year in a series-closing Game 6 of the same round to eventual champ Denver in May 2023. Williams was replaced by Vogel soon after.
Steve Nash, Brooklyn Nets
The Suns legend and Hall of Famer Steve Nash was a rookie head coach in September 2020. He got the ax two years after that when the Brooklyn Nets’ Big 3 couldn’t get over the hump in the postseason.
James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Durant played just 17 regular season games together for the Nets, with injuries a factor and Irving’s league suspension in November 2022 that resulted in eight games missed for posting an antiSemitic video on social media.
Brooklyn completed a four-team trade to get Harden from Houston, which included a whopping eight of Brooklyn’s future first-round draft picks in exchange for him in January 2021. In their first season together, they lost to the eventual 2021 champion Milwaukee Bucks in the East semifinals’ Game 7 after the Nets took 2-0 and 3-2 series leads. The next season, the Nets were swept out of the first round by Boston. Durant demanded a trade in 2022, and gave an ultimatum to either upload his trade request or have Nash and Nets GM Sean Marks fired. Durant ultimately rescinded his trade request shortly before training camp, but Nash and the team agreed to part ways on Nov. 1, 2022. He finished with a 94-67 record.
Adrian Griffin, Milwaukee Bucks
Griffin was fired in January, seven months after he got the job to replace former coach Mike Budenholzer, who was canned after the Bucks lost in the first round as a top seed to No. 8 Miami in the 2023 playoffs. That was two years after Budenholzer led Milwaukee to its first world title in 50 years.
In September 2023, the Bucks completed a three-team trade in which they got All-Star Damian Lillard from Portland to have him join their two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and three-time All-Star Khris Middleton.
When Griffin was let go, “30-13” was the No. 1 social media trend in reaction to the news because that was Milwaukee’s record at the time as a top-three team in the East. There were multiple reports that he lost respect of the players and refused to listen to him in team huddles during games. Antetokounmpo said he was surprised by the decision but had to “trust the front office” toward winning a title. Griffin was replaced by Doc Rivers, and the Bucks were eliminated on May 2 as a No. 3 seed to No. 6 Indiana in the first round.
Doc Rivers, Philadelphia 76ers
Rivers coached Philadelphia for three seasons to replace Brett Brown after their 2020 playoff run ended in the first round. Once the 76ers got Harden after his trade request from Brooklyn in February 2022, their title odds spiked as he was paired with last season’s MVP Joel Embiid. Rivers, who won the 2008 title as the Boston Celtics coach, and coached the Los Angeles Clippers for seven years thereafter, added to his unfavorable history of Game 7s last year (6-10). The 76ers, which finished as the East’s No. 3 seed, were blown out by his former team Boston in the decisive series closer, after they held a 3-2 series lead. Rivers was fired two days later.
Mike Brown, L.A. Lakers
Mike Brown was hired by the Lakers in May 2011 after Phil Jackson’s final season with the team. After they had a 41-25 record under him and were eliminated in the second round in the following year, the Lakers made massive trades for five AllStars. They acquired Dwight Howard from Orlando and Nash from Phoenix to group them with Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Metta World Peace. The team didn’t win any of its eight preseason games, and had a 1-4 start under Brown before his departure, which is the third-fastest coaching change in league history.
David Blatt, Cleveland Cavaliers
Blatt was a former EuroLeague Coach of the Year when he was hired by Cleveland in 2014. When LeBron James left Miami as a free agent after four straight finals runs and two titles, the Cavaliers dealt their No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins to Minnesota in the 2014 off-season for All-Star big Kevin Love. That formed the Cavs’ core of Love, James and their other then-rising star, Irving.
The Cavaliers finished 53-29, was the East’s second seed, and lost in the finals to the Golden State Warriors. The following season in late January, Blatt was fired as the Cavaliers were atop the conference on a 30-11 record. The team’s former GM David Griffin cited “a lack of fit with our personnel and our vision.” Blatt was replaced by Tyronn Lue, and they beat Golden State as the only team to ever overcome a 3-1 deficit in the finals.