The Phoenix Suns weren’t looking to land a new head coach within two weeks after firing Mike Budenholzer on April 14.
The plan was to address the front office first, then hire their third coach in three seasons under team owner Mat Ishbia, who fired Frank Vogel and Budenholzer each after one season.
Suns general manager James Jones has launched the interview process during previous coaching searches with Zoom calls to candidates. Then the finalists met with the billionaire Ishbia in Michigan, where he resides as CEO of United Wholesale Mortgage.
Jones remains general manager with a contract that’s set to expire this summer.
NBA head coaches consistently say what an honor and privilege it is to have a position only 32 people can claim to start a season, but there is something to be said for stability as well.
The Suns have established a win-or-else mindset under Ishbia. Firing three coaches in three seasons validates that. Monty Williams was let go after Phoenix fell to eventual NBA champion Denver in the second round of the 2022-23 NBA playoffs.
Williams coached Phoenix to the 2021 finals and to a franchise-best 64 wins, winning NBA Coach of the Year in the 2021-22 season before being fired the following season.
Ishbia vows to get this hire right, but the person being hired must realize history has shown that falling short of expectations can lead to dismissal in Phoenix.
The Suns hired Budenholzer on May 11, 2024, just two days after they announced Vogel was fired. The two sides agreed to a five-year, $50-plus million deal on the day in between.
Very quick turnaround, but there was a longer process involved in making that hire, which was seen as a great one at the time. The Suns started 8-1 under Budenholzer, but they only won 28 more games to finish 36-46 and miss the playoffs for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
A more thorough process is expected this time. The Suns could very well have potential candidates on current playoff teams like assistants Chris Quinn with the Miami Heat, Jeff Van Gundy with the Los Angeles Clippers, Jerry Stackhouse of the Golden State Warriors, Lloyd Pierce of the Indiana Pacers and Johnnie Bryant of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Heat trail the Cavs, 3-0, in their first-round playoff series while the Warriors are up 2-1 on the Houston Rockets. Those series each continue on April 28.
The Clippers are tied 2-2 with the Denver Nuggets, while the Pacers have a 3-1 advantage over Milwaukee. Game 5s are April 29 for both series.
Part of the hiring process includes waiting for playoff teams to conclude their seasons before seeking permission to interview candidates on their coaching staffs.
The Suns didn’t have to wait to hire Vogel or Budenholzer.
Those two guys were idle the previous season. Vogel sat out the 2022-23 season after the Lakers fired him and Budenholzer didn’t coach in 2023-24 after Milwaukee let him go.
Dallas Mavericks assistants Jared Dudley, a former player for the Suns, and Sean Sweeney are on the radar as future NBA head coaches. The Detroit Pistons targeted Sweeney to replace Monty Williams, requesting an interview after Dallas made a run to the 2024 finals.
They also looked at Minnesota Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori. The T-Wolves reached the conference finals before losing to the Mavs.
Detroit eventually hired J.B. Bickerstaff, who the Cavs fired after losing in the second round to the eventual 2023-24 NBA champion Boston Celtics.
Bickerstaff is a finalist for this season’s NBA Coach of the Year award along with Kenny Atkinson, who replaced him in Cleveland to conclude a month-long search, and Ime Udoka of the Houston Rockets.
Atkinson was an assistant at Golden State when Cleveland hired him after a four-year run (2016-20) as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
So, Phoenix could take a wait-and-see approach with candidates who are coaching in the postseason to see who may be available when their season ends.
It worked for Cleveland and Detroit. The Cavaliers are the No. 1 seed in the East, while the Pistons returned to the playoffs for the first time since the 2018-19 season.
Have opinions about the current state of the Suns? Reach Suns Insider Duane Rankin at dmrankin@gannett.com or contact him at 480-810-5518. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, at @DuaneRankin.
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