PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns, which failed to make the postseason with the NBA’s most expensive roster, fired coach Mike Budenholzer on Monday, league sources told The Athletic.
The decision, which comes less than one year after the team hired Budenholzer on a five-year deal worth more than $50 million and less than four years since he won a title with the Milwaukee Bucks, is the latest course correction from Suns owner Mat Ishbia that comes with significant cost.
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The Suns’ $214 million in salaries and $152 million in luxury-tax payments were both league highs, and the team finished 36-46 and in 11th place in the Western Conference. They missed the league’s Play-In Tournament after losing nine of their final 10 games.
It remains to be seen if this is the first of many organizational moves this offseason, but league sources say there will be no immediate changes made when it comes to the team’s front office. The fate of president of basketball operations James Jones is not yet known, but his contract expires at the end of June, league sources said, and Ishbia is widely expected to consider new candidates for the role.
Jones has been with the Suns since 2017 and has held the lead role in the front office since 2019, though league and team sources say Ishbia and CEO Josh Bartelstein assumed far more prominent roles in trade negotiations and team operations this season. It remains unclear if Bartelstein’s role will change.
While the Suns’ underwhelming season was at the root of the decision, team sources say Budenholzer’s inability to manage his locker room had everything to do with the decision.
More specifically, his contentious relationship with four-time All-Star and franchise centerpiece Devin Booker, as well as several other key players, was seen internally as a major issue. The Suns, which are widely expected to trade Kevin Durant this summer, are still planning on building around the 28-year-old Booker and didn’t see a productive path forward with Budenholzer at the helm.
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Ishbia, the billionaire mortgage lender who assumed controlling ownership of the Suns in February 2023, has made coaching changes in each of the three offseasons since he took over. It started with Monty Williams after the 2022-23 campaign, which ended with a second-round playoff defeat. The Suns hired Frank Vogel to lead the bench in 2023-24 but let him go after another slip, a first-round sweep at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
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It has been a quick and jaw-dropping fall for Budenholzer, a 55-year-old who grew up in Holbrook, Ariz., a small town three hours northeast of Phoenix.
At his introductory news conference in May, Budenholzer’s voice cracked with emotion as he discussed the path and influences that led him to this moment. He said it was “mind-blowing” that he got the chance to coach the organization he grew up following, learning the moves of former Phoenix stars in his backyard. After signing, Budenholzer said he would coach the Suns even if they had played on the moon.
His stay lasted 82 games. Phoenix finished with a losing record for the first time since the 2019-20 season. A team that began with internal championship hopes, however unrealistic, made a strong case as the most disappointing team in franchise history.
There’s blame to go around. The top-heavy roster Budenholzer inherited — built around stars Booker, Durant and Bradley Beal — lacked defensive discipline and toughness. The Suns finished 27th in points allowed per possession. They struggled to keep up with young, athletic teams and were often overmatched against physical and aggressive ones.
With Phoenix above the second tax apron, a salary threshold that limits what types of trades and signings high-spending teams can make, the Suns made minor moves at February’s trade deadline but were otherwise locked into a roster with flaws they could not fix or overcome.
Scrunched flexibility did not stop the Suns from attempting big swings, ones that did not make their locker room any more comfortable.
Leading into the trade deadline, they chased after six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler to no avail. Phoenix placed Beal, who has a no-trade clause, on the trading block but could not find him a suitable new home. It discussed Durant with other teams, most notably the Golden State Warriors and Minnesota Timberwolves, then held onto him, a process that rubbed Durant the wrong way, according to team sources.
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Budenholzer, a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, tried 35 starting lineups and altered his rotation in ways that sometimes confused the locker room. Rookie Ryan Dunn, the team’s best defender, disappeared for a stretch. Bol Bol averaged 21 minutes over a 16-game, second-half stretch and then hardly played the rest of the season.
Regardless, the Suns made the same mistakes — sloppy with the ball, slow to get back on defense and most alarming, quick to crumble when challenged. During a late, eight-game losing streak, Budenholzer said he felt the Suns still responded to him, but the results proved otherwise.
Budenholzer has a reputation for holding players accountable. During training camp, he often said that “talk is cheap,” emphasizing the Suns had to prove everything on the court. They started fast, winning eight of nine to begin the season, but the momentum and vibe fizzled. Booker said the Suns skipped important culture-building steps, failing to learn from each win and loss. He called the rest of the season “a slow bleed out” to elimination.
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There was drama.
Before the season, Budenholzer had traveled to Croatia to meet Jusuf Nurkić, a relationship-building move that impressed the veteran center. Nurkić slimmed down and worked on his 3-point shot to fit better within Budenholzer’s offensive system.
But after a rough start, Budenholzer benched Nurkić and removed him from the rotation. Nurkić told reporters that Budenholzer never shared with him the reasons behind the moves and that the relationship he and Budenholzer once had was gone. The Suns later traded Nurkić to Charlotte.
In February, Chris Haynes reported that Budenholzer called Booker into an office and told the star guard he was being too vocal on the court and during timeouts. The coach asked Booker to tone it down, which Booker found shocking, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. Budenholzer and Booker downplayed the report and said their relationship was solid, but neither denied that the meeting took place.
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On March 4, early in a comeback win over the LA Clippers, Budenholzer grabbed Durant’s left arm as Durant walked to the bench during a timeout. Durant angrily yanked it away. Durant later said anyone questioning the incident didn’t understand the dynamics of his relationship with Budenholzer. He saw it as two competitors trying to get things right on the basketball court, but the optics were suboptimal.
Throughout the struggles, Budenholzer didn’t help himself. The emotion and appreciation Budenholzer had shown at his introductory news conference never resurfaced. He was standoffish with media members. His pregame sessions with reporters were among the league’s shortest. Unlike previous head coaches, Budenholzer didn’t do pregame interviews with the Suns radio team.
As losses mounted, fans grew tired of Budenholzer’s bland postgame comments that often began with crediting the opponent and ended with, “We got to be better.” They were not alone.
After a home February loss to New Orleans, Booker pinpointed the team’s struggles on skipping details and taking a “get ‘em next time” mentality.
“At some point, you’ve got to draw a line,” Booker said, “and it should’ve been drawn a long time ago.”
The Suns, for better or worse, drew it with Budenholzer on Monday.
Budenholzer and his staff seemed to understand their fate as the Suns struggled over the second half of the season. During the final minutes of last Wednesday’s home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, a setback that eliminated Phoenix from Play-In Tournament consideration, Budenholzer took a seat on the bench between assistant coaches David Fizdale and Chad Forcier.
At the buzzer, Budenholzer stood and pointed to Oklahoma City coach Mark Daigneault. Head down, a play sheet stuffed into a back pocket, he walked off the court and through a tunnel of PHX Arena, down a long hallway to the Suns locker room. He never looked up or said a word to those he passed. Asked later about his future, Budenholzer said it was still too raw to digest.
“It’s been tough,” he said. “No doubt about it.”
(Top photo: Benny Sieu / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
