The Suns fired manager Mike Budenholzer after scoring a 36-46 record, and missed the play-in tournament in three games without sniffing the top-six seeds closing the playoffs.
The franchise hired Budenholzer on a five-year contract of over $50 million a year ago, following the 49-33 season and the first-round playoff exit under then-head coach Frank Vogel.
This is the third consecutive season that Phoenix has fired head coach. Because Monty Williams was canned after the 45-37 season before Vogel took over.
The three coaches lined up on the timeline of Suns owner Matt Ishvia, who took over the franchise as Suns owner Matt Ishvia bought the team in the middle of the 2022-23 season just months before Williams’ firing.
The Suns have won the NBA’s most expensive roster this season, with the majority of that money belonging to three players, Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beale.
Phoenix has ruled out just a few years as it is one of the NBA’s top teams. The Suns arrived in the NBA Finals in 2021 and fell for the Milwaukee Bucks in six games. Milwaukee was led by Budenholzer at the time.
Since then, the Suns have not passed the second round of the Western Conference, so the roster has been handed over almost entirely to anyone other than 28-year-old Booker.
As 36-year-old Durant is already swirling with trade rumours, the move to fire Budenholzer is very likely to be the first of many Dominos’ first dominos to fall this offseason.
For Budenholzer, Phoenix was his first and only job since being fired by the Bucks in May 2023 after spending five seasons with the team.
