The Phoenix Suns aren’t wasting any time replacing Frank Vogel.
The Suns are reportedly planning to hire Mike Budenholzer as their next head coach, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania. The news comes just one day after the Suns split with Vogel.
The job marks Budenholzer’s third head coaching gig in the league, and his first since the Milwaukee Bucks fired him after the 2022-23 campaign. He spent five seasons in Milwaukee and led the organization to its second ever NBA championship alongside Giannis Antetokounmpo, but he was out just two seasons later.
Budenholzer didn’t coach anywhere in the league this past season, but he was widely considered a top candidate for an open job this offseason. According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Budenholzer had been working to assemble a coaching staff for his next job in recent weeks.
Budenholzer, who spent 17 seasons coaching under Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, also spent five seasons leading the Atlanta Hawks. He holds a 484-317 career coaching record, and he went 271-120 with the Bucks.
The 54-year-old, who is from northern Arizona, will now replace Vogel in Phoenix. The Suns fired Vogel on Thursday after just one season with the team. The Suns went 49-33 under his leadership, but they were swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the playoffs.
Budenholzer is the third head coach in Phoenix in as many seasons. He’ll be tasked with trying to turn the franchise that bet on stars like Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal around after a pretty rough run in the Western Conference. The Suns traded away much of their key depth in order to bring those stars in to join Booker, too, which left them with few draft picks in the coming years.
While they have plenty of roster issues to figure out, Budenholzer is clearly ready to hit the ground running. Whether he’s enough to spark a true change in Phoenix right away or not remains to be seen.
Source Agencies
