When the Phoenix Suns pivoted from a roster that reached the 2021 NBA Finals and acquired future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, expectations changed. Then, team owner Matt Ishbia pushed to add Bradley Beal to the duo of Durant and Devin Booker and expectations changed again. Anything short of a championship would be a failure.
That’s how Frank Vogel entered his first season as the Suns’ head coach.
After being swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, the organization will reportedly “take a hard look at making a full coaching change or, at the very least, discuss adjustments to” Vogel’s staff, per Shams Charania and Doug Haller of The Athletic.
A team with a trio talented enough to win a title struggled with inconsistency all season. There’s enough blame to go around but in the player-centric world of the NBA, Vogel will likely end up as the fall guy.
Phoenix Suns to evaluate Frank Vogel, coaching staff after disappointing season
A 49-33 regular season wasn’t what anyone expected. Injuries played a role and, in part, resulted in a lack of cohesion between Durant, Booker and Beal. An offense with those three stars should not have finished 10th in scoring or 25th in turnovers, nor should it have averaged just 103.3 points per game in the playoffs.
A separate story from Charania and Haller runs down a list of disagreements between the players and Vogel. After a bad loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on April 9, for instance, the head coach laid into his team but that only served to leave “players rolling their eyes” or stifling a laugh. Vogel had lost the faith of his players just before the start of the postseason.
That included Durant, one of the best scorers in league history, stating he never felt comfortable with his role in the offense.
But it’s not the head coach’s fault his team never had a point guard after Chris Paul was included in the Beal trade. The Suns’ three stars didn’t play well in the playoffs and were a combined minus-42.1 during their sweep at the hands of the Timberwolves.
Vogel was handed such a top-heavy roster that Phoenix’s fourth-leading scorer in the postseason was Eric Gordon, who scored 8.0 ppg. There was no defensive stopper and Jusuf Nurkic was the team’s only starting-caliber big man.
Yet the Suns’ roster will be one of, if not the most expensive, in the NBA next season. There aren’t really any moves to make to upgrade a core of Durant, Booker, Beal, Nurkic and the newly extended Grayson Allen.
Vogel claims he has the “full support” of Ishbia. But the likelihood that Phoenix goes into next season with the same nucleus and the same head coach is near zero. Durant and Booker aren’t going anywhere and Beal has a no-trade clause. Allen is now locked into a four-year extension.
Vogel isn’t blameless, but neither are the players. Still, if and when changes are made, it will be Vogel who draws the short straw.
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