Frank Vogel may not have time to clean out his office.
The Suns are planning to hire Mike Budenholzer as their next head coach, The Athletic reported less than 24 hours after it was announced the team was firing Vogel after one season.
The deal will reportedly approach eight figures per year.
Budenholzer, who coached the Bucks to an NBA title in 2021, was fired by Milwaukee after they were upset in the playoffs last season by the Heat.
The 54-year-old Budenholzer has been linked to several high-profile jobs over the past year and now gets one of the bigger ones in the league.
Phoenix’s choice to move forward quickly could have something to do with the Lakers also searching for a new head coach.
Los Angeles fired Darvin Ham after a first-round playoff exit of their own.
The Suns know Budenholzer well, having lost the 2021 NBA Finals to his Bucks team in six games.
Budenholzer takes over a Suns team led by Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal that was swept out of the playoffs by the Timberwolves.
A new coach could help the Suns’ chemistry issues, as Beal was seen snubbing coach Vogel during the NBA playoffs as he walked off the court.
But there’s only so much coaching that a team can do with no true point guard and a lack of size that forced Durant to play center far too often in 2024.
The Athletic also reported that assistant David Fizdale, who was also the head coach for the Knicks from 2018-2019, will leave the tea coaching staff and move to a new front-office role.
“As we said at the press conference on May 1, team leadership including myself, Josh Bartelstein, and ownership would be looking across basketball operations to determine what changes needed to be made,” Suns GM James Jones said about the decision to fire Vogel.
“After a thoughtful review of the season, we concluded that we needed a different head coach for our team. We appreciate Frank’s hard work and commitment.”
