After Deciding To Fire Mike Budenholzer After Just One Season, The Suns Are Arguably The Biggest Disaster In The NBA

Chris Coduto. Getty Images.

Now that the NBA's regular season is over, we all know what comes next. For the underachieving teams, that usually means we get the Shams bombs that guys are now out of a job. Earlier today, we had news that the Pelicans have canned David Griffin as the President of Basketball Ops, and it was only a matter of time before we got the next bomb.

That's why I can't imagine there was a whole lot of surprise that the next bomb to drop was the Suns and their decision to fire Coach Bud

There are a handful of dysfunctional teams and organizations in the NBA at the moment, but I'm not sure how many I'd put ahead of the Suns. It's hard to imagine this was a team that was just in the Finals back in 2021, but that's the reality of the NBA. Things can spiral quickly, especially when you have no organizational consistency.

Following that 2020-21 season, the Suns had a great year, winning 64 games. Unfortunately, they lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs. A 19 win dropoff the next season and another 2nd-round exit, they fired Monty Williams, who had led the entire turnaround from 2019-2022. We heard how players were maybe tuning him out, and there was a lot of drama behind the scenes, and instead, they decided to bring in a coach with more of a defensive focus.

That man was Frank Vogel, who finished 49-33 and helped fix their defense. Granted that team lost in the 1st round, so after back to back to back seasons of underachievement, the Suns decided to fire Vogel and bring in Coach Bud instead, this time with hopes that he would fix their offense.

Well, that didn't exactly happen. The Suns had a disastrous season, partially due to injury, partially due to poor roster construction, and really, in my opinion, that is a huge part of their story. The Suns basically tried to skip steps and build their version of a superteam, thinking that having a trio of KD/Booker/Beal was good enough to not have to worry about the rest of the roster. A bit of a confusing approach, given the health situations of those guys and the fact that there's a very real possibility that Bradley Beal is cooked as a cornerstone player. Given how expensive those three guys are, it required the Suns to fill out their roster with mostly minimum/unproven guys. That's always going to be a risk, especially in a conference that's tough as nails.

Is it any surprise that those 3 had injury issues and the rest of the team couldn't pick up the slack? Meanwhile, they keep flying through coaches, all while the front office remains the same. How does that make any sense? It's not the coach who is building these rosters!

If you have hopes of being a contending franchise, it's a bit odd that the Suns are hellbent on behaving like a franchise that has no clue how to operate as a contender. Having 3 coaches in 3 seasons is what loser franchises do. Ones without a direction, without consistency, and without a plan. Never forget how their owner Mat Ishbia was talking last May

Fast forward to this season, and the Suns are the only team in the NBA who are not

1. In the Playoffs

2. In the Play In

3. In the Lottery (their 2025 1st round pick goes to HOU)

Add in the fact that they are now on their 3rd coach in 3 years, you could make a case that they actually are in the worst position of any team in the league. Their best player is an aging superstar who they may have to trade this summer. Their other Big 3 member is on one of the worst contracts in the NBA and has a no-trade clause, so the Suns have zero leverage there. I can't imagine free agents are foaming at the mouth to join the Suns on a minimum, especially when we just saw how that worked out for Tyus Jones

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They have no cap space, and no draft picks. They're about as stuck as you could possibly be in NBA purgatory, which is the absolute worst place to be as an NBA franchise. 

Part of me wonders if they realize it's not going to matter who the coach is as long as the roster continues to be this flawed. There will be some good candidates out there, but if you're a good coach why would you even bother? Do the Suns seem like a franchise that has any clue what they're doing? Add in their roster/team building situation and how attractive is that job anymore? Especially if KD is no longer a Sun after this summer? 

Perhaps this is Stage 1 of a complete teardown, but my question would then be why keep the same decision makers/front office? After this regime is responsible for the Beal trade, do you even trust them to pull off a KD trade that helps restock their assets and gives them a small resemblance of a future? 

If anything, this Suns disaster should serve as a cautionary tale of how you can't buy your way to title contention. It's not just about having big name players and thinking that's enough. Plenty of teams do shit like that and never win, and more often than not they find themselves in a similar spot as the Suns are right now. Contention in the NBA involves everything, from ownership, to the front office, to the coaching staff, to the players. You need everything to be aligned to reach the top of the mountain, and it seems as though ever since their 2021 Finals run, the Suns have decided to do the exact opposite at every turn.