(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
The Phoenix Suns shook up the NBA world on Thursday when they announced the firing of head coach Frank Vogel.
Vogel had only been in charge of the team for one season, so his departure was surprising.
At the same time, the Suns had a really rough year so Vogel’s firing wasn’t too shocking.
According to Evan Sidery, Vogel’s fate was sealed because “Kevin Durant never felt comfortable within Frank Vogel’s offensive scheme.”
Additionally, “multiple key players had lost faith in him as their head coach.”
Kevin Durant never felt comfortable within Frank Vogel’s offensive scheme, and multiple key players had lost faith in him as their head coach, per @DougHaller (https://t.co/h1kfb3Ebsy).
The Suns are now going all-in on offensive creativity with the hire of Mike Budenholzer. pic.twitter.com/q9trlPAxAN
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) May 10, 2024
For an NBA head coach, losing the locker room almost always means losing a job.
Once the faith of the players is depleted, there is little chance of a coach remaining in their position.
That seems to be the case with Vogel, who was thrown into a very tricky situation last summer.
When Vogel was hired, the Suns had just made even more changes to improve the roster.
With those changes came major expectations and they looked like a championship-or-bust squad.
Therefore, Vogel knew the stakes were high and he was aware that he had to deliver a lot.
His offensive plans didn’t pan out as expected, which reportedly upset Durant and many others.
However, the Suns should have expected this because Vogel has always been considered a defense-minded coach.
They wanted him to deliver strong offense, even though that isn’t traditionally what he has done.
According to Sidery, the Suns are now going “all-in on offensive creativity” with the hiring of Mike Budenholzer.
This means that Phoenix’s front office clearly has a plan and now they are going to see if Budenholzer can commit to it in ways that Vogel could not.
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