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Frank Vogel has message for Suns fans after being swept

Phoenix Suns coach Frank Vogel had something he wanted to say directly to Suns fans in his postgame press conference following the Suns getting swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves, their first time being swept in 25 years.

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On a team led by a healthy Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, the Suns’ championship expectations were nowhere to be seen in their first season with their core together.

“It’s disappointing. There’s no other way to put it,” Vogel said. “There’s no worse professional feeling in the world than getting swept in the NBA Playoffs, I’ve never been a part of it. I feel pretty low right now.

“I want to speak to our fans directly and say, I share your passion. I’m as disappointed as y’all are. Okay, I want to share that with you all. But, we got beat by a better team this year. We put this team together with the mindset that we have a 3-to-5 year window, that every year we’re gonna have a team that has the firepower to compete for (a championship). But, this league is loaded with firepower. We got a talented group, so d0 the Timberwolves, every team in the top-10 teams in the Western Conference are loaded with talent as well. We got to evaluate and figure out ways we can get better. And just process this tough series loss.”

Questions are swirling about the future of the team with one of the questions being if Vogel will be retained.

Vogel was hired on June 2 after the Suns fired Monty Williams on May 13, one day after their Game 6 loss in the second round to the Denver Nuggets. Vogel agreed to a 5-year, $31 million contract with the Suns when he was hired.

Even with questions of his future, Vogel claimed before Game 4’s 122-116 loss that he is “very” confident he will be back for a second season with the team.

“I’ve got the full support of (owner) Mat Ishbia,” Vogel added.

Ishbia faces a really difficult dilemma, as the Suns’ entire starting 5 is signed until next season.

Per Spotrac, Kevin Durant will be making $51.2 million next season with an additional year on his contract after that, Bradley Beal will be earning $50.2 million on the third year of a five-year deal and Devin Booker is set to make an estimated $49.4 million on the second season of a four-year extension. Additionally, Jusuf Nurkić is locked up for two more seasons after this one and will earn $18.1 million next year. Grayson Allen will be on the first season of a four-year, $70 million extension signed exactly three weeks ago.

Additionally, Nassir Little is set to make $6.75 million on the second year of his rookie extension next season. David Roddy is due $2.9 million on the third of a four-year rookie deal (not much more than a veteran minimum contract).

The Suns have Royce O’Neale’s bird rights if they want to sign him to a contact extension, while Eric Gordon, Josh Okogie, Drew Eubanks and Damion Lee also all have player options to extend their veteran minimum deals to next season.

With the salaries Phoenix has, it is projected to have the highest tax bill in the NBA next season at $209 million. Ishbia has said multiple times he doesn’t care about how much money he spends, but now he has put all the chips in for this roster and could be handcuffed to it.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported earlier this year that the projected second-apron level will be $190 million next season.

With the Suns over this number even before you factor in the rest of the roster and next year being the first year the full new collective bargaining agreement kicks in, Phoenix will not be able to send out cash in deals, aggregate contracts or use a preexisting trade exception. Additionally, “if the Suns finish the 2024-25 season over the second apron, their 2032 first-round pick will be frozen and unavailable to use in trades,” Wojnarowski writes.

The Suns only assets they have right now in terms of known draft picks is the No. 22 pick this season and a 2028 second-round pick from the Boston Celtics (protected 31-45). The Suns will still have a first-round pick in 2026, 2028 and 2030 as well due to all of these being pick swaps, but could be in a bad position with those if they finish in the lottery and have to give up a good pick.

With Vogel saying the Suns are operating under this 3-to-5 year window, the team is seemingly hoping that continuity will allow them to get better and that they can plug holes around the key players on the roster.

“The list is long (of why we didn’t reach our peak),” Vogel said. “When you lose, you always want to evaluate everything. I’d say, personally, no one’s harder on me than me. I always look inward for ways that I could have done things differently or pull different strings with our group. I’ll make sure that I evaluate myself that way. I always do.

“But, we turn the ball over too much. We didn’t ultimately become good enough from a rebounding standpoint. And I think we didn’t really find our rhythm in terms of being consistent with our offensive flow, so there’s some things that I think that we can look at and find ways to be better.”

We will see what Ishbia ends up doing given all of these factors and if Vogel’s comments are true.

Frank Vogel ‘very’ confident he will be back next season with Suns

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Brendan Mau is a senior writer covering the Phoenix Suns and more for Burn City Sports. You can follow him on X via @Brendan_Mau

 

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