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Charles Barkley says Suns shouldn’t blame Frank Vogel for shortcomings

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Former Phoenix Suns great Charles Barkley had some words for Suns and Lakers fans following the teams’ first-round exits on TNT’s Inside the NBA tonight.

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“Anybody who thinks the Lakers suck is because of (their coach) Darvin Ham or the reason the Suns suck is because of (their coach) Frank Vogel, you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Barkley said. “Frank Vogel is a hell of a coach. Darvin Ham is a hell of a coach trying to get his career started.

“For all you punks, idiots and jacka—– on other networks, who want to be media and who want all the players to like y’all, do your damn job. The Lakers suck and the Suns suck because of the players, it has nothing to do with the coaches.”

Barkley added that the front offices are more to blame than the coaches.

“I hate it, man. You sit there like, ‘Darvin Ham needs to get fired.’ ‘Frank Vogel needs to get fired.’ Who put them trash, a– teams together needs to get fired,” Barkley said. “Them guys, they didn’t just all of a sudden suck as coaches, the people who put them teams together should start packing up their stuff.”

Suns owner Mat Ishbia did not reveal if Vogel was going to return earlier today, three days after the Suns were swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“Here’s how I will say it is: I just flew back from Michigan, I went to Michigan, I was hoping to come back for Game 6, just like all of you guys were hoping, which would be tomorrow night. But I’m not. I’m here to talk to you guys. And I have no problem going through it. I have not had one discussion. I know, there’s media reports and stuff, it’s just not true. Not one discussion about my GM, my coach, or trading players now supposedly in the media, not one discussion’s even been had, let alone a decision being made. So there’s been nothing at this point on any of those things on any of those people.

Barkley has had plenty of criticism for the Suns this season, and a lot of it turned out to be right with the first-round sweep.

He said multiple times they couldn’t win because they didn’t have a point guard or another big.

A few weeks ago in an interview with Cameron Cox of 12News, when questioned about the Suns’ potential to make a playoff run, Barkley swiftly replied, “No, they are not going to figure it out.”

He elaborated, “The leaders are not leading. You are not going to turn it around this late in the season… They just really soft, and the leaders have not led.”

Barkley has criticized Kevin Durant for not being a leader, as he did even before Durant got to Phoenix.

Barkley even left Booker off of who he thought should make the Western Conference All-Star team. Barkley also suggested that Beal comes off the bench, and Jusuf Nurkić responded by calling out Barkley for not voting Booker as an All-Star. 

Looking back, a lot of the criticism the Suns got this season turned out to be deserved because they didn’t prove a lot of people wrong getting swept in the first round.

The Suns now have a whole offseason to address their problems, but will be dealing with having the NBA’s highest projected payroll at $209 million next seasosn and operating over the second tax-apron, meaning for one they will only be able to add veteran minimum players via free agency and not change in terms of roster construction unless they decide to make a big trade.

Charles Barkley sticks to his take of what is wrong 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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